Writing a Narrative Family History

Prepared for Westlake FHC Conference, April 25, 2009

Writing a narrative Family History

Review the options Decide what you want Draft individual elements Use special software? Gather family photos Prepare “slide show”

Review the Options

Do you have your research in order? This is all about presenting what you have already researched. We're not going to talk about doing the research, just about writing about what you have already uncovered.

Review your options

Text for a scrapbook Written unbound text Bound book for large audience Book for commercial publication

Ways to get started

Start at the beginning and write to the end. (Grandpa Jones was born in 1916 and raised on a farm in Snohomish.)

Start at the end and look back upon his life. (Hundreds attended Grandpa's funeral; he was greatly loved because of his long life of service and accomplishment.)

Why use “writer's software”?

Special software like Personal Historian makes it easy to get started.

Allows you to create a lengthy list of “memory triggers,” important milestones to write about.

Allows you to write in any order you choose. Just pick a Memory Jogger and write about it. Then pick another, and so forth.

Software helps you organize it and put it together.

Looking at Memory Triggers

Accidents Anniversaries Birthdays DeathsDescription Disease FriendsGrandchildren Grandparents Holidays

Hospital stays Immunizations ParentsSpouse Surgery Teachers, etc.

I've set up for approx. 130 memory triggers like these. You can set it up the way you want, with the triggers you choose.

Subtopics in “Memory Joggers”

Personal Historian breaks the history down into small, manageable "topics"-- each with its own title, date, written text, and even pictures. Topics make it easy to work on your history whenever you have the time—whether you have 10 minutes or 10 hours. Saves your work and makes it easy to start where you left off.

The main screen displays all of the topics in the project. If a topic has a date, P H also displays the individual's age on that date. Helps you sort and filter your topics.

Gathering Information

No need to start from scratch, as Personal Historian can bring in events, stories, pictures, and documents from a variety of sources.

Personal Historian imports names, dates, and even notes from your favorite genealogical software.

The software also includes an extensive library of "Life Capsules" with timelines, historical facts, cultural trivia, and memory triggers that give color, context, and interest to the history.

Personal Historian also imports your word processor documents and photographs.

Organizing Information

With PH, you don't need a "start from the beginning" approach. You can choose any topic from the main screen (or add a new, blank topic), work as much as you like on it, and save it for later. Personal Historian keeps track of the status of each topic.

The "Organizer" tool allows you to write down ideas as they come to you. Then you can easily move the ideas into coherent groups and logical orders until you have a working outline.

Publishing Your History

When you're ready to publish your masterpiece, Personal Historian is still there to help. It takes all of the topics that you choose and puts them together into a finished, publishable document. You can publish your history directly to your personal printer, to a PDF file that you can share with others, or to an RTF file that you can read into your favorite word processor for additional tweaking.

Make a Family Slide Show

• Gather family photos from many sources• Arrange in chosen order.• Annotate as needed.• Save on CD-ROM or DVD.• Print multiple copies and share with family

members__________________________(Approach developed by genealogist Sheila Casper

of Fairbanks, Alaska. Special salute to you, Sheila!)