Over the spam of seven Sundays, I am sharing with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell. [ See 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories, for doing that]
If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join - and participate in the discussions.
The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.
Our focus today is on Write, the 6th of the 7 Steps. Actually, as with the first three steps, the last two steps must be done tandem, as well. How and where you decide to share your story may shape what and how you write. What you are prepared to write may help determine how and where you share. So, where to start?
There are many answers to that question, as well, so let me start here. Start simple. Take a story you have heard, organized and researched. Write it in a brief narrative form. Perhaps write it like you would tell it to a friend, or to a new found cousin. This does two things. It prepares a story for oral presentation. You can tell it over and over as it is, and feel comfortable that it is reasonably factual and interesting.
Next, perhaps, edit it to read well as a blog post. It needs to balance substance and brevity... so people will read the whole thing. This may require a stronger lead paragraph, for example. It needs to follow in a logical manner to a conclusion. You may wish to incorporate an image or two. You may want it to end with a question or a call for comments. My blog post on John Butler, my First Irish Ancestor might serve as an example.
Another edit, of essentially the same story/set of facts may be to post on a web page or a newsletter you are preparing about your family. This rendering may include more details. Whereas you may include one or two images with a blog post, for this "write" you may be able to include addition images. You may wish to append a sidebar for related information. You have greater flexibility, as you can see. You may find that you have a story, or report, that could be submitted to a magazine or journal. With the addition of footnotes/endnotes, it might be a piece to submit to an academic journal. As an example of this more expanded story, I will use a series of blog entries by Irish Mason. They are on a blog, but I read them more as chapters of a book or magazine. My link is several posts into the story, but I recommend going to the first about the baby being born, as well, and read more - if they interest you. They did me... ;-)
On to the next story! ;-)
When you have enough of these "pieces," these stories, of course, you may be ready to consider publishing them in a book, or otherwise. The possibilities are endless. Enjoy the journey.
Families are Forever! ;-)
Showing posts with label Write. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Write. Show all posts
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Preparation Sunday - Step 4 of 7
Over the spam of seven Sundays, I am sharing with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell. [ See 13 Ways to Tell Your Ancestor Stories, for doing that]
If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join.
The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.
Our focus today is on Organize, the Step 4 of the 7 Steps.
This is the stage of the process where you must gather together all of your collected materials and make some sense of them. This material may include family tradition information (oral, written or other), your notes from conversations, audio or video recordings, books, pamphlets, brochures, artifacts, preliminary research and a variety of other materials. Each of us is going to have our own experiences with organizing materials, either positive or negative. One element for each of us is to set some priorities. What are your goals for this particular set of materials? All of the materials will eventually be useful, but which are most critical to accomplish your current goal or goals? This may mean transcriptions of oral or video recordings. It may mean photographing or scanning artifacts or materials collected (some may need to be returned, for example). It certainly will include entering data into your computer database and creating new and expanded Research To Do Lists.
Especially if you have no predetermined organizing process (or that you are satisfying with), you may want to consider a process that was just published by one of my favorite genealogy blogs: Colour Coding for Fun and Profit. Katrina McQuarrie is a young genealogist with a distinctive background and approach to the techniques of gathering, organizing and storing/sharing your information. Check out this particular post, and while you are there, check out some of the other topics she presents. Let her know with your comments how you like her process, and mention this referral, if you care to.
Now, back to our priorities. Ancestor Stories to share should be one of your priorities, so extracting specific details from your materials that will be useful to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES should be a top priority. This may take some practice, but it will be worth the effort.
The last three Steps are Research, Write and Share. You will need to check and confirm vital facts that you pick up from family tradition stories. These should go directly to your Research To Do List. We will discuss this more, next week, but it needs to be on your mind as you organize your materials, for sure.
If you have a favorite organizing technique, or other references, please fell free to include them in your comments. We can each learn from each other. Thanks for your interest and suggestions.
Families are Forever! ;-)
If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join.
The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.
Our focus today is on Organize, the Step 4 of the 7 Steps.
This is the stage of the process where you must gather together all of your collected materials and make some sense of them. This material may include family tradition information (oral, written or other), your notes from conversations, audio or video recordings, books, pamphlets, brochures, artifacts, preliminary research and a variety of other materials. Each of us is going to have our own experiences with organizing materials, either positive or negative. One element for each of us is to set some priorities. What are your goals for this particular set of materials? All of the materials will eventually be useful, but which are most critical to accomplish your current goal or goals? This may mean transcriptions of oral or video recordings. It may mean photographing or scanning artifacts or materials collected (some may need to be returned, for example). It certainly will include entering data into your computer database and creating new and expanded Research To Do Lists.
Especially if you have no predetermined organizing process (or that you are satisfying with), you may want to consider a process that was just published by one of my favorite genealogy blogs: Colour Coding for Fun and Profit. Katrina McQuarrie is a young genealogist with a distinctive background and approach to the techniques of gathering, organizing and storing/sharing your information. Check out this particular post, and while you are there, check out some of the other topics she presents. Let her know with your comments how you like her process, and mention this referral, if you care to.
Now, back to our priorities. Ancestor Stories to share should be one of your priorities, so extracting specific details from your materials that will be useful to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES should be a top priority. This may take some practice, but it will be worth the effort.
The last three Steps are Research, Write and Share. You will need to check and confirm vital facts that you pick up from family tradition stories. These should go directly to your Research To Do List. We will discuss this more, next week, but it needs to be on your mind as you organize your materials, for sure.
If you have a favorite organizing technique, or other references, please fell free to include them in your comments. We can each learn from each other. Thanks for your interest and suggestions.
Families are Forever! ;-)
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Preparation Sunday - Step 2 of 7
The upcoming holidays are especially good times to gather ANCESTOR STORIES. Over the spam of seven Sundays, I will share with you my approach to preparing your ancestor stories to share with others. Before you can share, of course, you must have them and have them in a form to be useful to share and tell.
If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join.
The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.
You will want to use Ask, Listen and Record all together over the holidays as family members get together at different times for different celebrations and events.
Our focus today is on Listen, the second of the 7 Steps. But, as I said last week Ask, Listen and Record do go together.
Listen is especially important if you do not have a digital recording devise with you - which you often will not have. Take special note of relationships mentioned. Without interrupting the flow of the conversation, you may want to ask for clarification of relationships if you do not have them clear in your mind. Was this a great-uncle or a great grandfather being discussed, for instance. You will also want to take particular note of the place - town and state - and the date - at least the year, or an approximation. These are the facts you would like to be able to go back and write down for further research. Listen carefully, and use your best memory tricks to retain not only the story content but the basic vital facts, as best you can.
Next Sunday, we will discuss the Record issue in more detail.
Families are Forever! ;-)
If you are on Facebook, the 7 Steps of Preparation to TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES are already available by joining the Cause: TELL YOUR ANCESTOR STORIES. I encourage you to join.
The 7 Steps are, very briefly: Ask, Listen, Record, Organize, Research, Write, Share.
You will want to use Ask, Listen and Record all together over the holidays as family members get together at different times for different celebrations and events.
Our focus today is on Listen, the second of the 7 Steps. But, as I said last week Ask, Listen and Record do go together.
Listen is especially important if you do not have a digital recording devise with you - which you often will not have. Take special note of relationships mentioned. Without interrupting the flow of the conversation, you may want to ask for clarification of relationships if you do not have them clear in your mind. Was this a great-uncle or a great grandfather being discussed, for instance. You will also want to take particular note of the place - town and state - and the date - at least the year, or an approximation. These are the facts you would like to be able to go back and write down for further research. Listen carefully, and use your best memory tricks to retain not only the story content but the basic vital facts, as best you can.
Next Sunday, we will discuss the Record issue in more detail.
Families are Forever! ;-)
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