Writing Family History: a note on how to write family history in 2020

How do I write my family history? Goodness, how many times have I been asked that question and I have answered, over the years and decades, in many ways through my workshops, books, writing my family stories and in talks and seminars....but of course how we write, and how we publish changes.  And just as history is now written in very different ways so too is family history.

Once it was enough to make lists of names and dates, perhaps as a pedigree often leaving out women's names as the purpose was to 'prove a line of descent,' through male lineage.  However, that emphasis on genealogy or an encyclopedic list of names is now less popular. Even the term family history is more common and denotes a broader, more inclusive approach to writing family stories.

It is true that as family historians we continue to map the many generations of families harking back to other centuries, other lands, these beginning somewhere outside our current place  unless we are indigenous.  It is also true that we 'choose' a line to research as family history – this is our favourite line, for me it was my mother’s family as I knew more about it.  And my mother told me many stories. For my father’s family my interest emerged much later.  My parents divorced in the 1950s and it was a time when such a separation was seen as difficult and my mother talked little about that time and certainly was not interested in that family history.

But as I aged and as I became more knowledgeable about family history I began researching my Kyle family history and was able to talk to my father and his many brothers and sisters before they passed on.  In fact 3 of my father’s sisters  are still going strong and they have given many insights and certainly stories for that side of the family.

We learn too, that family history iis made up of many different lines of ancestry from out parents and grandparents and these become increasingly complex if we were to  look at them all.  So we choose one or two lines  and simply focus specifically on that name or that lineage.

Nonetheless, in 2020 how we write our stories is very different to those first tentative steps we took in the 1970s and 1980s when the upsurge and interest in researching family history became popular.

What I see now in published family history and also in my own work is what I would call a mix of biography, memoir, history and family history.....we have become, along with other history, much more adventurous, much more imaginative and much more professional in how we research and then write our family histories.  Let me look at these four broad areas:

Biography  -  is to write the story of another person, in this case one of your family members.  There is little doubt that people are important in family history.  It is the lives of our ancestors, as we uncover them with our research, that shape and enliven our family stories.  It is possible today with the many online newspapers, birth/death/marriage records, government records, immigration and much more to fill out these biographies.  In the longer past how to find our ancestors lives is  more difficult but even then by looking at place in family (age, gender, large/small family, rural/city, poor/wealthy,  etc) you can assume much about that past and the people in it.

Memoir - an autobiography is the story of a life implying the writer will capture all elements of their life.  A memoir, on the other hand, does not replicate a whole life. Memoir can be stories or perceptions, of the author, on their own life, and on other peoples lives and events. In family history memoir can be simply that point in the story when you relate a story your mother/grandmother told you about the past and you comment on it because it changes what you knew about the family or it adds something or it challenges you...memoir is also your journey as a researcher and writer as you piece together the story and begin to understand it.

History -  adding in the 'big' picture is not a difficult nor a demanding task....each family story is unique but each story is familiar territory too. Family history is universal history. Birth, death, marriage, work, love, hope, joy anguish - these are common to all families, even in the long past.
As historians of our family, it is our job to link our stories, as much as it is possible, to the drama of neighbourhoods, to the hopes and dreams of local communities, and to the ebb and flow of national themes.  Historians, like all writers, draw inspiration from many sources;  memory, everyday experience, reading, work, film television. The literature we read - novels, biographies, historical and travel books, and the news section of newspapers or online - all provide creative stimulation for our writing.

This ebook available from Amazon

Family History  -  is not everything that happened in the past!! Yes, it is true meticulous and systematic research is the cornerstone of good history. Writing family history is about asking questions?  Writing family history is writing about women and also about children, about aging and about conflict. Over the years I have learned much from family historians about research and indeed about writing. I have learned much from these students of life, of writing and family history, and am grateful for their wisdom, their generosity of spirit and their willingness to share. I have attended their monthly meetings where dedicated family historians support each other and where sharing of information, skills and technology are a given. In addition, there  is no doubt that family historians are some of the best historical researchers and their ability with and knowledge of online, digitised and new paper resources is amazing. But more than this  too.  Family history societies worldwide have incorporated citation, codes of ethics,, the stories of women, indigenous and migrant stories into  their family stories.And to ask the questions: how, who, where and in what historical help to shape the family narrative in a coherent and unique way.