Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. I hope that your research is going well, and that you have been more fully utilizing newspapers as you build your ancestor’s story. If you’re finding yourself entrenched with a lot of information regarding a particular ancestor after all the research you have been doing, I am not only proud of you, but hope to help you further your genealogical journey by suggesting that you compile all that information into a comprehensible story. In fact, even if you have yet to find a lot of information about an individual family member, you could begin to write your own story! Regardless of where you are in your genealogical research, I’m confident that you could write a story of some kind. Whether that be your family member’s or your own and I hope that today’s blog post will fill you with the confidence, desire, and tips you will need to begin this fulfilling new project.
When you’re beginning any new project within genealogy you may remember that your why may differ from other genealogists. This still holds true when you are wanting to embark on writing a biography of any kind. If you are writing your life story your why might be to let future family historians know about your life and save them the trouble of having to compile so much information to get to know you. Other why’s might include wanting to leave them advice, understanding of why you made decisions that may still affect them, etc. If you are writing another family member’s life story your why’s may be similar. A few years back I helped finish a manuscript my grandmother left me regarding her life story. My why for finishing her story was that I felt she had left it to be told. Regardless of what way you hold for writing your own or another ancestor’s story or if you are struggling to find one know this, everyone’s experiences hold importance for future generations. The lessons they and or you will learn from these experiences will be vast, and for some even life changing so remember that as you pen these biographies.
You may still feel that this project is a bit beyond you right now and you would like to continue researching ancestors instead, however I urge you to once again reread that general why we just covered. You can do this! Starting any writing project may feel intimidating especially if you feel that it is not your strength. Remember that you have all the information you need in front of you. Whether you are writing your own or your ancestors you should have done some research to verify what you know as fact. Having this laid out before you will guarantee that you have some place to start from. Since this is a life story start out by giving some background about you or your ancestors birth and continue linearly from there until the death or current age of the subject who you are writing about. If you feel your writing is inadequate, not as flowerily as you would like I would like to stop you right there. It’s ok for your biographies to not be the peak of literature. Just by writing it down your future family will thank you.
Speaking from experience, I know that writing a biography of any sort can be a huge task. But I also know that if this Genealogy Granny can do it, you can do it too! If you find that you are needing more assistance with this project after you begin, remember to check out my webinars located on this same website under the webinars tab. If you have further questions following that feel free to contact me using the above, contact information. Good luck on your genealogy journey and I hope that you are now seriously considering writing that biography!
Winona Laird
The Genealogy Granny
