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    Researching and Writing Your Family History and Memoirs
    Researching and Writing Your Family History and Memoirs
    Researching and Writing Your Family History and Memoirs
    Ebook86 pages48 minutes

    Researching and Writing Your Family History and Memoirs

    By Joelle Steele

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    About this ebook

    This is a brief genealogical guide to researching ancestry and writing family histories and personal memoirs. It covers all of the basic information that a family genealogist would need in order to research and write their family history, including obtaining and interpreting documents, understanding kinship, telling stories, and troubleshooting. Also includes a long list of questions to use when conducting interviews, explains the use of photographs and other images in written histories, discusses overall story structure, and addresses publishing options.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJoelle Steele
    Release dateMay 2, 2014
    ISBN9781940388151
    Researching and Writing Your Family History and Memoirs
    Author

    Joelle Steele

    Joelle Steele writes mystery and ghost novels and non-fiction books about face & ear ID, handwriting forgery, art, astrology, cat care, genealogy, and horticulture. And, she is a legal writer of contract templates for small business. She has extensive published credits and has worked as a writer, editor, and publisher since 1973.

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      Book preview

      Researching and Writing Your Family History and Memoirs - Joelle Steele

      Researching & Writing Your Family History and Memoirs

      By Joelle Steele

      Copyright Joelle Steele 2014

      Published by Many Hats Publications/Joelle Steele Enterprises Publishing at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Preface

      Chapter 1: Researching Your Roots

      Chapter 2: Compiling Your Stories

      Chapter 3: Writing Your Family History

      Chapter 4: Determining Kinship

      Chapter 5: Publishing Your History

      Recommended Reading

      Other Books by Joelle Steele

      About the Author

      Preface

      Genealogy is one of the most popular hobbies in America today. We have become fascinated with discovering our roots. After much painstaking research over periods of years, we will, hopefully, end up with a completed family tree and an accompanying history.

      But while those are great historical works in their own right, they are also yet one more important demonstration of how small and interconnected our planet really is. For example, in west central Finland are at least 300 people to whom I am related. I did not even know of their existence until I first began my genealogical search in 1985. And here in the United States, I have met about 60 people to whom I am related whose roots are in that very same part of Finland.

      Knowing where you came from and who your ancestors were fills in what is otherwise a very huge gap in our interpretation of the word family. We are the sum total of all that has come before us, and when you begin to meet your ancestors through your research, this will become readily apparent. And, when you meet your long-lost distant cousins, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that you have a lot more in common with them than just your DNA.

      While genealogy is fun, it is also detailed, challenging, and often difficult work that can take years to complete. But the rewards from all that work can be very satisfying. When you take a look at your completed tree and see all the many people it took to bring you into this world, and then look at your family history and discover that you now know a lot about those people, it can make you very humble and it can also make you very proud.

      The following is a brief guide to researching and writing your family history. Be prepared to work hard at it, and at the same time, be prepared to have fun!

      Joelle Steele

      May 2014

      Chapter 1: Researching Your Roots

      Getting Organized

      Before you even think about searching for your ancestors, know that you will be dealing with a ton of information and some of it will be conflicting, some will appear to be irrelevant to your search, some will be for other lines in the same tree, etc. Keep everything. Never throw any of it away, even if you know it is not for your particular line of the family, because someone else may need it and you will be able to give it to them after they have given you something you need. In other words, it is a good way to reciprocate in kind. Write in pencil on the backs of these items why you think it isn't about your family and where you got it. Sometimes you think it isn't for your family and later find out that it is.

      You will probably have a combination of computer files and paper files (especially official documents) for each line, for each individual, or for whatever works best for you. Keep all your trees in separate files. Keep original documents in a separate file or under sheet protectors in a binder with tab dividers for each person they pertain to. Keep maps, photos, and histories (such as original stories, memoirs, or diaries) in separate files. Carefully label everything on the back in pencil (not pen), making sure that you do not put glue or tape on top of photos or other valuable documents.

      Make a cover sheet for each person you are researching, showing alternate spellings of names (because you have to search every alternative you can think of and you may find the person you are

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