How to Write Your Family History

How to Write Your Family History

Writing a family history can take a lot more time and work than tracing your family tree.  Before you start you need to set yourself some ground rules:

• Decide what your scope is. Are you going to follow the father's side only, or go back in groups of grandparents, or even trace your mother's side?
• Once you know your scope decide how you want to publish the history. Will it be an online web page, a self published book, a newsletter, a family recipe book with family stories added in along the way, a folder for yourself to keep, or even a home printed booklet.
• Decide on how long you are going to set yourself, deadlines help to get things finished rather than leaving them to one side, it might be in time for a family reunion, Christmas or a relatives Birthday.
• If possible get another family member to help; they may be able to help research in libraries or at records offices.

Where to Start in Family History

 To start your family history, the best thing you can do is set out what you already know and start with you.  This may mean sketching a family tree (you can download some sheets that are easy to fill in off the internet, here's an example from Genealogy.about.com: http://genealogy.about.com/library/free_charts/fan_chart.pdf)  and adding the details on that you know off the top of your hand (see http://www.quazen.com/Recreation/Genealogy/Tracing-Your-Family-Roots.631471) or having a separate page for each individual (it may be easier to start off with your sketch but once you begin to gather further information you will need at least one sheet per person) and a time line for major events, such as Birth, Baptism, Marriage, Death, Funeral, and also smaller events such as awards, graduations, military services and major events that affected the person such as World Wars, famines and recessions.  You can use this page to start building up a bigger picture.  Here is a link for a time line that you can add to the page: http://www.cs.williams.edu/~bailey/genealogy/Timeline2.pdf or you can use one that you have created yourself.

What is the main set of information you need?  On your individual record sheet it will be useful to have a space for:

• Persons full name at date of birth and any other names used. (If female always refer to them by their maiden name as majority of records (birth, marriage, school) will have the maiden name on them.
• How is this person related to you? If cousins and second cousins get you confused then have a look at this sheet from Family Tree Magazine, it is free to download: http://www.familytreemagazine.com/upload/images/pdf/relationship.pdf
• Spouse details (brief name, date of birth and area from)
• Dates of birth of any children and their names and baptism dates (if baptised) and the parish they were baptised in.
• Marriage details, was it church or civil, where did they marry, who were the bridesmaids/best man
• Persons baptism details and confirmation details (if they were from a religious family)
• Where did that person go to school? Is the school still there? If so can you get any photographs?
• Persons Occupation and place of work. Did they undertake military service? If so, were they volunteers or conscripted? Did they gain any medals/fight in any wars?
• What area did the person live in (full address if possible) this helps to build a social history.
• Parents details (names, date of births if possible, date of deaths and burials if not alive anymore, details of marriage)
• Details of the person's death if they are no longer alive and also burial. Are there any obituaries?
• Any other relevant details?
• Always have a space for citing your sources so you can refer back to the information easily.

Once you have one of these sheets you can use it as a template for other relatives.  You might even like to print off multiple sheets so you can move about relatives freely.

Interviewing Relatives

Okay so you have your start, what next? You've got all the details down from what you can remember, have you noted any funny stories about relatives?  If not, do so now or you may forget to do it later.  Once you have this down you need to start speaking to your living relatives, the more the better about what they know.  They can help you find information you may be otherwise stuck to find.  If you are unsure as to why you should interview your relatives or are a little reluctant to do so, here are some reasons that might help you change your mind:

• An interview can help to bridge the generation gap and build the bonds between relations as older generations can help guide the young by sharing their experiences.
• Studies show that reminiscing is important for people as they age.
• Because oral history encourages people to think about the past it can help bring about a life changing experience.
• By learning more about your family you're likely to learn about yourself too.
• An oral history interview can really bring the past to life as we listen to the stories of our relatives past.

Not sure what to ask them?  Help's on the way!  Here is a list of useful questions for interviewing relatives.   You don't need to ask them all but the more areas covered the better, you may need more than one sitting with each relative otherwise.

• What's your first memory?
• What were your parents and grandparents full names, dates of birth, places of birth.
• Who's the oldest relative you remember (and what do you remember about him or her)?
• How did your parents meet?
• What were the occupations of your parents?
• Tell me about your childhood home.
• How many children were in your family?
• What one or two stories do you remember most clearly about your childhood?
• Are there any particularly happy, funny, sad or instructive lessons you learned while growing up?
• How did your family celebrate holidays when you were a child? Did you have any family traditions?
• What was it like where you grew up?
• Where and how did "news of your neighbourhood" usually flow?
• How did you meet your spouse?
• What do you recall about your first date?
• How did you know you were really in love?
• Tell me how you "popped the question," or how it was popped to you.
• Tell me about your wedding day.
• Tell me about the day your first child was born.
• What were your favourite school subjects?
• Tell me about your favourite teacher.
• Tell me about some of your friends.
• What were your family's favourite jokes or pranks?
• What's the funniest family story you remember?
• Describe your first job.
• What did you do with your first pay check?
• What was your favourite job and why?
• Tell me about some of your favourite songs (also books, movies and television shows).
• What were the most memorable family vacations or trips you can recall?
• What leisure time activities are you involved with?
• Do you follow any religious tradition?
• If so which one and what is it like?
• What role do your beliefs play in your life today?
• Were you a volunteer, drafted or a conscientious objector to any wars?
• If you didn't serve, what do you recall about being on the home front during the war?
• What key moments do you recall about your service?
• What would you tell today's young soldiers, sailors and fliers?
• If you could do one thing differently in your life, what would that be?
• Tell me about some of the places where you've been happiest.
• What have you learned over your lifetime that you'd like to share with the younger generation?
• What haven't we talked about that you'd like to discuss in the time we have left? (This is a good way to begin wrapping up the interview.)

Recording Information and Storing It

So you have the questions and you know why you're interviewing your relatives but how do you remember all that information after the interview is over?

You need a way of recording the information, be it by taking notes throughout the interview, using a Dictaphone to record it, or even a video camera, once you have decided which way to record your interview you need to make sure the relative you are interviewing is okay with it, they may feel self conscious if you are recording them, maybe they will freeze up when you ask them questions, if that's the case, it may be more effective if you go back to good old fashioned pen and paper and take notes, they don't need to be extensive but you need to make sure that they are detailed enough to remind you of what's been said.

Once you have the record of the interview, you also need to store it and make sure that you know where it is if you want to reference back to it.  It may be an idea to keep all the tapes of video interview and Dictaphone recordings in a set order and maybe even to transcribe what has been said onto paper so you don't need to watch the tape each time.  When you're watching or listening back to the recordings look at the emotions displayed while a story is being told, you might find that there are hidden meanings with what has been said and once you've spoken to more than one relative you may also be able to cross reference different stories to make sure you have each person point of view.

When listening back to each interview remember to make the relative notes on the corresponding people's pages, if you are typing notes into word documents for each relative it may be easier to cut and paste any information that spans more than one person.  Maybe a story will travel across three or four people but you need to keep some way of knowing who was in the story and where and when it happened.  These are the stories that will liven up your family history for years to come, even if the anecdote just causes the reader to smile slightly it's done its job.  You also need to find a way to store all the information, be it on print outs in a folder, on a computer, by using a genealogy programme or even by using all three, you need to decide really early on which way you are going to store your information. 

 Filling in the Gaps

So you've raked through your own memories, teased stories out of older relatives and have all the information stored but there are gaps in the timelines and the family history.  Maybe you're struggling to find out information about your great-grandma but no-one is able to remember any of the dates where do you go next.  Official certificates were made law on 1st July 1837 for births, marriages and deaths in England, on 1st January 1855 in Scotland 1st January 1864.  There are a few options that you can take:

• Ask relatives for birth, marriage and death records that they have for families, take a copy and scan it into the computer so you have a back up and return the original to the owner. These certificates give more information than some people realise, including the parents names and occupations, address, and details of friends of the family.
• Search the General Register Office (GRO) for the persons certificates, these are recorded by year and quarter, if you know the year and month as well as area, they can be easy to find, especially if they have the full details on. If you aren't too sure you may need to widen your search or ask for help from a member of staff there.
• Search military records, if you are the closest living relative of a deceased serving officer you can request their military records from their branch of the forces. Beware that in the UK a lot of the records were destroyed in a fire and you may not receive full records for the person. Some of the records can be found online before 1923 but after that you would have to fill in a Subject Access Request form. There is a small fee for this to be processed and you will receive an answer in forty calendar days. The form can be found here: http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/sar.pdf. The medals these people received can also help you build a timeline of where they fought in wars and when they fought to build your social history story for your ancestors.
• Trace details using the census records: these began in the UK in 1841 but began properly in 1851. The census is taken every ten years and records details of every person in a particular household, including full names, gender, age, marital status, occupation and even which parish they belonged to. The census can help you find out about the local area, were most of the men on the street miners? Or the women seamstresses? It's likely that they would have worked at the same pit or factory. This can help you build a picture of the neighbourhood and what life was like at the time, it's like a mini snapshot of the UK at a particular time. You can also find out if any older relatives were living in the family home at the time as well.
• If you are able to go back further than the national records and the census you will need to start looking through Parish Records. This isn't as easy as it sounds, some of the records were very well kept, but they were kept by the individual priest so you may find that the handwriting is illegible, also they recorded different events. Instead of recording Births, Marriages and Deaths they record Baptisms, Marriages and Burials so you might have to widen your search to find the information. This information is now kept in the County Records Office and date back to 1538 in England and 1555 in Scotland. If you are lucky enough to research records in Scotland you will find that the county records offices have already uploaded the details into a computerised format that makes them much easier to search.
• Social history books and websites can help you build a bigger picture of life in that era and area, also the occupations that people undertook as well.
• It might all be useful to look at the workhouse records for the areas as well, you might be able to find out about people that you are struggling to trace by reading through these records.
• Visit cemeteries of deceased relatives, take photographs of the grave (and stone) and transcribe what is on there, you might find that your relatives are buried in family graves and they are with older or younger generations. If possible draw on a map where about in the cemetery the person is buried, these two sheets are helpful ways to record the information: http://www.cs.williams.edu/~bailey/genealogy/Cemetery1.pdf and http://www.cs.williams.edu/~bailey/genealogy/Cemetery2.pdf.

Planning a Research Trip

If you are planning a research trip, even if it's only to the local cemetery or library you need to make sure you are prepared.  Make sure you have everything you need, including camera, pencil (not pen) paper, folders, change for a photocopier, highlighters for your own notes.  If you are travelling to view records make sure you call in advance to make sure the department is available and you have the correct opening hours. 

If you are planning a trip abroad to track down relatives, make sure you have your rooms booked and that you have the relevant maps and items to document the trip.  Talk to locals and find out what the area is and was like to build your social history side of your story, if you can, purchase local history books to find out about the area. 

Before you go on any trip, local or further afield make sure you know in advance what your objectives are while you're out there.  If you do find something that you would like to pursue further, then make a note of it and go back to it once you have found the information you are looking for or organise another trip back to research that area further.  Make sure that you note your sources when you are out on your trip so you can refer back if you need to.

What to Collect?

If you are tracing your family tree or researching your family history you will need to keep a plethora of materials so you can keep a track of where you're getting your information from.  Keep a track of what documents you collect and make sure you have somewhere to store them all, here are some suggestions of documents that you might like to collect to help you record your families past:

• Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates
• Diary's and letters
• Baptism and Confirmation Certificates
• Obituaries
• Photographs
• Scans of war medals (return them safely to their owners)
• Family Recipes - these look lovely scanned onto the page handwritten instead of a photograph (or with a photograph of the person the recipe came from)
• Maps of where you or ancestors have lived in the past
• Family Traditions
• Photocopies or prints from census pages

Top Tips

• Make a to do list and only concentrate on one point at a time
• Never look into more than one family group at a time, it will get confusing
• Keep a research log so you don't end up researching the same thing over and over
• Keep a correspondence log so you know who you have contacted, be they relatives, family friends or organisations
• On a family tree, B - birth, M - marriage, D - death, bapt - baptised, '=' between two people means they are married, a number over it denotes first or second marriage, bur - buried, c - circa (use this if you're not sure on an exact date) '?' denotes a divorce
• Speak to as many family members as possible, they are a really useful resource

Useful Websites

https://http://www.ancestory.com

https://http://www.genesreunited.co.uk

https://http://www.genealogy.com