The hardest part of writing your family history isn’t the writing—it’s knowing where to begin.
Let’s find the ancestor who’s already waiting for you.
The Ancestor You Should Write About First
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Thank you for your thoughts on where to start writing. I know that when I research, I feel like I can connect with many of my ancestors because of the struggles they went through or even the accomplishments they achieved. Even though that I have never met or heard anything about a certain ancestor, I still feel something about them. But then I also have a connection with my aunt, who requested and inspired me to start the research on the family tree which I continue to do.
Is it best to write each family’s story separately? Meaning my two parents came from four grandparents, thus four families. Do I keep each family separate? Or would that be chapters? Can the story starter be about a recent relative and not the ancestor coming from another country? I have several in mind, but the two as of right now that I am thinking of are in different branches of my family. It could be very confusing. I think I don’t want to bring the branches together until the end of the story, if that makes sense.
Hi Mary, every ancestor is their own unique individual with their own story. Its not necessary to have all the stories connect and fit together. Let the charts do that! Write about the ancestors that interest you and therefore will capture the interest of your family. If you want to write about several different ancestors in one book, then yes, separate chapters or sections in the book. But trying to make them all connect and tell the story from beginning to end just isn’t realistic. It find for genealogy paper but for stories it doesn’t work.
Thank you, Lynn. Just writing a moment, a small story, is so doable! Later, I can use those with other small stories … I have been so paralyzed trying to outline the epic! This might be my cure.