Tell Your Family Story
Your Cousins, Their Story.
© Copyright Lexabean, LLC
Go Beyond Your Family Tree: Your Family Story Starts With You
Great - now you have a large family tree and know how everyone is related. Every family has a
story that can not be completely told by a family tree. Have you ever wondered how family
members ended up in the countries they live in now? Who fought in World War II and what their
experience was like? Do you have any family members impacted by major world events, such as
the holocaust, and want to share their experiences with the family?
According to the New York Public Library “20 Reasons Why You Should Write Your Family
History” “Family trees are abstract. Stories add depth”. You and your families are important to
many people. You have something to pass onto your children, an unknown number of future
generations and perhaps even to a local historical society. And as they also point out: “Memories
over time become fragmented and distorted. People may not remember the things you told them
but did not write down.”
Writing Tips
Being able to tell a good story is a skill just like any other skill you use professionally or socially.
But, unless your looking to create a publishable work, your focus should be on content and
engaging your family.
But, there are somethings you can do in order to ensure your story is well written. According to
FamilySearch.org “18 Writing Tips for 2018: How to Tell Personal and Family Stories with
Confidence”
•
Own Your Story: You know your story and family history better than anyone else.
•
Make a Timeline of Major Events: Some of this may be captured in your family tree (if
you’ve completed one). Some of the suggested questions in the next section will give you
some ideas on things to put in a timeline.
•
Be Specific: When recounting a story or characteristic of a family member, include examples
and details.
•
Just Start: Start with a brain dump of information as you think of it. Don’t worry about how
it reads or is organized. Try capturing notes or lists of stories in a notepad, your favorite word
processing document or even a voice recorder on your smart phone. You can come back to
this later to try to fill in the details and organize the content in a form that you can share with
others.
•
Forget About Chronology: There is no reason your family story needs to be sequenced
chronologically. Some stories may flow better if they are logically grouped together or told in
a different order.
•
Use Memory Triggers: Look through old photos albums, walk through your old
neighborhood or a school you once attended. You’ll be surprised by the number of memories
that come rushing back.
Developing The Content
The first step in your family story is collecting the information. There are quite a few good online
resources that you can use to find basic information about your family, such as when they
immigrated to the countries they live now, who served in the military and more. One of
the best is Ancestry.com (see link at the beginning of this article). But keep in mind -
there is no replacing interviewing your family members to truly fill in the story.
Questions you can start off by asking include:
•
Did your parents or grandparents share any stories with you on why they emigrated to
the country you are living in now? What was their trip like? What was life like where
they grew up?
•
Do they know any family members who served in the military? Did they fight in any
significant battles? What was their experience like?
•
Anyone in the family involved in any major world events? The Holocaust? World War
I? Hold a political office?
•
Tell me a bit about you and your immediate family. What is a day in your life like?
Any hobbies or special interests?
•
If your kids asked you “Whats important to you about you?” what would you say?
Surveys
Surveys can be a fun and educational way to engage with your family for fun. While Facebook
has some survey and polling functionality, We’ve found the Survey functionality from
Constant Contact to be the best. It includes the following functionality:
•
Choice of many templates
•
Ability to send Surveys and Polls via e-mail, Facebook or your own Website
•
Results tracking in real time.
•
Integrated contact list allows you to generate newsletters as well off of the same mailing
list.
We suggest mixing it up a bit between questions to better understand the family and questions
for fun. For example:
1.
Are you a lefty or righty? This is not a political question – looking for handedness.
2.
What type of work do you do?
3.
Where do you live?
4.
What languages do you speak?
5.
Where were your parents on D-Day?
6.
What were your teenage years like? Did you play any sports in school? Hobbies?
7.
Whats the one TV show you never miss?
8.
What job did you have in high school?
9.
What book are you reading?
10.
Do you play a musical instrument?
11.
Describe your ideal weekend?
12.
For fun:
o
Do you believe in unicorns?
o
Who is your favorite cartoon character?
o
Do you like pickles?
o
Would you rather find a four leaf clover or a heads up penny?
o
If you could have a super power, what would it be?
o
How many pairs of shoes do you own?
o
Can you sing?
o
Can you dance?
13.
What is your favorite:
o
Sport to play or watch?
o
Team to root for?
o
Pet/Animal?
o
Vacation
o
Music
o
Recipes
Share the story
As you accumulate information and pictures - you'll need a place to share it with your family.
There are a number of online options that offer a lot of functionality for you to use. These include:
Option 1: Create a Facebook group. This is a great, free, way to share pictures and stories with
your family. Facebook groups offer a number of features that make them useful for this purpose.
These include:
•
Its already a popular platform, so you will probably find many of your family members
already have accounts. In fact, this is also a great way to connect with your family and
through them, find other family members on Facebook (including ones you may not have
already known about).
•
It has many features to allow family members to interact with each other, making it a great
platform for the family to get to know each other better.
•
You can make it a private group so that you can control who has access to the posts and
documentation.
•
You can upload documents and photos, including any part of the story you've written offline
in Microsoft Word or your family tree software,
•
Other family members can contribute their own documentation and photos directly to the
group making this a very collaborative effort.
Option 2: Several family tree software packages, including Family Tree Maker and Legacy
Family Tree, allow you to create a write up to document your family story. These integrate well
with the family tree, but you can also allow you to export them to a document which you can
upload to your families Facebook group or e-mail to the family using your regular e-mail
software or, if you want to also create newsletters for your family, an online package like
ConstantContact.com.
Option 3: If you are tech savvy, you can create your own website to share the story. This will
require more work for you, but gives you complete control over the format and flow of the story.
For an example site, check out www.CousinsClub.us
Useful Tools
Category
Tools
Finding my family…
Note taking
•
SmartPhone voice
recorder
•
Your favorite word
processor
Asking the family
questions..
Constant Contact
Surveys
Newsletters
ConstantContact.com
Interacting with
multiple family
members who live far
apart
Create a facebook group
for your family
Product Reviews
& Best Of Picks
Our independent reviews
and articles on:
•
Amazon Best Of Guide
•
Family Tree Posters
•
Photo editing &
restoration software
•
Genealogy DNA
Testing: includes
reviews, articles & free
tools to understand
and verify your DNA
results
You Fill In Family Tree
Posters
Family gift ideas or for
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Sharing Your Family Story Tips