Writing my History

[Mimble]

Thirteen years later and I have just completed 160 pages of my family history book, with 12 chapters, and that's just my mother's family from her father backwards. I have given each branch a separate chapter. It has been fascinating to bring together all the amazing discoveries and make even more as I have 'filled out' each story with historical background and photos. My dad's side is not so interesting so I will just make 4 chapters from it. I plan to get 5 copies bound and give them to the family.

[Mike Griffiths]

Sharon, I wrote a book on my family history by focusing on just one grandparent and tracing their ancestry.  I also included details of historical events like the Irish potato famine, Melbourne 1880's property boom etc. to give context.  Finally, I didn't hesitate to use creative license when facts were scarce, just to keep the narrative flowing.

I suggest that trying to write the histories for all four of your grandparents in one book will be a real challenge.  I have written another family history where I traced the family lines of a husband and wife, and it was really difficult to find common threads to link up the stories. 

In any case, best of luck with your project.

[Guy Etchells]

It certainly is important to put everything down on paper if you want it to survive for future generations to read. Digital storage is so easily lost: CDs/DVDs have a life expectancy of only 10-15 years, and magnetic media can apparently become corrupted in as little as 4 years from the influence of magnetic fields, according to recent research. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8172568.stm

And even if the data survives you need special equipment to read it . . . unlike a book 

Not only that, but think about access, how are people going to find my digital family research in that vast store? It is already quite difficult to find specific items on the internet when one knows what one is looking for let alone 50 years down the line when one has no idea if it exists or not.
At first sight it seems to be the perfect solution but like the paper option the practice fails to meet the expectations due to details.
Cheers
Guy

[candleflame]

I've started doing a very basic life story by just using 'word ' and typing up pages on one specific person eg a grandparent. I then put all the info I have including scanned in images of photos , photos of items that have been passed down that are significant and certificates, school records etc. I've then saved it as a pdf and emailed it to my children. This is because they prefer to read online rather than paper. I had been wondering about also trying to do a flip book in future. I've seen a few of those online.
I hope in time once I have sufficient ' chapters' done on the relevant folk, that I will get a copy printed out rather than just my own copy printed each time on our ordinary printer.
I've also done a chapter on the history of one house and I'm currently working on the war for my father.

[martin hooper]

I'm slowly writing mine as a website.

https://www.hoopertapestry.com/home

Martin

[Mimble]

Very nice, Martin - what a lot of work!

I am now up to 20 Chapters, 208 pages. I have given one chapter to each 'branch' of the family that I have researched, and included any 'wow' moments or fascinating things I discovered. Also lots of photos and pictures of themselves and the places they lived in and anything else to 'flesh it out'.  I intend to have 6 or 7 copies printed for the family only but not put it online as I haven't properly referenced sources etc. 

[BillyF]

I have done my Scottish ancestors using Word.

I started with my grandfather , his name as the title of the 1st (ahem) chapter. Next my gt grandfather the same, but then I get to 4 Alexanders, so with each of them I wrote thier father`s name and birthdate so there is no confusion.

I have made it so that each person is can be read as an indivual story.

I didn`t include anything that hasn`t a source to back it up!

My grandson said it was "exceptional"

[Mimble]

This sounds good, Billy. I'm sure it is exceptional! I have also had to deal with 'overlapping' generations and where to split the chapters, but with a few anomalies have tried to be consistent. I'm not stressing too much over it as I find if I just 'get on' with it I do better rather than trying to make it 'perfect'. Some information is repeated but I think that helps the reader to tie in the different branches and place the people in context.

I am also using Word. I still haven't worked out how to make a visual representation of the different branches and how they relate to myself, but have started each chapter by placing the  group in relation to myself, eg. 'My grandfather Frank's great grandmother was a Montgomery. This is a fascinating family....' etc.

 

[Tickettyboo]

I'm slowly writing mine as a website.

https://www.hoopertapestry.com/home

Martin

and its impressive, a lot of work has gone into that.

Just a word of caution though, I had a friend who created a family history website, it was really good.
Unfortunately, after he died the domain and hosting accounts lapsed and its no longer available.

Boo