How To Write Your Family History

How to get started:

· documentary sources: birth/death records; family geneology if known, letters and photographs, diaries

· oral information: getting people to talk to you/the importance of food and relaxation/the art of interviewing - start with easy, short-answer, factual questions and then elaborate on the answers (this is where I used the photos as a jumping off point); comfort level of participants to taping/taking notes: asking about favourite family stories and how each person remembers it. Have an interview outline/schedule: what info do you want to get?

Sorting it out: What you do with the material once you've collected it

· decide the main themes and grouping ideas: often based on family life - food, babies, transportation, fun, school days, special events, work; this is where Kae and I ran into problems, and this is what I learned from Karen:

· review all materials and indicating major themes
work through each theme, collecting and collating the information you have and ordering it within the theme; work chapter by chapter; deciphering what is closest to truth (cf. story about Dad's photo)

· identify what's missing and figure out how to fill the holes, if possible

· what conclusions can you come to: weighing up the past, by you (the editor) and by your participants

Presentation: decide how to present the information: format, style, medium.

· Remember that "simple" works: Typed manuscripts with good, clean layout in a decorative three-ring binder would be easy and inexpensive. Or decorate the pages as you might do in a scrapbook, with photos and fancy borders. Consider whether you want to make multiple copies: therefore, whether to do it in black and white (elegant and less expensive), or colour copying.

· More complex? A book that you want printed and bound. Look for friends who can help you get there (and be sure to acknowledge their help in the final production) - deliberately leave room for other family members to take part/friends also - look to younger generation for computer help if appropriate, etc.

· Find a local printer/bindery that can do much of the layout for you, or can work from your manuscript on flash drive or CD.

· For ideas on design, reference similar projects in the same medium: eg, for books, go to the local library and look at various types of books for ideas about format and style; check out books in the family history, and then books in other subject areas, such as art how-to books, gardening and crafts for ideas on less formal formats. For web-site and internet presentation, look at some of the current crop and cherry-pick the ideas you particularly like

· Consider new technology and how you can use it, possibly to extend or expand the life of the manuscript: CD or DVD; post on internet? Blog or web-site. Again, a good way to draw in the younger generation.... We have a DVD in every book that has the full 900 minutes of conversation that people can listen to, and all of the photos as well...plus an invitation to the younger set to play with the raw material in interesting ways: altering photos, making short videos using photos with the appropriate recorded story that they illustrate. There are lots of creative possibilities.

· One factor that should be considered: how long the various media last. CDs appear now to be on the way out (2008); how long for DVDs? Who knows? Cassette tapes now need to be converted to CD or DVD. What format has a proven track record for lasting hundreds of years: the book!

Wrap-up:

· "And in the end...": what did it all mean (both the process of collecting the information, and the resultant story), and where does it all go: what to do with all the bits and pieces: the table-cloth, the original old photos, the heavily edited manuscript. Your final tasks will be to find your collected relics a home for the next generation to have access to them, to play with them. A younger, enthusiastic family member is your best bet to inherit this material.

· Also consider the wider social value of the research and writing you have just completed. You might want to send a copy of your book to the provincial archives and/or to the National Library and Archives. Go on line to find their contact information, and be sure to write to them beforehand, to make sure that they will accept the book in the format you have chosen.

· Finally, you can decide to put the whole story, or an edited version, into cyberspace via a blog, a website or some newer form of internet interaction as yet to be developed. The world is out there, waiting for your story.