Writing your own family history book

[joehudd]

I was wondering if anyone out there has successfully wrote a book on their own family history. I have been trying to do so for over 3 years but feel it just seems like i am listing names and dates. Was wondering if there is a good structure to use that has proved successful.

[lizdb]

I think there have been several threads before on this sort of theme.
My brother and I wrote up our family story some years back. It took the form of a story, taking each branch of each generation through their life with as much info we could find, plus adding in relevant bits of general history or history of the area as we went too.
So, for an example, (this isnt actual, just the type of thing, I am making this up as I go along) it wouldnt just say Fred Bloggs was born in 1870, and married in 1892 and had children in 1893- 1900 and died in 1930. It would say, for example, Fred was born on 2nd May 1870, it must have been a time of mixed emotions for the family. As we saw in the previous chapter, his grandfather James had been buried only 2 weeks earlier and his parents had also buried his brother, John, who had only lived for 18 months, only a  week before that.  He was christened at the Parish Church on 14 Jun, the same church where his 4 older siblngs, James, Mary,Sarah and Ann had all been christened (insert photo of Church). The family lived at Cherrytree Farm, this was situated on the western side of the village and can be seen on old maps, but it was demolished when the bypass was built in 1980.  The censuses and births of his younger siblings Joe and Bill indicate that he spent his childhood in this area, his family are still at Cherrytreefarm in 1881. By 1891 Fred has left home, and is lodging at with his great aunt Agnes in. ...........

Thats the sort of style we adopted!

[zannette]

Hi, I have been considering how to do this for a while now. As you say, a list of names and dates won't do it.

I have always been interested in history, and while doing my family tree I have tried to put my ancestors into a historical context.

How about writing about the important historical events, for example in my own case, the opening of the Sankey Canal, and fitting your ancestors into this context. Use a bit of imagination to round things out, and make reasonable deductions from what you know for a fact about your ancestors. Don't put all the dates and stuff into the story, but give a reference to an individual and put all the factual stuff in an index. Round out the story with pictures if you can find some. Again in my case I found some old illustrations of the Sankey Canal with flatboats on it (my ancestor was a canal flatman).

Maybe this would work. In fact, just thinking about it has really inspired me to make a start!

Best wishes

ps lizdb has pipped me at the post! Yes this is just the sort of thing.