Today's poster says that a family is a gift that lasts forever. I definitely agree. One way you can enforce that 'forever' part is to write your family history, your family stories, and slice of life vignettes about what life was like when you were growing up. If all these things are written, they will be a treasure that generations to come will cherish.
I would love to have some written family memories from my grandparents and great-grandparents. I know bits and pieces about some of them thanks to my mother who was a great storyteller. She often dropped small pieces of information. We were putting a tablecloth on our dining room table one day when company was coming for dinner. She casually said, "My grandma had a fresh white cloth on her table every day." I knew that her grandmother was head of a family of men who were coal miners, and it impressed me that having a clean tablecloth each day was important to her. Another time, my mother mentioned that this same grandmother wore a clean, white apron over her dress each day. I used that small tidbit of information in my middle grade novel for my protagonist's grandmother.
My dad also told stories about his family. Often small things, but they stayed with me, and I have chosen to write about them so my children and grandchildren, and perhaps great-grandchildren will know some of their ancestors by name and place where they lived and what kind of people they were.
Telling the stories is fine, but they are going to get lost as each generation moves on. If they are written, they'll last a lot longer. It's far easier to tell a story than to actually sit down and write, then save somewhere others know about.
My husband's aunt never married. She was the youngest of nine children, so the last one left. She told us many stories about life with her German immigrant parents on a farm in central Illinois. She assembled a photograph album with family pictures, labeling most of them. She didn't give it to my husband or either of his brothers, or to any of her many other nephews in nieces. No. Instead, she presented that album to my then five-year-old granddaughter. How clever of her to skip our generation and move on to the next one in hopes she would carry on the tradition. She chose well, as this is the granddaughter whom I feel certain will carry on the family stories when I am gone.
Who is going to carry the torch in your family? Will it be you? One of your siblings? A child or grandchild? You can do it. There is no need to be a professional writer. It doesn't matter how you write these family stories. The important thing is to get them written so those personal matters of your family are not swept away like leaves on a tree this fall.
I have had countless people tell me they are going to write their family history and stories. Someday. "I just can't seem to get started." That's often the next comment. The biggest step is the first one. You must start and carry on a little at a time. You need not write pages and pages the first day. Start with your family history, as far back as you know it. Then add the stories, one at a time.
It's helpful to make a list of the people in your family, the ones you have known in your lifetime. A second list might contain family farther back that others have told you about, ones you haven't actually met yourself. Making the list can trigger memories and help you get started writing your stories.
If you are blessed with a family that keeps old letters, read as many as you can. So much information can be found in those letters. I never saved letters when I was younger, and I regret it to this day. My mother wrote me faithfully once a week from the time I left for college until she became too incapacitated to do so. My writer friend, Annette Gendler, taught a class recently that dealt with writing family stores using old letters.
Commit to writing at least one story or bit of family history per week. Or per month. Whatever works for you. Leave it to be a month or longer, and you'll find it very easy to let the whole thing slide. Try weekly. Write in a journal or on your computer, whatever works for you. If you use the journal, you'll want to put your work into a better form such as on your computer so you can print a clean copy that is easy to read and to keep in a 3-ring binder.
For those who feel they need a little guidance, there are online classes and articles that can help get you started. As I said earlier, there is no all right or all wrong way. Make it your way. Help your family be a gift that truly does last forever.
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