Write It!: Tips for Saving and Sharing Family History in Written Form Program Recap

Thank you to Martin Fischer for kicking off this year’s National Family History Month programming at the New Jersey State Library.  With 40 years of genealogy and writing experience, Martin shares his reflections and best practices for those interested in writing about their family history.  Writing is an iterative process and the more we practice, the better we will be.  Whether we are novice or experienced, writing for ourselves or others, or writing on paper or online, we can always improve.

The Writing Process

There are 5 stages of the basic writing process; it is important to take your time with each stage and follow these tips:

1.  Generating Ideas

When you think of something, write it down.  Whether it is just a quick note on your phone or in a small notebook, when you think of a topic, question, or research avenue, write it down.  Our minds are fleeting and its hard for us to remember something from earlier in the day, let alone a week or two ago.

One popular strategy when it comes to the pre-writing that can help us generate ideas is stream of consciousness.  Stream of consciousness consists of writing whatever comes to mind without any consideration for organization, logic, or grammar.  It can be stories of family members your remember as a child, places, names, professions, dates.  Whatever it is, just get it out!

Genealogy is a broad topic and it can be difficult to even start thinking about what we want to write about.  Some topics to consider include:

• Military service
• Family professions/inventions
• Family tragedies, small or large
• Personal letters, documents, bibles
• Buildings/property
• Family traditions or secrets

Once we have our ideas written out, we can then start trying to make connections, determine avenues of further research, or select the most appropriate topics for our work.

2.   Planning

Now that we have some ideas, we have to start planning on what to write and how to write it.  One way to help with this is to determine what type of format/forum/medium we planning on writing.  Are we going to write a personal memoir, a blog post, an article for the family newsletter?  The form our writing will take can help us decide what topics are most appropriate and how much detail or research is needed.

Once we have an idea about our topic and our format, we have to start figuring out how best to write about it.  There are a few approaches to further developing our topic that are useful.  We can try writing a thesis statement, a short statement (often one sentence) that summarizes the main point of our work that will be developed and supported with evidence and examples.  A sample thesis statement is “The Smith lineage of my family can be traced back to 17th century England and the court of William of Orange.”  This statement summarizes the topic of your Smith lineage and makes the argument that there are records dating back to the 17th century, including the court of William of Orange.

Another way to plan our writing is to use a traditional outline.  Using the these statement above, an outline might look like:

• Smith Lineage
  • Court of William of Orange
    • Declaration of title signed by the king
    • Correspondences
  • Emigration to Colonies
    • Ships manifest
    • Deed/charter for land
  • Migration Westward
    • Family vital records from different states
    • Census/land records

Another tool is the mind map.  A mind map is a way to visualize the topic and the different components of the topic that we plan to write about, including research steps.  One great thing about mind maps is that you can continue to expand them as you find out more information or uncover more questions; you can even connect multiple broad topics together through different maps.  Here is an example of a mind map:

3.  Drafting

With our topic set and our planning underway, we can start drafting our writing.  Start by writing what is familiar to you or easily understandable.  Find what best works for you; some people have to progress in a logical or chronological order while others can bounce from topic to topic, waiting until later to place everything in an orderly fashion.   As you write, pay attention to:

• Flow of ideas
• Logic and understanding
• Sentence structure
• Factual accuracy
• Keeping your reader’s attention and interest

As you progress, be sure to take plenty of breaks to help organize your thoughts and come back ready to edit, revise, and rewrite with fresh eyes.  If you find yourself stuck, step away for a few hours, a day, or a week and give your brain time to digest all of the information and work things out.  Find a routine that works for you and stick to it.

4.  Revising

The word revising might conjure up thoughts of editing the work for grammar, but that is not what we are referring to here.  Revising focuses on improving the content and context of your work.  As you write, it can be helpful to practice revision before moving on to another topic or section.  As you go over your initial writings, ask yourself:

• Can it be organized better?  Have I left anything out?
• Are these the best sentences…the best paragraphs?
• Did I get anything wrong?  Do I have enough research or information?
• Are there ideas that don’t fit in?
• Can ideas be better connected to each other by inserting transitional phrases or sentences?

Revising takes effort and should be done multiple times.  While it may seem overwhelming and a lot of work, the more you practice it, the easier it becomes.

5.  Editing

You followed your outline; you wrote the story you wanted to tell; you used documents and pictures to enhance your story; you even spent some time revising your work.  You can finally publish it and rest; well, not exactly.  Once you have everything written and revised, you have to go back and edit the work, focusing on spelling, punctuation, and grammar.  Your word processor’s spelling and grammar tools can be a big help, but they don’t always catch everything.  If possible, have someone else read through it; they might spot a common misspelling, such as “there” instead of “their”.

Also try to pay attention to these five common writing problems:

• Misplaced/dangling modifiers
• Overly long sentences
• Too many short, simple sentences
• Vague or abstract sentences
• Misuse of words or idiomatic expressions – For example, bated breath instead of baited breath

Wrap Up

Writing can be a long, tedious process, even for experienced writers.  Writing about family, both current and distant, can be a great motivator, but can also come with challenges.  Keep in mind these final things when undertaking any family history writings:

• Secure permission, preferably written, for all copyrighted works appearing in your writing, including pictures, maps, quotes, etc.
• Secure permission from relatives or decedents regarding sensitive information, such as a family scandal
• Do your research!  Do not make claims that you cannot verify or back up with proof
• Know your audience.  Make sure the story you are telling is appropriate for your target audience

If you have any questions about the family history writing process, please contact Martin Fischer at martinfischer@hotmail.com.  You can download a copy of the handout at https://www.njstatelib.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Write-It-Handout.pdf.