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General => Technical Help => Family History Programs, Tree Organisation, Presentation => Topic started by: sharonf73 on Tuesday 14 July 09 12:16 BST (UK)
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Hi
I had an idea to write everything down that I know about my family history - whether they are factual stories or those just passed down. I would like add in things like what I have found out through my research and how I came to the findings.
Has anyone else done something similar? I'm not too sure how to put it all down. Obviously my FH package can give names, places, dates, etc, but I would like to expand (and make it clear if it is "just a story" and may not be true!). My idea was to split everything into four sections - that of my grandparents names - Fowler, Hendry, Morrison and Swanson and an introduction.
I also thought that once I had put something together (how long will this take!) I'll pass it onto family and see if they can expand or put in their own additions (and I'll make it clear that that info came from someone else).
Hope this makes sense and I welcome any suggestions which may be easier!
Sharon
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Hi Sharon, :)
I too have started to reach the point where I'm thinking that it really is time I started to put all of the information I've acquired into some sort of structured format...but it's knowing the best way to approach it, isn't it?
As you say, there's the method whereby you split your story into four branches, but then, how manageable (or unmanageable) does this become when working backwards and the need arises to introduce the previous generations? ???
Recently, I have been considering the approach of starting with the ancestor relevant to that line who is farthest back in time who you have the most information on, then working forwards. That way, to my way of thinking (others may disagree?) you can introduce direct lines,and all of their siblings etc, and then their marriage dates as they happen by date, dropping in as much or as little information on their parents or siblings as you like.
Whilst I haven't started yet, I'm thinking that this method may read better. Does anyone else have an opinion on this?
As regards family myths or unverified stories etc. I will probably in the course of writing simply state that while such things can't be confirmed etc 'it is believed that' or 'according to family legend' etc.
Well, they're my thoughts on how to progress...just need to get started on it myself now! Good luck.
Paul
EDIT: I also meant to say that I'd probably intersperse the family history with references to other key historical events i.e. who the ruling monarch was at the time or any other major events that may have ocurred just to sort of anchor the family history to its relevant point in time. :)
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i think starting a diary would be good and if you can remember things from when you were young that happened in a certain year would be more interising
and then include family tales in this also
for example
when i was 18 months old i broke my collar bone no-one know how but whenever i put my had up inthe air i screamed in pain although i stil managed to crawl around no problem, in fact i didnt start walking til i was 18 months as i had a big sister who would 'fetch' for me i thought it was a game
when i went to nursery my big sister remembers having to tie my musm shoes up for her as she couldnt bend over to do them up as she was pregnant with nmy little sister, i have an idea of all these years i.e. i know when i was 18 montsh old when my mum was pregnant with my little sister when i was at nursery and when my sister was at infants
so i would write down these little stroies and gradually build up - fil in from there
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Hi
Thanks for you thoughts and suggestions. Gets me thinking and brain working away on best way to go about it!
Good idea about teaming up with historical events.
Quite excited to start now! Who with though, may be the Fowlers since that is what I am!
Sharon
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When I started writing my book I began with a gt.gt.grandfather I knew a good deal about both from family papers and from my research elsewhere. I started from his birth, with details of his parents and siblings, and followed his career and personal life through every census, filling in details of any known events and inserting photos and a few document scans and transcriptions, especially of family letters and wills.
I expanded on the bare facts with a little speculation here and there, and inserted odd paragraphs of general history of the time . . . eg. "... at 5 years of age he would probably have been unaware of the fact that the Tolpuddle Martyrs had been arrested just a few miles from his home ... " . . . then perhaps half a page about the event.
Once I had that chapter finished, it set the pattern for the rest . . . but I have a long way yet to go . . .
Mike.
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Mike i have started that style book for my Holmans and Punnetts its constantly updated
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Hi Toni,
Addictive, ain't it :)
I decided recently to forget trying to update the stories every time I find out something new . . . I record the information in my RootsMagic database but leave the "finished" chapters of the book alone for the present . . . my big ambition just now is to get the first edition finished and printed and bound. Then I will start on the re-write for the second edition with any new details that have come to light in the meantime . . . well, that's the plan anyway . . . ::)
Mike.
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Morning
because of this thread i started to write about my early days last night - then the PC crashed and it was all lost. ::) lucky i only got up to age 4
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Morning
because of this thread i started to write about my early days last night - then the PC crashed and it was all lost. ::) lucky i only got up to age 4
Oh no, how annoying! I started mine last night too, got onto my third page and thought I've only done me, how long will this end up being when I start on the rest of the family?!
Sharon
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I had the same dilemma, where to start and how to store it?. I use an online company called www.yournutshell.com.
There's a section where you can record all your memories of childhood, relatives, accidents, illnesses etc. and you can add as many extra chapters as you like. I am only just getting to my teenage years because there are prompt questions to make you think, and then i go off at a tangent because one memory often triggers another. Also, you won't lose it if your PC crashes because it's held remotely, and you can access it from wherever you can get on to a computer - handy when visiting my dad and he starts talking about his memories!
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What I decided to do is to write up a 'Family History Story' of one of my branches, starting with a significant ancestor who emigrated to South Africa in 1820, giving a bit of his family's background, then taking it on to write up as much as possible about his descendents.
I have used my grandfather's writings as well as those of his brother and other people, to fill in details about these people, and added pictures. I have pointed out where family 'folklore' has been disproved, like the fact that ancestor Richard did not fight at the battle of Waterloo as he had claimed, which we now know from his army records. A few other 'discrepancies' have also come to light (it seems all to easy to 'reinvent' your background when you emigrate!).
I tried to include all the most fascinating facts about their lives (and they did have interesting lives, living through tumultouous times in South Africa's history).
I have written this up in a format that is easy for children to read so that it is available for them in the future. I had it bound at Staples and have sent copies to relatives for their children. I've really enjoyed doing this and now fell ready to attempt another one.
Mary
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Mimble
I love the way you have recorded your family history, that's really neat. Like all of you, I have started writing mine, and decided to split it into 4 to start with and see where that leads me. I've started with Grandfather working backwards, though have included my parents. I've tried to add a little hsitory around each period to put the "family" into context with the period they lived in including transport, cost of living etc. When I come across a real find which perhaps confirms authenticity of information I include a starred bulletin about how I feel at that moment when things drop into place. One of my ancestors travelled to Nigeria on business and as well as including details of his inbound journey, also managed to find pictures of the boats he travelled on, with a booklet on passenger information that sort of thing, cost of fares. I also found pictures of one of the ships accommadation and 1st class lounge so I can now imagine him sitting in the lounge on his journey home. It is a huge task though trying to put everything into sequence.
Lottee
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That looks really good Mimble, :) and pretty much seems to be the same format as I've been thinking of approaching it myself.
Since my first post to this thread I decided to have a bash at putting together a structured history of one of my lines, working forward from my Great, great grandparents.
Within a couple of hours I'd put down over two thousand words comprising specific family-based and general context-based history and am still not finished with my Great, great grandparents. Whilst typing away, I found myself wishing that my Dissertation and many, many University essays had written themselves so easily at the time!!!! ;D ::)
I can edit it as I wish etc, whilst continuing to add more to it, as well as photos and pictures etc.
If anyone else is thinking of stating to put it all down.,.just start typing! :)
Paul
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I think this is invaluable as it draws together all our findings and makes them available for our family in the future. If we don't do it, much of what we find out will be lost as it won't be in a succinct summary. Also, it is in an easily accessible format - having a paper copy is good as who knows what will happen to digital records in the future?
I also found it easy to put down on paper - after all, we are the 'experts' on what we do, aren't we?
Mary
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It certainly is important to put everything down on paper if you want it to survive for future generations to read. Digital storage is so easily lost: CDs/DVDs have a life expectancy of only 10-15 years, and magnetic media can apparently become corrupted in as little as 4 years from the influence of magnetic fields, according to recent research. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8172568.stm
And even if the data survives you need special equipment to read it . . . unlike a book :)
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Mimble your book looks great and I love hearing what everyone else is doing. When I started to do mine my fingers were running away with me! It's amazing once you start how you keep going. I know I've got a long way to go, and binding my family story is something I want to do.
Thanks for all the suggestions to my original request, again, Rootschat has been great and I look forward to any more suggestions and would love to hear how you are all getting on with your own stories!
Sharon
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i have lots of little stories its tying them all in together to make some sort of sense thats the problem.
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i have lots of little stories its tying them all in together to make some sort of sense thats the problem.
I have exactly the same problem toni :-\
I have thought of 'flashbacks'as one way, or using historical events in between.
Another thought, if each story is worked as a chapter, then use a key word in the previous chapter to link to the next story, ie. mention of a blacksmith at end of chapter 2, then chapter 3 can be about a relo who was a blacksmith.
Margaret
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Thirteen years later and I have just completed 160 pages of my family history book, with 12 chapters, and that's just my mother's family from her father backwards. I have given each branch a separate chapter. It has been fascinating to bring together all the amazing discoveries and make even more as I have 'filled out' each story with historical background and photos. My dad's side is not so interesting so I will just make 4 chapters from it. I plan to get 5 copies bound and give them to the family.
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Sharon, I wrote a book on my family history by focusing on just one grandparent and tracing their ancestry. I also included details of historical events like the Irish potato famine, Melbourne 1880's property boom etc. to give context. Finally, I didn't hesitate to use creative license when facts were scarce, just to keep the narrative flowing.
I suggest that trying to write the histories for all four of your grandparents in one book will be a real challenge. I have written another family history where I traced the family lines of a husband and wife, and it was really difficult to find common threads to link up the stories.
In any case, best of luck with your project.
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It certainly is important to put everything down on paper if you want it to survive for future generations to read. Digital storage is so easily lost: CDs/DVDs have a life expectancy of only 10-15 years, and magnetic media can apparently become corrupted in as little as 4 years from the influence of magnetic fields, according to recent research. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8172568.stm
And even if the data survives you need special equipment to read it . . . unlike a book :)
Not only that, but think about access, how are people going to find my digital family research in that vast store? It is already quite difficult to find specific items on the internet when one knows what one is looking for let alone 50 years down the line when one has no idea if it exists or not.
At first sight it seems to be the perfect solution but like the paper option the practice fails to meet the expectations due to details.
Cheers
Guy
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I've started doing a very basic life story by just using 'word ' and typing up pages on one specific person eg a grandparent. I then put all the info I have including scanned in images of photos , photos of items that have been passed down that are significant and certificates, school records etc. I've then saved it as a pdf and emailed it to my children. This is because they prefer to read online rather than paper. I had been wondering about also trying to do a flip book in future. I've seen a few of those online.
I hope in time once I have sufficient ' chapters' done on the relevant folk, that I will get a copy printed out rather than just my own copy printed each time on our ordinary printer.
I've also done a chapter on the history of one house and I'm currently working on the war for my father.
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I'm slowly writing mine as a website.
https://www.hoopertapestry.com/home
Martin
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Very nice, Martin - what a lot of work!
I am now up to 20 Chapters, 208 pages. I have given one chapter to each 'branch' of the family that I have researched, and included any 'wow' moments or fascinating things I discovered. Also lots of photos and pictures of themselves and the places they lived in and anything else to 'flesh it out'. I intend to have 6 or 7 copies printed for the family only but not put it online as I haven't properly referenced sources etc.
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I have done my Scottish ancestors using Word.
I started with my grandfather , his name as the title of the 1st (ahem) chapter. Next my gt grandfather the same, but then I get to 4 Alexanders, so with each of them I wrote thier father`s name and birthdate so there is no confusion.
I have made it so that each person is can be read as an indivual story.
I didn`t include anything that hasn`t a source to back it up!
My grandson said it was "exceptional"
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This sounds good, Billy. I'm sure it is exceptional! I have also had to deal with 'overlapping' generations and where to split the chapters, but with a few anomalies have tried to be consistent. I'm not stressing too much over it as I find if I just 'get on' with it I do better rather than trying to make it 'perfect'. Some information is repeated but I think that helps the reader to tie in the different branches and place the people in context.
I am also using Word. I still haven't worked out how to make a visual representation of the different branches and how they relate to myself, but have started each chapter by placing the group in relation to myself, eg. 'My grandfather Frank's great grandmother was a Montgomery. This is a fascinating family....' etc.
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I'm slowly writing mine as a website.
https://www.hoopertapestry.com/home
Martin
and its impressive, a lot of work has gone into that.
Just a word of caution though, I had a friend who created a family history website, it was really good.
Unfortunately, after he died the domain and hosting accounts lapsed and its no longer available.
Boo
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I'm really glad to have found this thread, because I'm in the process of writing up one branch of the family tree, primarily for a relative so they can see what I've uncovered. It's very useful to see how other people go about it.
I've written about each person as an individual, which does mean it gets repetitive at times, but I couldn't think how else to do it. I have lumped some couples together where there isn't much information.
I'm really glad I'm doing it, because it's pushing me to look at my research again, double check things and then uncover new things, which is marvellous.
The downside is it takes ages. This has taken me months, and it's only one branch! My aim is eventually to write up every branch, as well as my husbands tree. I'm going to be busy in my free time for the next few years at least!
One thing I struggled with was lack of images, because I don't have any photographs. So I've been using some free image resources online, which have old illustrations and stuff like that. That's made a big difference to how it looks
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I agree Stanwix, it "does" take ages. Some chapters I edited 3 or 4 times ! In the end I relised I was getting too stressed over it !
I found online some older images of houses where my families used to live, so included these. My grandfather went to live with my aunt in Australia for a while, after my grandmother died; he was then mid 70s. He worked for a time at a living museum as a blacksmith, so a short history of that was also included.
I also found a connection with my 5 x gt grandfather and Robbie Burns(not related) but Robbie visited hiim and my gt grandfather paid for R B to join the Masons!!
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I am not sure if this has been said, but a book, in being a paper vision, can live forever and handed down the generations, whereas an online book lives as long as the domain name and hosting are paid.