Anyone following me on Twitter or Google+ knows that I have a family reunion coming up in early August. This is actually my husband’s family, but even though I haven’t been researching his side much, I still know more about their history than others who will be in attendance.
So, I’m writing down what I know. This post (and the ones to follow) aren’t meant as a step-by-step guide to writing your family history but instead a journey how my brain is approaching this project. I’m certainly not calling it a best practices guide either! Lot’s of learning going on here…
Oh yea. And the hubs just shorted my timetable by a week as we’re driving out earlier than I expected. doh!
Know why you’re writing
The purpose of the document you are putting together and the audience will greatly influence how you write (your “voice” in writing lingo) and even what you include. A case study or paper to be submitted to a journal will be much more formal and may have specific formatting requirements, especially for including citations of your research. A family history to be shared with the family members shouldn’t read like those (the cousins will all fall asleep, you know it’s true), but you want it to be accurate and, in my opinion, it’s still a good idea to let folks know where you got the info.
The purpose this booklet for the reunion is to reconnect cousins of my father-in-law and their families now that the older generations have passed on. So, I want it to get people talking and give some common frames of reference. And of course, to share the information I’ve discovered in my research. I’m sure there will be errors in the younger generations and I know there are holes, so I don’t consider this version “library donation ready” either. It’s more of the “beta version”.
Blank pages suck
The worst thing for me is know where to start. How to start. Just starting. bah! So to get around this I output the appropriate descendant chart with all the information my genealogy program could spew out and started copying and pasting into my blank document. In the end, all families start with someone being born somewhere. If I want to go with a catchier beginning, I’ll come up with that later. For now, I want a framework.
Other folks might have started with an outline, which possibly would’ve been a more organized way. But my brain just isn’t organized that way for this project.
Use styles
From the very beginning use styles when your typing up (or copying in) your text. Trust me, this will make your life MUCH easier later and, if you are using a professional layout person, it will save you money if they don’t have to restyle your document. If you are using a layout person, you can even ask them if they have a template for you to work in or style names to use. They’ll love you. If they don’t know what you are talking about, find someone else.
Any word processing program is going to have built-in styles you can use or you can make your own. Do it.
Find the holes
This is where I am now. I have the framework done and have questions noted in the margin. Now to fill in the holes.
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