Tell Your Family Story

Your Cousins, Their Story.

CousinsClub.org
© 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.org18 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
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You Fill In Family Tree Posters Family gift ideas or for framing, hanging at home
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Sharing Your Family Story Tips
Tell Your Family Story

Your Cousins, Their Story.

CousinsClub.org
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

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.org18 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
© Copyright Lexabean, LLC

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
Learn More Learn More
Sharing Your Family Story - Tips