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Issue Date: August 19, 2007
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5 THINGS
YOU NEED
TO KNOW ABOUT |
Writing your family history
1 Pick a format first, says Allison Stacy, editor of "Family Tree Magazine." And it doesn't have to be chronological. Try a compendium of family stories and recipes, a first-person memoir or a generations book. Use humor, suspense and flashbacks to engage the reader.
2 Do basic research, says Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, author of "You Can Write Your Family History." Find a listing of sites that keep vital records at cdc.gov/nchs (National Center for Health Statistics). And search Census records at familysearch.org. Read between the lines of documents: Who were the witnesses on your great-grandparents' marriage certificate? Their identities might provide new clues.
3 Use old photos as memory prompts at family reunions, Stacy says. That's more effective than asking open-ended questions. Once one person starts reminiscing, others join in. (Get it on tape!) Afterward, write a story about each photo.
4 Inject local flavor. Mystery writer Mary Logue went to her grandmother's prairie town to write Halfway Home: "I walked down the streets, looked at the houses and listened to the way people talked." That enabled her to write a biography that reads like a novel.
5 Fill in the gaps with historical documents, says Michael Boonstra, a genealogy librarian. Published diary excerpts from the same time period, books about the region and particular ethnic groups, and period postcards and newspaper clippings put family stories in social perspective.
-- Mary Forsell
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