Have you ever noticed that a life and a story are not the same thing?
A life is everything.
Every ordinary Tuesday. Every meal cooked. Every chore finished. Every year that passed quietly without anyone noticing.
But a story… a story is meaning.
It’s the moments we choose to remember.
The turning points. The heartbreaks. The risks. The tiny conversations that changed everything without anyone realizing it at the time.
When we sit down to write family history, this is where so many people get stuck. They think they need to record every fact, every date, every event in chronological order. But readers don’t connect to information alone.
They connect to emotion.
To tension.
To transformation.
And that’s what we’re talking about today — the difference between documenting a life and telling a story.
Your ancestor’s life was vast… but their story lives in the moments that reveal who they truly were.
Lynn, Great video. I’ve finally began writing about my Mom’s diary which is basically about her life as a teenager in the 30s. So many of the stories are about her daily life – not real exciting or earth shattering – but just what was going on in her life and her head and heart back then. Since I am including local history of an event she wrote about or the places she visited, I struggle with the citations. If I want specific pictures of places that no longer exist, I spend a lot of time looking for those photos and then requesting permission to use. I know I don’t have to have photos or other graphics, but I find that so much more interesting than plain text. This video reminds me that I need to keep going and that her life is worth writing about. Thanks again.
Thank you, Lynn. As genealogists we keep hunting for the next piece of data instead of slowing down and thinking about how what we know about our ancestor’s life changes with each new thing we learned.
Your perspective on writing stories is very important. I think of some of my ancestors and myself and think it is too ordinary to tell this as a story but this has opened my mind to the emotions we have as we go along life’s path. Even the tiny fragments do mean something. For example, my grandfather polished rocks, made the into jewelry and gave them to his family. I have an Apache tear drop that he found in Arizona and made into a necklace for me. Every time I think about it I remember him and his kindness. The emotion is what comes up first. Thank you for encouraging us to look at life in a different way to find stories.
Ordinary things are made into stories when we recognize the emotions behind inconsequential moments.
Thank you, Lynn. I’m beginning to write a short story involving myself. I’ve been horrified by how little I remember of the occasion’s details. I’m lucky enough to have reconnected with 6 of the 13 people who were there, and two diaries to add more specific timing details. Several photos have also been forwarded to me, as proof that I was there when certain events occurred. After reading your post, I’m sure buried emotions were behind my lack of memory. Now to resurrect those emotions and add them in action to my story. You’ve given me a base from which to write.