Writing Up the Family History

[cathyaus]

Thanks for the great responses - really making me think what I should include and how I should structure the writing. I agree that putting in some historical context for each individual/generation's situation will give a more interesting and understanding of why my ancestors have taken the decisions they have.

I agree that you can put in some historical context but the bit about understanding of why my ancestors have taken the decisions they have.
please make sure that you include that this is your thinking as to why an ancestor did something. WE can never know why someone did something 100 years ago - we weren't there - unless it is recorded in a diary. The reason that I am saying this is because I have come across something similar in my research for my paternal grandmother's family. Someone writing up the family history has stated as fact that her grandfather jumped ship & went to the goldfields to search for gold - I have searched & cannot find one piece of evidence to support this. This is how fiction gets turned into fact & gets passed on down the generations. It is very important to make sure that you have included that these are your assumptions only.
Cathy

[Braindead]

I've started writing my family history, like Berlin Bob I have a website that contains much information which will eventually be in the book, and I have the John Titford book mentioned by Teaurn, it really is good.
I agree with most of the posts in this thread:
1. Make a start, even though your research isn't finished (it never will be, and you could find yourself waiting forever for that last piece of information).
2. Don't second guess your ancestor's motivation. By all means include commentary, but make it clear what is your opinion and what is fact.
3. Give your sources for everything.
4. It may be more manageable to start off just writing a few pages about one person in your family. When that's finished, choose another person and write about them and so on. Pretty soon it'll build up into a book without too much trouble and you just need to decide how the individual pieces need linking together.
5. Definitely use a word processor e.g. Word, or for a great free alternative go to www.openoffice.org - it makes changing what you've written much easier to alter.
6. If I'm sending someone a copy tend to send them a pdf file rather than a word document - openoffice has a pdf creator built in or try cutepdf. My reasoning for this is that it preserves my formatting and makes it harder for someone to alter (although not much!)
Good luck and go for it.

[anniebelle]

Thank you for the comments, much appreciated. I fully appreciate not making assumptions about my ancestors lives and decisions.  My idea was to provide a general summary of the environment in which they lived and the issues impacting on people generally living in that location at the time. Any comments re my ancestors decisions will be clearly recorded as my thoughts only.

Braindead,   I like your practical suggestions. I have started writing individual stories and have been including source references.  This has forced me to revisit some research as I was less particular and knowledgeable in the early days about ensuring I have adequately recorded source documents. It also helps in leading to new areas to research.  Thank you also for the suggestions re Word and openoffice.  I am currently using Word but shall look at the openoffice and note your comments re sending to others.

Thanks again.
Anniebelle

[Braindead]

If you already have Word, it probably isn't worth downloading OpenOffice - especially if you've already started formatting documents using Word as, although Openoffice provides a pretty good match, some more complex documents (with pictures, text boxes etc) may not format exactly & will possibly leave you frustrated - I've been there! If you are starting a new document from scratch it should be a lot easier.
I also use an uncommon font and you have to remember that if you send someone a Word document & they don't have the same font installed on their computer, the formatting will alter. This is another reason for exporting docs as pdfs.

[roofy]

If you wanted a skeleton structure to work with, some family history software has an option, I know Rootsmagic does. And you can include personal notes etc. I am doing one for my brother's big 50 birthday this year. It helps you to build up the different pages and what you want in the book. Even if you dont use that software for the final book, it may give you ideas about what to include.
Roofy

[nugget]

Interesting comments from everyone, I'm glad I joined this forum as there are some great ideas here. I have gone through the agony of how to write up our family history as well. Having never really come up with anything satisfactory so far I haven't made much of a start either. Damn procrastination! I also sometimes frustrate myself when I neglect to write down small snippets of general info I come across as I research which when all put together would probably make an interesting historical narrative. Sometimes there are interesting stories contained in the bland mix of dates and places we come across.
Interesting example is on my wife's side. Her great great grandmother lived in the Whitechapel area of London. After looking up some of the streets mentioned in the census and the dates involved she would have been only a few hundred metres away from where some of the Jack the Ripper murders occurred at the time when she was living there. Goodness only knows what they would have been thinking and feeling at the time.  Don’t know terribly much about them personally except facts on census sheets but the conditions they must have lived in and the happenings at the time with the murders would provide some context for their daily lives.
We have some biographical notes about family members which I have entered into our FH software against the individuals as notes. I think as per Braindead’s and roofy's suggestion I will just keep doing this for the moment. I just need to be disciplined at writing down stuff straight away. At some stage perhaps I can knit some of it together in a Word document or similar.

[teaurn]

Hi Nugget,

Welcome to rootschat.  I agree.  I have got lots of info from this site and lots of help when I have posted a query.

[Charlie Bucket]

Hello Anniebell

It is very useful to go to a family research library where people have deposited their family history books.
This can give you a lot of ideas about how to put together your book.
It is now remarkably cheap to get your manuscript digitally printed and bound. There are many firms that do this, try searching "self publishing". Many give lots of information on how to put a book together—layout, margins etc.
The question about how to structure the book and deal with the various generations is hard to answer. I think the best thing is to start the first draft and then see if you can somehow make the stories flow to some point. That point might be yourself! Or your mother or father.
Once you are under way you will see where the gaps are in your story. This will prompt you to fill in those gaps with research, which won't be only who was married when etc but also what a village was like in such and such a year and what being a farm labourer involved and so on.
It certainly will take years but is great fun and well worth while.
The best advice really is to...start writing.
Regards, Charlie
 

[gazania]

I still haven't written up my family history!  But what I have found helpful is keeping a timeline of every event with a brief comment.  What was surprising to find was the number of events that occured much at the same time across a number of families -the births and deaths of children, men going off to war, families migrating.  It is possible to see where the families may have attended family gatherings or at least exchanged letters/news.  I could then see what other community, historical events were also happening - strikes, economic depressions/wars etc.  But I am a good one to talk, as I am still putting off writing up the story.  I have done some chapters though on important incidents - convict transportation and what happened next to those left behind in the UK and how did the family get on without the bread winner.  Best wishes, Gazania