You Don’t Need to Know Everything About an Ancestor Before Writing About Her
The old way of doing family history writing begins with documenting every fact. The new way starts with sharing what you know and don't know, chronicling as you go.
Find the answer to one question about an ancestor, and get ten more to replace it.
For every piece of research completed, filling in a bit of an ancestors life, even more queries arise. In fact, the more a genealogist researches, the more he gets to the kind of questions that are unlikely to ever be answered. It goes something like this:
“Ah-ha! I found she had a first husband and this husband was still alive when she married the second one. What happened between her and husband number one? What happened to the child from the first marriage? Why did she move to Arkansas? How did she meet husband number two? Why didn’t they have any children?”
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Each question generates more questions and more possibilities for research. And it leaves a genealogist feeling like his research can never been done.
And this is correct. People are endlessly complex. Their motivations, actions, and reasons provide endless avenues for possible research.
But the truth is, you don’t have to know everything about an ancestor before writing about her. You can start writing, right now, with what you know.
Use what you have
Most genealogists have at least census returns and vital records on each ancestor.
Start with these records and tease out all the details in each document. Some ideas of where you can start writing:
Addresses
Take an address and find it on a map dated around the same time period. Share a screenshot of the map with a dot for the exact location. Use Zillow and GoogleMaps Street View to find what the house looks like now.
Neighborhood
Write about what stores, parks, churches, businesses, and other features were around an ancestor’s home. You’ll find these features on old maps or gazetteers.
People
Names of children, siblings, and parents are found on many documents. If you have photos of people in your family, share them along with how they are related, when the photo was taken and where. Best guesses are allowed for anything unknown, just state its a guess.
Burial site
Found on the death certificate. Show both the map of the cemetery and the image of the headstone, and where it was located from the family home.
Occupation
Found on death certificates and also censuses. Find images of what someone wore and what the work they did looked like. Include these illustrations with a short description.
As you go through the records you have and pull out these details, create a chronicle. Write about 150 words, pair it with an image, then share both with family. Your family will think you are a genius-level researcher and be amazed at what you’ve discovered.
Write in a community
Writing in a virtual community of genealogy writers provides accountability and motivation for you to start your family history.
The Chronicles Writing Challenge runs June 1st -10th and provides you a daily writing prompt plus tips on how to craft writing with an image for maximum impact. This is the last time the challenge will run this summer, so join now and you’ll have 10 pieces of writing on your ancestors by June 10th.
Write about what you don’t know
What you don’t know about an ancestor is more intriguing to your readers, than what you do know.
The unknown is mysterious and if written about in the right way, can draw readers in and make them curious. In fact it can motivate readers to pick up the research (and writing) and do it along with you.
Writing with your family is better than writing for your family.
The writing process today is different than even 10 years ago because everything you do can be shared instantly. When you are writing and publishing digitally first, you can simply detail what research you’ve done, what questions you answered, and what still has you puzzled. In other words, you are showing, not telling about your ancestors.
You don’t have to answer every question you can think of about your ancestors. There is joy in shifting the goal from: produce a 1,000 page book documenting every fact, to: create something to keep the memories of your ancestors alive in your family.
Write what you know and what you don’t know and see how it sparks your family’s interest and keeps them on the genealogy journey with you.
I love this! I am one of those who waits until I know everything, which, of course, will never be. Thanks for allowing me to write what I know now!
Totally agree Denyse! It is one of the reasons that I like the WeAre platform so much. It is absolutely no problem to go back at any later date and add information if I come across it in further research, or just revisiting old files that I've tucked away. Glad to see you on Substack!