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How to Write Your Family History

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Choose a Format

Define the scope, set realistic deadlines.

• Choose a Plot and Themes

Do Your Background Research

• Don't Be Afraid to Use Records and Documents

Include an Index and Source Citations

• Certificate in Genealogical Research, Boston University
• B.A., Carnegie Mellon University

Writing a family history may seem like a daunting task, but when the relatives start nagging, you can follow these five easy steps to make your family history project a reality.

What do you envision for your family history project? A simple photocopied booklet shared only with family members or a full-scale, hard-bound book to serve as a reference for other genealogists? Perhaps you'd rather produce a family newsletter, cookbook, or website. Now is the time to be honest with yourself about the type of family history that meetings your needs and your schedule. Otherwise, you'll have a half-finished product nagging you for years to come.

Considering your interests, potential audience, and the types of materials you have to work with, here are some forms your family history can take:

• Memoir/Narrative: A combination of story and personal experience, memoirs, and narratives do not need to be all-inclusive or objective. Memoirs usually focus on a specific episode or time period in the life of a single ancestor, while a narrative generally encompasses a group of ancestors.
• Cookbook: Share your family's favorite recipes while writing about the people who created them. A fun project to assemble, cookbooks help carry on the family tradition of cooking and eating together.
• Scrapbook or Album: If you're fortunate enough to have a large collection of family photos and memorabilia, a scrapbook or photo album can be a fun way to tell your family's story. Include your photos in chronological order and include stories, descriptions, and family trees to complement the pictures.

Most family histories are generally narrative in nature, with a combination of personal stories, photos, and family trees.

Do you intend to write mostly about just one particular relative, or everyone in your family tree ? As the author, you need to choose a focus for your family history book. Some possibilities include:

• Single Line of Descent:  Begin with the earliest known ancestor for a particular surname and follows him/her through a single line of descent (to yourself, for example). Each chapter of your book would cover one ancestor or generation.
• All Descendants Of...:  Begin with an individual or couple and cover all of their descendants, with chapters organized by generation. If you're focusing your family history on an immigrant ancestor, this is a good way to go.
• Grandparents:  Include a section on each of your four grandparents, or eight great-grandparents, or sixteen great-great-grandparents if you are feeling ambitious. Each individual section should focus on one grandparent and work backward through their ancestry or forward from his/her earliest known ancestor.

Again, these suggestions can easily be adapted to fit your interests, time constraints, and creativity.

Even though you'll likely find yourself scrambling to meet them, deadlines force you to complete each stage of your project. The goal here is to get each piece done within a specified time frame. Revising and polishing can always be done later. The best way to meet these deadlines is to schedule writing time, just as you would a visit to the doctor or the hairdresser.

Choose a Plot and Themes

Thinking of your ancestors as characters in your family story, ask yourself: what problems and obstacles did they face? A plot gives your family history interest and focus. Popular family history plots and themes include:

• Immigration/Migration
• Rags to Riches
• Pioneer or Farm Life
• War Survival

If you want your family history to read more like a suspense novel than a dull, dry textbook, it is important to make the reader feel like an eyewitness to your family's life. Even when your ancestors didn't leave accounts of their daily lives, social histories can help you learn about the experiences of people in a given time and place. Read town and city histories to learn what life was life during certain periods of interest.  Research timelines  of wars, natural disasters, and epidemics to see if any might have influenced your ancestors. Read up on the fashions, art, transportation, and common foods of the time. If you haven't already, be sure to interview all of your living relatives. Family stories told in a relative's own words will add a personal touch to your book.

Don't Be Afraid to Use Records and Documents

Photos, pedigree charts, maps, and other illustrations can also add interest to family history and help break up the writing into manageable chunks for the reader. Be sure to include detailed captions for any photos or illustrations that you incorporate.

Source citations are an essential part of any family book, to both provide credibility to your research, and to leave a trail that others can follow to verify your findings.

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The Non-Writers Writing Guide to Write Your Family History

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• Storytelling & Writing
• ancestral stories , family history , family stories , preserving discoveries , story crafting , storytelling

I’ve heard from many of you that you don’t write your family history because you either don’t feel confident with your writing skills or aren’t sure how to start.

You aren’t alone. Many other family historians have felt the same way, including me. 

Genealogy documentaries have set a bar high for storytelling. They explore rich, exciting histories and tell them in the perfect setting. How can you compete with that?

And that old saying about “everyone has a book inside them”? Pffft. You aren’t sure you have enough to fill a Christmas card. 

A few years ago, I decided to put together a “This is your life” heritage book for my mother. Knowing that writing wasn’t my strong suit, I had multiple contributors lined up to share their stories. This book was going to practically write itself.

Four weeks before B-Day, most of the people who agreed to write something pulled out. I had no stories, and I’d never written anything longer than a multiple page letter. I wasn’t up for the task. However, I promised my siblings we’d have a book for Mum’s birthday, so we were going to have a book.

The next few weeks weren’t pretty, but we handed Mum a 188-page hardcover book in a custom slipcase on her birthday.

The hardest part is starting. I probably never would have if I hadn’t made a promise to deliver a book to Mum.

You can do it too. Even if you:

• think you’re not creative
• haven’t written more than a Christmas card in years
• don’t consider yourself a writer.

Techniques to use to write your family history

As a non-writer full of self-doubt, I tried every shortcut I read about it, even those AI writing sites. None worked. Why? Because the story comes from you. 

It’s the knowledge you’ve gained from years of research, the theories you’ve developed and the insight you have after hours of analysis that creates the story. U nfortunately, there is no AI writing app or “fill-in-the-blanks” template that can do that for you.

However, there are different techniques you can use to share what you’ve discovered and create a book, a blog or a binder of stories for your descendants to enjoy.

The first step is to reframe what you tell yourself to take the pressure off. Don’t aim to be a writer, instead consider yourself a storyteller. As a storyteller, you don’t need to be a writer; you’re just documenting what you’ve discovered to share with others.

The next step is to experiment with these three options to write your family stories.

Commit to trying at least one but preferably all of them. You don’t have to show your work to anyone until you are ready. The best way to gain confidence in a skill is to practice.

1. Say it out loud

Skip the writing step and tell yourself the story while using a voice-to-text app to record it.

You want to feel comfortable while talking and for the story to come out naturally. So, if it feels a bit weird talking to yourself, then tell the account to a relative, pet or even your favourite plant. The critical part is that you use your computer or phone to record and convert each word to text as you say it.

Voice-to-text software isn’t perfect, so expect to see some errors in the draft that is created. Mistakes usually happen when the AI misinterprets what you’ve said, mainly when talking too fast, using slang or local colloquialisms. So rather than fixing the issues on the go, finish the draft and correct any errors in editing.

Be sure to speak slowly and clearly so that the microphone picks up your voice, and the AI can interpret and convert each word as you say it.

You don’t need any fancy apps or software to get started. Instead, try any note-taking app on your phone, hit the microphone icon near the space bar, and start talking.

Speak the punctuation that you want to include, such as:

• question mark
• exclamation point.

To include quotation marks, you’ll say:

• close quote.

For single quotes, you’ll say:

• open single quote
• close single quote.

To move to the following line, say either:

• new paragraph.

Depending on the app you use, saying “new line” or the alternatives may exit you from the voice-to-text functionality. If that happens, press the microphone icon again to keep “typing”.

Note-taking apps for writing from your smartphone

Look for an app that saves the document in the cloud (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive etc.) so that you can easily access it from any device or computer. Such as:

• Microsoft Word

2. Summarize each discovery as you make it

Don’t overthink the process and build your ancestor’s story by crafting a summary of each discovery you make.

Everything you uncover represents an event that happened in your ancestors’ life, from being born, getting married, moving house or enrolling in the military. So capturing your interpretation of that event builds their story one discovery at a time.

Your ancestor’s story isn’t only repeating the facts you discovered, such as date of birth, place of marriage or their final resting place. It’s also your interpretation of the discovery and how that event connects to the other things that you know about them. That includes your thoughts, theories and questions that come up as you’re reviewing each discovery.

If you already have an analysis process for your genealogy research, re-purpose the summary you’re already writing for each discovery. 

Not summarising your discoveries? Start now. Review what you know about each ancestor and write a few paragraphs on it, using the questions below to prompt you.

• When did this event happen?
• Where did it take place?
• What happened?
• Which other ancestors were involved in the event?
• How does this discovery answer any of the questions you have about this ancestor?
• How does it connect to what you already know about them?
• What was your key learning?
• What new questions do you have after reading this discovery?
• Does this confirm any existing theories or inspire new ones?
• What new clues do you have to research?

Don’t overthink it; write your thoughts for each question. When you’re done, that’s a block of text towards the draft of your ancestor’s story. 

Find out more about discovery analysis and crafting summaries. 

3. convert your ancestral timeline into story format.

Your ancestral timelines are the story outline of your ancestor’s lives.

If you’re not already using timelines, this is a great time to start. Of course, your genealogy software will already be creating one as you log each discovery. But it’s also easy to create your own.

Create a timeline in Microsoft Word, Google Docs or your favourite app. Any note-taking app will work as long as you can create a hierarchy using headings, body text and bullet points.

Don’t overthink the process because that overwhelms you and stops you from writing your ancestor’s story. Keep it simple and try something like this process:

• Add each year of your ancestor’s life
• Underneath each year, including the date
• After the event date, add the event’s name (for example, death of father, left school etc.)  
• Use bullet points to summarise what happened

Don’t have any events? Include general historical events such as war, major financial or weather events instead. You can also include this type of information even if it’s a year where you have events in your ancestor’s life.

Once you’ve finished with the outline, go back through each event, and convert the facts into paragraphs. Be sure to include any theories or questions this event raised for you so that your reader can go on the journey with you.

When you’re done converting each event into a few paragraphs, you’ll have a draft of your ancestor’s story.

You can write your family history even if you’re not a writer

You don’t need to be Stephen King, Nora Roberts or Agatha Christie to write your family stories. Your family history is your story to tell and should be done in your voice.

Keep the process simple, and don’t overthink it, as that’s when the doubts creep in. All you need to do is tell your reader

• what you’ve discovered
• your theories
• questions you have
• how it connects to other things.

“Inside each of us is a natural-born storyteller just waiting to be released.” Robin Moore, Awakening the Hidden Storyteller

Experiment with different ways of creating the first draft.

• Use voice-to-text functionality to convert the story to text as you talk.
• Analyse and summarise each discovery to build the draft one block at a time.
• Convert your ancestral timelines into paragraphs to capture your ancestor’s story.

The best advice I have is to start. You don’t have to ever show those first few paragraphs to anyone. You may surprise yourself, though. Once you see the sections adding up and the story coming together, then you’ll be keen to share it with your loved one.

After all, stories are written one sentence, one word at a time.

Ready for your next step?

Ready to dive deep into my non-writers writing formula and convert your research into engaging stories? Learn more about the Ancestral Stories course . 

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Guide to Genealogical Writing

Whether you are new to genealogy or have been researching for years, this improved edition of our bestselling "writing guide" will help you present your findings in writing.

Using examples from NEHGS's award-winning publications, our experts show you how to write your family history clearly and accurately—from building a genealogical sketch to adding images to indexing. An appendix on genealogical style covers alternate spellings of names, when and how to use lineage lines, how to include adopted children and stepchildren, aspects of double dating, and other issues faced by genealogical writers. This update of Genealogical Writing in the 21st Century is a must-have for anyone interested in sharing their research! "This new guide for genealogical writing is replete with thought-provoking information that readers and writers can absorb as they plan how best to prepare their work for publication." -- National Genealogical Society Quarterly, June 2015

Author: Henry B. Hoff and Penny Stratton

Published: Late August 2014

E-book edition available here

How to write up your family history

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Are you looking for a way to share your family history findings with family and friends? Writing down your discoveries is a timeless way for family to enjoy your family history now, and in the future. Our step-by-step plan takes you from the planning stage through to a written family history you can be proud of! You can do it!

So, you’ve made a good start on tracing your family tree and found some fascinating ancestors, what next? Now's the time to (metaphorically) put pen to paper, and write up  your family stories. To follow we have steps to help you plan, write and publish your family history.

With our handy check list and step-by-step guide you will probably be pleasantly surprised and find that this seemingly daunting task is very doable - and actually enjoyable. So, grab a 'coffee' and let's begin.

How to write your family history: the check list

• How to plan your family history writing
• Thinking about your audience
• Thinking about the historical context
• Creating a timeline
• What images are available to you? Postcards, documents, maps, your family tree.
• Stuck on where to start writing your family history? Just pick a point
• Starting to write your family history
• Chronology versus themes

A good example of how to start a family story

• Remember that context
• Keep thinking of your reader
• Include quotations
• Thoughts on possible difficult aspects
• Don't forget yourself
• Your finished family history
• Fact-checking & proof-reading
• Back to images - now is a good time to choose
• Publishing & printing

Tips to keep helping your reader

• Finding out more

1. How to write your family history - How to plan it

Whether you’re aiming to produce a a series of short accounts, a small booklet or a complete family history tome, the basics are the same: make a plan before you start to write. What elements should your plan include?

• Think about who your intended audience is.  This will impact on the extent (ie how long your written piece is) and your voice (colloquial, friendly, aimed at children, or for storage in a repository.
• Consider the context.   If you’re writing for relatives, you can stick largely to featuring your own ancestors and their immediate environment, however in most instances (whether your audience comprises relatives or a wider readership), context is important for your story. By including the historical context you will help your readers understand the time period covered more fully. Context can take the form of written coverage of, for instance, major events or developments in the local area, items of national news, or information as to the life experiences of people in particular lines of work for instance.

Timeline tip!  You may find it helpful to start drawing up a timeline. On this you can include key dates from your family history, and key dates from local and national history too. You could use Excel, a simple list in Word, or even a large piece of paper to accomplish this.

• What images are available to you?   We all know that a 'picture tells a thousand words' and when writing family history material, images are no less important. You may be fortunate to have photographs of the relevant family members to include in your account. What do to if you don't, however? There are many other sources of images which will definitely engage the attention of your reader.
• Source old postcards of the area, to see it as it was in times gone by.
• Include  historic documents  that you have found. Remember that your reader may very well not be as familiar as you are with the records we use for family history, so be sure to include explanatory captions and annotations to help them understand what you're showing them.
• Maps  are always fascinating to pore over and provide evocative clues too, showing for instance how rural an area was in the past, perhaps.
• Your family tree!   Don't forget to include your family tree in your family history writing. If possible you could include the entire tree, or a link to an online version. If not possible, due to space restrictions, then don't worry. You can easily include excerpts from your tree of the relevant people and branches. While you are familiar with your ancestors' names, many of your family members may not be. A tree will help them to keep track of the 'characters' in your account. As with the other images, include a helpful caption to help your readers orientate themselves and understand the way in which they are related to the people shown in the excerpt of the tree.

When choosing images, be sure you have permission of the image owner. Very often images online will state the copyright status. If you're unsure you can always make contact with the owner.

Stuck on where to begin writing your family history? Just pick a point

It may be that you have a family story that you're burning to write. If so, make a start with this. It's your family history, for you to write in the manner and order that suits you.

If you're feeling a little flummoxed as to where to begin, you may decide to tackle the writing methodically. For instance, for simplicity, you may wish to concentrate on either your maternal or paternal line. Alternatively you may wish to concentrate on a particular family line. Or you may wish to start with the most recent generations and work backwards.

You may find it helpful too, to look through your research notes. You may find that doing so will help you decide on a timeframe, a theme and the ancestors or branches to focus on.

Remember that writing up your family history is your project to do in the way that you want. Once you make that start you will find that it gets easier!

2. Starting to write up your family history

Deciding where to start: Before you begin, take a moment to consider your reader. You’re going to be taking the bare facts from certificates, censuses, directories, etc, and weaving these into an appealing account.

A good way to start your story is to begin at an exciting moment.

Opening with words such as ‘Alice Hemingway was born on 1 October 1940’ will do little to engage your reader. Instead, a few extra words to put that fact into context could make all the difference: ‘Alice Hemingway made her entry into the world on 1 October 1940, in a busy hospital which was struggling to operate during the London blitz'.

Chronology versus themes -  You don’t have to write your family history as an exact chronology; consider whether the tale of your ancestors might be better arranged into themed chapters such as marriage, childhood, working life, etc.

Remember that context  - As mentioned above, you could also include details of local or national events to put the lives of your ancestors into context.

For example, say which monarch was on the throne when an ancestor was born, or how many people lived in your home village at the time your great-grandparents set up home there.

Top tip! Keep thinking of your reader! - Remember, not all of your readers will share your enthusiasm for dates, so ‘softer’ details such as local news, popular songs of the time and styles of dress will enliven the text.

Include quotations.  You could also include excerpts from sources such as letters and diaries – allowing your ancestors to speak for themselves.

Thoughts on possible difficult aspects... Don’t be afraid to include the ‘black sheep’ among your ancestors – people’s faults and failings are another way of bringing the story to life. IT can also be comforting, realising and remembering that our ancestors experienced difficulties, just as we do today.

Having said that, while there are many benefits of telling a 'warts and all' account, beware of including information which affects people who are still alive and could be upset by the family’s story. Very often the passing of time makes difficult chapters in the family story easier to hear. The right of living people to privacy and respect is paramount, however, particularly if you are writing your family history for wider dissemination, for instance on your blog or published in a family history book or article.

Top tip - don't forget yourself!   We mentioned above that one of the places to begin your family story is with yourself. We're mentioning it here again, as many family historians can tend to overlook their own lives. However your chapter is clearly important, for future generations.

3. Printing your finished family history

Fact-checking & proof-reading. Once you’ve completed your story, if possible pass it on to a friend or relative who can check it for grammatical errors.

Back to images - if you've not already chosen your images, now is a good time to. Consider which illustrations would help bring the text to life. Photos, letters, tickets and certificates can all help brighten up the pages and allow your reader to literally picture the family’s story, as to maps, documents and excerpts from your family tree.

Printing & publishing.   When you’ve printed your final version, consider depositing a copy with your local family history society, particularly if you’ve included a large number of ancestors, as your work may help someone else researching the same surname.

You may also like to publish it on your family history website, or include excerpts in the life story fields of your online family tree, for instance on Ancestry, or as memories on your Family Search tree. There are numerous ways in which to help to spread and share your family story, both with your known family members, and more distant kin with whom you've yet to make a connection.

• The index:   Consider using an index to help readers locate a particular topic. Useful details to include names, places, occupations, events, topics.
• Sources: List your sources. Depending on the formality of your family history, you may have included your source citations as footnotes or endnotes. Alternatively you may have provided a list at the end of your work. Sources will help future researchers to follow up on your research steps.
• Finding out more.   Have a ‘further reading’ section for books, blogs etc you found helpful.

Originally published March 2020. Reviewed August 2024.

• SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX

How to Write a Family History

Writing a family history is an enlightening process that will help you form an appreciation of your heritage and the characters who helped forge it. On one hand, you’re playing detective: immersing yourself in research and stumbling upon discoveries. On the other, you’re a storyteller: gold mining for the ingredients of a rich narrative through the lives of your ancestors.

It is a highly rewarding exercise both for you and for your next of kin, who will benefit from your findings. That said, the act of writing your family history isn’t all glamor. Not all genealogists have a natural knack for storytelling. In unpacking how to write a family history, we wish to present a simple structure to serve as a guideline for what we promise will be a worthwhile process.

Do Your Research

Before you can start the process of writing your family history, you must immerse yourself in family research. Depending on the amount of ancestral data that you have access to, you may want to grab from a number of sources and throw yourself into a variety of records, archives, and articles in order to piece together the puzzle of your heritage. Genealogy records that you might want to search when tracing your family history include:

• U.S. Census records
• Newspaper archives
• Family stories and diaries
• Court records
• Congressional records for private claims
• Military records
• Passport applications

Newspaper archives are an invaluable resource for finding facts and stories about your ancestors that have been lost over time. From marriage and birth announcements to long-lost family photos to articles about local events, you’ll learn more from old newspapers than just names and dates. In newspaper archives you can also find obituaries to learn more details about your ancestors’ lives, and many obituaries include photos and mentions of related family members.

Another powerful genealogy resource for compiling data for your family story are U.S. Census Records . The Federal Census can help track down valuable information and serve as a direct tool connecting you to deceased relatives.

Additional Records for Writing a Family History

Government records are another centerpiece to tracing your family history. Understanding your family timeline through clues deducted from land deeds or cemetery maps is a key research tool. Also, finding widows’ claims or war pension records can help to decipher accurate dates and length of life.

Choose a Writing Style

When documenting family histories, writers tend to adopt one of two major writing styles: descendancy or ahnentafel. Descendancy (otherwise known as register style) is the most common. This is a linear chronological story starting at the point of immigration to the United States, documenting through generations until reaching your contemporaries.

Alternatively, some family historians prefer ahnentafel style as their methodology: a reverse documentation starting with the most recent generation and tracing the lineage of couples back in time. This follows a numeric system that increases per generation. For example, where you might be “1,” your parents would be “2,” grandparents “3,” and so forth.

Consistent Use of Abbreviations

Ease tedious repetition by adopting commonplace genealogy abbreviations. This will greatly increase the flow of your writing and allow you to quickly work through laborious details and organize your thoughts. Use our guide explaining family tree relationships to help make sense of who is related to whom.

• Div. – Divorced
• Bap. – Baptized
• D.Y. – Died Young
• unm – Unmarried

Write Your Family Story

When writing your family history, be sure to document the facts, details, and stories that captured your attention. Chances are, they will interest your wider family too. Quirky details or anecdotes of relatives are always a pleasure to discover. Stories breathe life into the endless cycle of dates and statistics; the great responsibility of genealogy enthusiasts is to be accurate, and to make sure we treasure and value these stories for generations to come.

• Resources for Genealogists, The National Archive – retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/research/genealogy/census/online-resources

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Family History Writing Prompts (Over 40!)

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Use your research in new and creative ways! The editors of Family Tree Magazine have compiled this list of family history writing prompts to help you get inspired. The answers you provide can be shared on a family history website, put into a book or kept with other genealogy records.

Family History Writing Prompts

Imagine you are one of your descendants, far in the future, writing about your present self. Write about an event from your own history from that perspective

Imagine you are a newspaper reporter and write an article about an event in your family history based on your research. Remember to include the who, what, when, where and why if you can!

Imagine your family represented as a literal “tree.” What kind of tree best represents your family’s story? What does it look like and why?

Did you grow up with any family traditions? What is the history behind the tradition? Do you practice any family traditions now?

Choose an event from your family’s history and write an alternative ending to it. Perhaps someone made a different choice or didn’t survive something; how would the course of your family’s history have changed?

Pick two ancestors from your family’s history who didn’t know each other, then imagine a scene where the two meet. What would they talk about, and what would their first impressions be of each other?

Imagine a holiday celebration your ancestor participated in. Narrate it as accurately as possible.

Write a thank-you-note to an ancestor. Who are you thanking? What did they contribute that you are thankful for?

What types of meals did your ancestor eat? Describe a mealtime scene from your family’s history.

Choose a favorite couple from your family’s history (or imagine one) and write a love note or poem they might have shared. Take the historical period into consideration!

Write one or more “six word stories” about your family’s history. Channel your inner-Hemingway .

Write about surname origins. Do your findings lineup or conflict with what you know or believe about your ancestors’ homeland? If not, highlight the puzzle and try to piece together a plausible answer to it.

What’s the whackiest or most interesting story you’ve heard passed down in your family or discovered in your research?

What types of clothes did your ancestors wear? Pick and ancestor and describe them in detail; what are they wearing and why?

Are there any naming traditions in your family? Write the story of how that tradition started or the stories of ancestors with that name.

Imagine your ancestor encountering something for the first time (new place, new food, new invention, etc.). Describe their first impression in detail.

Write a letter as if you are one of your ancestors. Who is the letter for and what does it say?

Imagine your ancestor making a big decision and narrate how they arrived at their conclusion.

Ask a child, grandchild or sibling what one thing they would like to know or learn about their family history. Ask them why they want to know that piece of information.

Looking at your family history, write down five life lessons you feel you’ve learned from your ancestors. Write an essay for the benefit of sharing with your children, grandchildren, and future descendants.

If you were to write a book about your family history or an ancestor’s history, what genre would it be and why?

Do you have a favorite quote or family saying from your history? Write the story of how that quote or saying came to be.

Imagine your ancestor had social media during their lifetime. Write a Facebook post or series of tweets describing something they’re witnessing in real-time.

Select a family heirloom (watch, quilt, Bible, etc.) and write a narrative from its perspective . Where has it been? How did your ancestor acquire it, and what would it have encountered throughout the years? What important family milestones might it have witnessed?

Imagine a typical day for a female ancestor. What time did she wake up, and what did she do throughout the day?

Select two ancestors who lived in different time periods, and describe a scene of the two interacting with each other over dinner. What do they talk about? What do they have in common?

Imagine and describe an event in your family’s history from an outsider/observer’s perspective. What was it like to be there? How did the event make them feel?

If your family history/ancestor’s story was a novel, what would the theme be?

Imagine a route your ancestor took frequently in his or her daily life. Describe that route in detail. What did they see? What noises could they hear? Where were they going?

Think of your ancestor as a character in a story; describe them as an author would. Go into as much detail as possible: what do they look like, how does their voice sound, what are their strongest personality traits?

Record a memory of one of your ancestors that you want to pass down to future generations —a parent, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc. Set the scene: How old were each of you at the time? What happened? Why is this a memory you treasure?

Write a brief biography of yourself —everything an ancestor might want to know about you. After all, someday your ancestors will want to know as much about you as you do about yours!

Come up with a pitch for your ancestor’s biography. Is it a sultry tell-all, or a just-the-facts? What major theme(s) does it cover? Be sure to give the bio a title and sub-title, and write the book’s summary as it would appear on the back cover.

Select an ancestor who served in the military, and write a letter to him or her from the perspective of a loved one on the home front. Ask about his or her health, or the conditions in the war. Read real-life wartime letters for inspiration.

Write a paragraph describing three items your ancestor would never leave home without. Why are these objects so important to your ancestor? Where did they come from?

Identify a major event that happened during your ancestor’s lifetime, and (as your ancestor) write a first-person journal entry describing it. What would your ancestor have thought about it? Would he have found it exciting? Frightening? Frustrating?

Write a paragraph or two about your ancestor and their best friend. Imagine an adventure they had (real or imagined) based on what you know of their childhood and the time period and place they lived.

Imagine one or more of your ancestors as the characters in a fairy tale or fable. What role would they play, and what is the setting? What would be their fate?

Pick an ancestor from the 1800s, drop him into today, and (as your ancestor) write a letter to family members still in the 1800s. How would he describe today? What surprises him? What questions would he have?

Write a diary or journal entry that details your immigrant ancestor’s journey. What are their impressions of their fellow passengers? Research passenger lists and ship descriptions to make your description more accurate.

Describe your ancestors’ wedding. Study marriage certificates, wedding banns and photos, and contemporary clothing and rituals to fill in details.

Describe the first meeting between two of your ancestors who would later get married. What are their first impressions of each other? Include any details you know about your ancestor’s appearance, occupation, age at that time, etc.

Pick an ancestor’s hometown and do some research on how it was during your ancestor’s time. Use historical pictures/postcards and city directories to learn about the town, then write a brief tourism ad for the locale highlighting the town’s attractions.

Imagine the first time your ancestor got to vote. Write a letter from them to a relative detailing their impressions. Where was their polling place? What was the process like? What about the other people in line?

Select two ancestors who lived in different centuries, and describe a scene of the two interacting with each other. What do they talk about? How are they different from one another?

Select your favorite family photo, and write about the moments just before and/or after the photo was taken. Why was it taken? Was your ancestor happy to be in it?

Write a letter to an ancestor you’ve never met. Include questions you’ve always wanted to ask him or her, plus some that reflect what you’ve already learned about your ancestor (for example, “Do you enjoy your new job?” or “How are you coping with your father’s death?”).

Share these ideas with your students, writing group or genealogy group!

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Bridging the Gap: Writing a Family Biography Others Will Want to Read

May 14, 2015 by Elly - Legacy Tree Genealogists Project Manager 7 Comments

Writing a compelling and interesting family history biography is one of the finest examples of experienced genealogists. Review our outline that will help share the stories of your ancestors. 

Sometimes as genealogists we get so caught up in collecting all the details about our ancestors that we forget the other important side of family history – sharing it with family members! If you have a closet overflowing with old documents or a database full of facts, and you decide you'd like to share what you've learned with others, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. As a primer, review our article, 11 Do's and Don'ts of Writing Family Biographies.

It can also be confusing to find the best way to share the information you’ve spent so much time gathering. If you’ve ever caught yourself telling family history stories to a non-genealogist and suddenly realized they had been staring at a spot over your shoulder for the past five minutes, you’ll have already learned that it can be difficult to present it in such a way that others can absorb and appreciate.

While online trees and photo pedigree charts have their place, the best way to tell the story of your family is to write it. A written family biography can be much more interesting to other family members than raw genealogical data, while still incorporating all the details that you have painstakingly gathered over the years. The key to a good narrative family biography is finding the right balance between simplicity and detail.

Narrow Your Scope

First , begin by narrowing the scope of your written biography to something that is both manageable to write and to read. If you want to bio several key ancestors in your family tree, consider choosing one ancestor to get started with, or even just a portion of one ancestor’s life. A surname lineage can be more easily tackled three generations at a time. To conquer your entire tree, divide it up into more reasonable sections. For example: paternal grandfather’s ancestry, paternal grandmother’s ancestry, maternal grandfather’s ancestry, and maternal grandmother’s ancestry. As Legacy Tree researchers, we often approach our largest research projects this way, and it creates a nicely organized and easily followed finished product.

In addition to identifying the scope of your written narrative, it helps to determine which direction you will be going – forward in time, backward in time, or a combined approach. For biographies on one person, it is usually common to begin with the ancestor’s birth, continue throughout his life, and end at his death. However, it may be more interesting to begin with an important event later in his life, then return to the beginning of his life later. For large narratives on extensive families, we find it is often best to begin at the most recent ancestor as an adult and work backwards chronologically to their parents, grandparents, and so on.

Second , gather and organize the materials, documents, and details that you want to include in a way that will be easy to refer to as you write. It can be helpful to have digital images of all of the documents, either attached to each relevant person in an online tree or database, or organized in chronological order by person into folders on your hard drive. This makes it easy to incorporate photos or snippets from documents into your written narrative. Visual aids often make the stories you’re telling come alive, not only for you, but especially for the non-genealogist family members with which you hope to share your work. (If you have received a report from us recently, you may have noticed that we are incorporating more and more images in the body of our reports. These serve to illustrate the narrative and also provide natural breaks in the text allowing the brain some time to absorb what is being read.)

For online documents, you can keep a list of links handy to quickly pull up a document when you need it. If you do this, don’t wait too long between the time you set up the list and the time you write because online links can change; always keep a copy (digital or paper) of the document itself as well, with a reference to where it was found. If you prefer to work from paper documents – as many genealogists do – be sure to keep them organized in labeled folders that you can easily find and access when writing about the ancestor or event. It is also a good idea to transcribe old handwritten cursive documents into a printed font which can be read and referred to much more quickly.

Another helpful tool we've discovered is the Ahnentafel print feature available in most genealogical database programs like Legacy Family Tree and Ancestral Quest . Although the computer-generated report that is produced is so dry that nobody but a die-hard genealogist will read it with any enthusiasm, it can create a very helpful outline for writing large family narratives. After entering all your information into the database, or importing a GEDCOM from your MyHeritage.com or Ancestry.com tree, all you have to do is print the Ahnentafel and the information is organized and ready to use. If you print it to a PDF you can even copy and paste the basic text to use as an outline and then add in stories and details to make it interesting.

Finally , in order to produce a good family narrative that will be read and cherished for generations, we strongly recommend brushing up on your writing skills . Take a creative writing class at your local community college. Read some good biographies on historical figures or your favorite author. Or, if you are not sure your writing skills will be up to the challenge, reach out to others for help. Consider collaborating with another writer family member – you provide the research and she provides the writing skills. A college student or young stay-at-home-mother in the family may appreciate the writing experience and exposure and even a little extra income, if you are prepared to offer it.

Of course, you can always turn to the professionals for help writing your family narrative. We recently wrapped up a two-part biography on a Tennessee farmer who raised his family through the Civil War years. Although he never accomplished anything of great historical significance, not even participating in the war, we were able to piece together a beautiful story of his and his family’s lives through scraps of notes, receipts, and letters that have survived through the generations. Historical records and general information about the area and time period helped provide background context and bring his world to life.

Writing a family biography is one of our favorite projects to work on here at Legacy Tree Genealogists. We love searching out the details of our clients’ ancestors’ lives, and we also love bringing those details to life by telling the story .

Stories bring families together, but they can’t if they are not told and shared. Although online trees are bringing more and more genealogy-minded family members together, it can be hard to find and grasp the story in the tree – especially for the rest of the family members who tend to be less interested in history. An organized, cohesive, and well-written family narrative bridges that gap, bringing the stories of our past to future generations.

If you need help writing your family history biography, or would like help extending your family lines, let Legacy Tree Genealogists provide the research. Contact us today for a free quote.

May 14, 2015 at 9:27 pm

Thanks, this is good information to have when I finally write my family Bio when I get done digging. There is just sooooo much information to organize and the Legacy Tree reports will be very helpful as they have done a lot of that organizing already.

May 14, 2015 at 9:36 pm

We’re very glad to help!

May 15, 2015 at 7:20 am

Excellent advice.

May 19, 2015 at 6:49 am

Thanks for breaking up the enormous task of writing a biography based on genealogical research into three manageable steps. I especially appreciated the advice given in the first step to not necessarily begin a biography with “She was born on…” which can be dry and boring, to instead begin with something more interesting and attention grabbing, like an important event later in life.

March 19, 2016 at 3:33 pm

Thanks for writing up such a wonderful blog post. I really enjoyed reading the writing concept of a family biography. To make a family tradition popular among people of next generation a family biography is highly effective.

November 17, 2019 at 8:06 pm

This is probably a silly question, but …my audience is my grandchildren. So when relaying my Grandmother’s talents, short funny stories, etc. do I refer to her as my Grandmother or your Great Great Grandmother? In other words, do I say “My Grandmother loved to cook.” or “Your Great Great Grandmother loved to cook.”

November 18, 2019 at 2:58 pm

There’s no such thing as a silly question! We recommend avoiding the use of 2nd person references (you, your) if you can. Instead, you would write, “My grandmother loved to cook.” One of the neat things about recording your personal family history is that while your intended audience may be your grandchildren, this record may be passed down over multiple generations. Isn’t that neat to think about?

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Family History Essay | How to Write? and 400 Words Essay on Family History

February 14, 2024 by Prasanna

Family History Essay: A family involves individuals living respectively that structure a gathering of people inside a local area. Individuals making this gathering are dependent upon connections either by birth or blood, and it involves at any rate two grown-ups as guardians and grandparents, along with little youngsters. The relatives have a common association between them. Thus, an exposition about family ancestry is a rundown of a person’s social personality and the equal relationship(s) he/she imparts to individuals living respectively.

Adapting family ancestry is indispensable to comprehend our economic well-being, mankind, and variety. History saves our recollections for ages to comprehend what their identity is and their geographic beginning. Having decent information on family foundation allows you to see the value in the things or penances made before by grandparents to encounter better things throughout everyday life. A person’s underlying foundations and beginning bring a self-appreciation revelation. Likewise, expounding on your family ancestry is one method of protecting its legacy for people in the future.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

How to Write a Family History Essay?

When composing a, there is a consistent construction you should continue in giving out your contentions. An appropriate diagram will deliver an energizing show of each segment, and it will interest the peruser. The standard design of an article has a presentation, body, and end. Here is a magnificent illustration of a layout for a family ancestry article:

• Topic: My Family History
• Introduction (Outline): Write a short brief about your family background and why your family is important
• Body: Write about your family members, how you live together and who your neighbors
• Conclusion: Rehashing your conflict, Sum up your key thoughts, and Give a last remark or reflection about the paper

Essay on Family History 400 Words in English

Would you need to know how everything began until here? My grandpa disclosed to me that he met my grandmother at a show where probably the best craftsman was performing during one of the late spring occasions in London. As he was moving alone, my grandpa moved toward a wonderful woman (who might turn into his perfect partner) to request that she dance together. They later consented to meet for a supper date. Our family lives in London. Without a doubt, this is the best family, and it’s an honor to be essential for it.

Each individual includes different sides inside his/her family; my fatherly side begins from Canada, while the maternal side is from America. Despite the fact that my extraordinary granddad comes from Spain, my grandpa and grandmother live in London. My granddad is Indo-British who functioned as a barkeep, no big surprise he adored shows! My dad fills in as a traditionalist for amphibian fauna while my mom works in the bread kitchen. My mom and father met in a store when they were both shopping.

Despite the fact that we live in a similar city, my grandparents have their loft, a separation from our own. We live as a group of five; father, mum, and three youngsters. As we as a whole live in a similar city, we (me and my two sisters) incidentally visit our grandparents during the end of the week to invest some energy with them; grandpa and I were doing some planting while my sisters and grandmother do cook and other house tasks. The connection between our extraordinary guardians and our own is extremely phenomenal.

At Christmas, every one of my youngsters, mum, and father travel to our grandparents for an entire week. During the new year, we get together at our home, my parent’s home, to invite the year as a whole family. Now and again during the end of the week, we normally invest the majority of our energy on the seashore swimming, besides on chapel days. As a family, our number one food is rotisserie fish, rice, and vegetables. In any case, my grandpa likes chicken hash.

All in all, the social conjunction between us is fantastic, which has made a powerful common bond for the family. From visiting one another, investing energy in the seashore, getting together suppers to usher in the new year, and observing Christmas as a family, the bond continues to develop. I’m favored to be essential for a particularly incredible family.

FAQ’s on Family History Essay

Question 1. Why is it important to know family history?

Answer: Knowing your family ancestry is vital. It empowers one to self-find himself inside the general public and like the heredity. At the point when you find out about your family’s past, you will comprehend the things you see and experience today. Composing an article on family ancestry requires a ton of comprehension and consideration regarding the viewpoints you need to depict. The basic factor being the family foundation, at that point seeing how you need to design and scribble down your thoughts.

Question 2. What are the points that can be mentioned in a family history essay?

Answer: You can write about family members, relations, values and traditions of your family. Write down the places from where your ancestors belong or the origin of your family. Also, mention the family reunion or gatherings or the occasions when you all get together.

Question 3. What family really means?

Answer: Family implies having somebody to adore you unequivocally disregarding you and your weaknesses. Family is cherishing and supporting each other in any event when it is difficult to do as such. It’s being the best individual you could be with the goal that you may motivate your adoration ones.

Question 4. Why do we need family?

Answer: Family is the absolute most significant impact on a youngster’s life. From their first snapshots of life, kids rely upon guardians and family to ensure them and accommodate their necessities. Kids flourish when guardians can effectively advance their positive development and improvement.

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How to Write an Essay About My Family History

A family comprises of people living together that form a social group within a community. The people creating this group are subject to relationships either by birth or blood, and it comprises at least two adults as parents and grandparents, together with young children. The family members have a mutual connection between them. Therefore, an essay about family history is a synopsis of an individual's social identity and the reciprocal relationship(s) he/she shares with the people living together. Learning family history is vital to understand our social status, humanity, and diversity. History keeps our memories for generations to understand who they are and their geographic origin. Having a good knowledge of family background lets you appreciate the things or sacrifices made before by grandparents to experience better things in life. An individual's roots and origin bring a sense of self-discovery. Also, writing about your family history is one way of preserving its heritage for future generations.

How to Start A Family History Essay

Outline writing, tips concerning writing a family history essay introduction, how to write body paragraphs, how to write a conclusion for a family history essay, essay revision, essay proofreading, make citations, catchy titles for an essay about family history, short example of a college essay about family history.

• How to Get the Best Family History Essay

Buy Pre-written Essay Examples on The Topic

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When writing an essay, there is a logical structure you must follow in giving out your arguments. A proper outline will produce an exciting presentation of every section, and it will fascinate the reader. The standard structure of an essay has an introduction, body, and conclusion. Here is an excellent example of an outline for a family history essay:

• Introduction
• Short family background information
• Importance of writing about the family
• Body (paragraphs)
• Family members; grandparents, parents, and children
• The community in which family resides
• Form of livelihood
• Conclusion (a summarizing paragraph)
• Restating your contention
• Summarize your key ideas
• Provide a final comment or reflection about the essay

When writing a presentation about family history, you need to provide a hook to the readers, to make them interested to know much about the family. You can start with facts or anecdotes about grandparents; for example, how they met on the first date and opted to make a family together, you can as well describe the circumstances. You can also provide an insight into a situation by your ancestors that impacted your life experience—the other thing to include in the short background information about your family. Remember to provide a clear and debatable thesis statement that will serve as the roadmap for your discussion in the paper.

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The body paragraphs contain the arguments one needs to discuss the subject topic. Every section includes the main idea or explanatory statement as the first sentence; the primary purpose is a debatable point that you need to prove. The length of a paragraph depends on the accurate measurement of ideas. In most cases, a section has about five sentences; but it can be as short or long as you want, depending on what you discuss. A paragraph has the main statement, supporting sentence(s) with evidence, and concluding sentences. When crafting the body, ensure a clear flow of ideas, connecting from one argument to the other. Transitional words, when used accordingly, can provide a nice transition and flow of ideas from one paragraph to the other. The commonly used transitional words or phrases include moreover, also, therefore, consequently, hence, thus, finally, etc.

A conclusion is as crucial as the introduction; it is the final recap of what your essay entails. The ending paragraph contains three main parts that form a full section. First, remind the audience of your thesis statement and show its relation to the essay topic. Second, provide a summary of the key arguments that you discussed in the body paragraphs. Third, it is advisable to add a final comment or general reflection about the essay. It's important to state that you should use different wording in the conclusion when restating statements and arguments. Also, remember to use signal words at the start of concluding paragraphs like in conclusion, finish, etc.

Revision is an opportunity for a student to review the content in his/her paper and identify parts that need improvement. Some students start revising as they begin drafting their essays. During revision, you need to restructure and rearrange sentences to enhance your work quality and ensure the message reaches your audience well. Revising gives you a chance to recheck whether the essay has a short main idea and a thesis statement, a specific purpose, whether the introduction is strong enough to hook the audience and organization of the article. Also, you check if there is a clear transition from one paragraph to another and ascertain if the conclusion is competent enough to emphasize the purpose of the paper.

Nothing is more frustrating than submitting an essay to earn dismal grade due to silly common mistakes. Proofreading is an essential stage in the editing process. It is an opportunity for reviewing the paper, identifying and correcting common mistakes such as typos, punctuation, grammatical errors, etc. Since proofreading is the final part of the editing, proofread only after finishing the other editing stages like revision. It is advisable to get help from another pair of eyes; you can send the paper to your friend to help you in the same process. There are online proofreading tools such as Grammarly and Hemingway, which you can use to proofread, but you should not only rely on grammar checkers. Remember to proofread the document at least three times.

Making citations is an essential way of keeping references for the sources of content you used. As you are editing, you may make several changes to the document. Do not forget to correctly provide citations for every fact or quote you obtained from other sources. There are different citation formats such as APA, MLA, etc.; therefore, you need to ensure correct usage of quotes depending on the requirement by your professor. The sources you cite present the list of references or bibliography at the end of your essay for easy reference.

• Generation to Generation
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• Our Circle and Family Heritage
• A Lifetime of Love
• Because of Two Lovebirds, I Am Here
• The Family Archives
• The Family Ties
• Branches of The Family Tree
• The Generational Genes
• Forever as a Family
• It All Started with a Date
• Bits of Yesteryears

Would you want to know how it all started until here? My grandpa told me that he met my grandma at a concert where one of the greatest artists was performing during one of the summer holidays in New York City. As he was dancing alone, my grandpa approached a beautiful lady (who would become his soulmate) to ask her to dance together. They later agreed to meet for a dinner date. Our family lives in New York. Undoubtedly, this is the best family, and it's an honor to be part of it.

Every person has two sides within his/her family; my paternal side originates from Canada, while the maternal side is from America. Although my great grandfather comes from Canada, my grandpa and grandma live in New York. My grandfather is Afro-American who worked as a bartender, no wonder he loved concerts! My father works as a conservationist for aquatic fauna while my mother works in the bakery. My mother and father met in a supermarket when they were both doing shopping.

Although we live in the same city, my grandparents have their apartment, a distance from ours. We live as a family of five; dad, mum, and three children. As we all live in the same city, we (me and my two sisters) occasionally visit our grandparents during the weekends to spend some time with them; grandpa and I were doing some gardening while my sisters and grandma do cook and other house chores. The bond between our great parents and ours is very excellent.

At Christmas, all my children, mum, and dad travel to our grandparents for a whole week. During the new year, we get together at our house, my parent's house, to welcome the year as an entire family. Sometimes during the weekends, we usually spend most of our time on the beach swimming, except on church days. As a family, our favorite food is deep-fried fish, rice, and vegetables. However, my grandpa likes chicken hash.

In conclusion, the social co-existence between us is excellent, which has created a robust mutual bond for the family. From visiting each other, spending time on the beach, having to get together meals to usher the new year, and celebrating Christmas as a family, the bond keeps growing. I am privileged to be part of such a great family.

How to Get the Best Family History Essay?

Every student would want to produce the best essay possible to earn a better grade. One way of getting information is through previously written materials such as essay samples. Pre-written essay samples have become popular recently among college students due to the vital information they offer. There are several sites, such as Essay Kitchen, that provide pre-written essays on family history at affordable prices. Students can use the essay samples to obtain enough content and idea about paper outline the professor expect; thus, producing a quality article.

Essay writing is a daunting experience for most college students. The academic pressure, coupled with a lot of other activities, makes the whole experience an ordeal. Some students have a lot of responsibilities and find themselves with limited time to handle their academic essays. Consequently, the students use online essay writing service 12 hours at Edu Jungles to write my essay for me at an affordable rate.

Knowing your family history is very important. It enables one to self-discover himself within the society and appreciate the lineage. When you learn about your family's past, you will understand the things you see and experience today. Writing an essay on family history requires a lot of understanding and attention to the aspects you need to describe. The critical factor being family background, then understanding how you need to structure and jot down your ideas.

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Publishing Your Genealogy: From Traditional to Self-Publishing Options

Finding a place to publish your family history book takes little effort when you have a guide to family history and storytelling printers. This guide to book crafters will help you know how can help you with your genealogy project.

Check out this list of large-run family history publishers or print-on-demand services. You're sure to find the right company that meets your need and a price you can afford.

Short Run Book Publishers

Family History Books

Heritage Books

Stories to Tell

Book Crafters

Legacy Books

BYU Family History

Photos, Movies, & More

Pictures & Stories

Family History Publishers

Family Heritage Publishers

Watch this video on YouTube .

In the video above, I highlight a number of these services so you can visualize the possibilities.

Self-Publishing Companies

Photo book and scrapbook companies.

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Imagine the Possibilities of Publishing Your Family History Book

Once you know what services can assist you with publishing your books, it’s time to decide what format you should use to showcase your legacy. For that, I recommend you read this blog post: Types of Family History Books to Publishing.

For more tips on preparing your family history book for publication, check out these blog posts:

How to Create a Cover for Family History Book

How to Arrange Photos in Family Histories

How to Add Genealogy Research Notes in a Book?

How to Write a Source-Based Family History Book - Adding Citations

• Writing Family History

Recent Posts

How to Write a Better Family History Through Editing

How to Arrange Photos in Family History Books

How to Self-Publish Your Genealogy Books

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How to Use AI to Catch Cheating in School

It's getting harder to spot, but here are some ways you can use ChatGPT to stop cheating and plagiarism.

In 2024, cheating has evolved. It's a tale as old as teaching -- a student, for one reason or another, uses someone else's work to complete their assignment. But now, they could be using an artificial intelligence tool.

The allure is understandable. Away with those shady essay-writing services where a student has to plonk down real cash for an unscrupulous person to write them 1,200 words on the fall of the Roman Empire. An AI writing tool can do that for free in 30 seconds flat.

As a professor of strategic communications, I encounter students using AI tools like ChatGPT , Grammarly and EssayGenius on a regular basis. It's usually easy to tell when a student has used one of these tools to draft their entire work. The tell-tale signs include ambiguous language and a super annoying tendency for AI to spit out text with the assignment prompt featured broadly.

For example, a student might use ChatGPT -- an AI tool that uses large language model learning and a conversational question and answer format to provide query results -- to write a short essay response to a prompt by simply copying and pasting the essay question into the tool.

Take this prompt: In 300 words or less, explain how this SWAT and brand audit will inform your final pitch.

This is ChatGPT's result:

I have received responses like this, or those very close to it, a few times in my tenure as a teacher, and one of the most recognizable red flags is the amount of instances in which key terms from the prompt are used in the final product. 

Students don't normally repeat key terms from the prompt in their work in this way, and the results read closer to old-school SEO-driven copy meant to define these terms rather than a unique essay meant to demonstrate an understanding of subject matter.

But can teachers use AI tools to catch students using AI tools? I came up with some ways to be smarter in spotting artificial intelligence in papers.

Catching cheaters with AI

Here's how to use AI tools to catch cheaters in your class:

• Understand AI capabilities : There are AI tools on the market now that can scan an assignment and its grading criteria to provide a fully written, cited and complete piece of work in a matter of moments. Familiarizing yourself with these tools is the first step in the war against AI-driven integrity violations. 
• Do as the cheaters do: Before the semester begins, copy and paste all your assignments into a tool like ChatGPT and ask it to do the work for you. When you have an example of the type of results it provides specifically in response to your assignments, you'll be better equipped to catch robot-written answers. You could also use a tool designed specifically to spot AI writing in papers .
• Get a real sample of writing: At the beginning of the semester, require your students to submit a simple, fun and personal piece of writing to you. The prompt should be something like "200 words on what your favorite toy was as a child," or "Tell me a story about the most fun you ever had." Once you have a sample of the student's real writing style in hand, you can use it later to have an AI tool review that sample against what you suspect might be AI-written work.
• Ask for a rewrite : If you suspect a student of using AI to cheat on their assignment, take the submitted work and ask an AI tool to rewrite the work for you. In most cases I've encountered, an AI tool will rewrite its own work in the laziest manner possible, substituting synonyms instead of changing any material elements of the "original" work.

Here's an example:

Now, let's take something an actual human (me) wrote, my CNET bio:

The phrasing is changed, extracting much of the soul in the writing and replacing it with sentences that are arguably more clear and straightforward. There are also more additions to the writing, presumably for further clarity.

The most important part about catching cheaters who use AI to do their work is having a reasonable amount of evidence to show the student and the administration at your school if it comes to that. Maintaining a skeptical mind when grading is vital, and your ability to demonstrate ease of use and understanding with these tools will make your case that much stronger.

Good luck out there in the new AI frontier, fellow teachers, and try not to be offended when a student turns in work written by their robot collaborator. It's up to us to make the prospect of learning more alluring than the temptation to cheat.

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“A PSA for College Students with ADHD: Just Write a Crappy Draft.”

“if i couldn’t write the best version of my essay, or even a good version of my essay, i would write the worst version of my essay. and that’s what i did. i wrote in purposefully irreverent, goofy ways that amused me and kept my attention. in the end, to my surprise, i had a draft that had actually captured my ideas and was fun to read during revision.”.

In my first year of college, I found myself with a brand new problem: I was totally unable to write an essay.

My professor had given us clear instructions. I was passionate about (read: hyperfixated on) the subject. I’d been researching for days. But I couldn’t seem to get started — there was too much I wanted to say and, horror of horrors, I couldn’t even use the just-start-rambling tactic that had carried me through high school. The topic was too important , the stakes were too high, and every time I started to write, it came out wrong.

Like many with ADHD, I’m an all-or-nothing type. I haven’t yet found the magic key that lets me put, say, 45% effort into something. I have to give 100% perfection or it’s simply not worth doing at all .

All the same time, in high school, even when I’d make a bulleted outline for an essay and try to follow it, I’d get stuck, delete the outline in frustration, abandon the draft entirely, and write the whole essay in one go. Writing off the cuff produced some beautiful sentences, but I was prone to rambling or leaving things out. When I’d revise, I couldn’t recapture the energy and thought process I had while freewriting. Even with a reverse outline (first draft then outline), I got stuck. My transitions didn’t make as much sense the second time around, my writing seemed clunkier, and I still ended up scrapping everything. For a while, this strategy was workable. My essays, while spontaneous and poorly outlined, were good enough .

Now in college , as the night wore on and my meds wore off – still with no essay in sight – I was frustrated to the point of tears. Then I had an idea: I decided that if I couldn’t write the best version of my essay, or even a good version of my essay, I would write the worst version of my essay. And that’s what I did. I wrote in purposefully irreverent, goofy ways that amused me and kept my attention. In the end, to my surprise, I had a draft that had actually captured my ideas and was fun to read during revision.

I dubbed this strategy The Crappy Draft.

[ Read: How to Prepare Your ADHD Teen for College, According to Research ]

Why The Crappy Draft Technique Works for ADHD College Students

The goal of The Crappy Draft is twofold. First, it relieves the pressure to Write Something Good and makes the task that’s been driving you crazy into something lighthearted, with stakes so low they’re in the ground. And you get something done . Revising is tomorrow’s problem; tonight, you can sleep knowing you got started.

Second, The Crappy Draft lets you see the shape of your essay. Yes, this version may be nonsensical, but it also holds great wisdom. One of the great skills of the ADHD brain is making connections even where seemingly none exist. If harnessed correctly, this can be a great essay-writing tool: the ways in which you jump from one topic to another when you’re not thinking about writing a polished draft often allow for your best ideas to come forward.

You may be surprised to find how easy it is to turn something from apparent crap into an eloquent essay! For example, in one Crappy Draft of a history paper, I wrote “We can all talk a big game about war, but maybe we mostly just want everyone to have enough potatoes and not get their stuff stolen.” In the final version of the essay, this became “People want to avoid war more than they want to protect territory or follow orders, and sometimes they can even succeed in avoiding it.”

I’ve since used The Crappy Draft approach to great success every time I feel even slightly stuck on an essay. The Crappy Draft allows me the pleasure of writing in my own voice while capturing all of my ideas without censoring myself or succumbing to anxiety . And because my goofy Crappy Drafts are fun to read, they keep me focused when I go back to revise. The process is more manageable, and the final product is more organized, thoughtful, and in-depth.

[ Read: “Writing Made Easier for College Kids with Learning Differences” ]

How to Write Your Own Crappy Draft

1. Type at the top of your document: THIS DRAFT IS CRAPPY ON PURPOSE. I’LL MAKE IT GOOD LATER.

I type this in bold and highlight the words in red, but you do you. The important thing is that by writing this affirmation, you release yourself from the need to write anything presentable.

2. Write the silliest version of your draft you can possibly write.

Hit the points you want to hit but don’t pay any attention to whether you’re hitting them in the right order. Forgo punctuation. Don’t just write from your inner monologue — write from the most informal, personal part of your brain. Put in as many swears and as much Internet slang as you want. Make yourself laugh. Have fun with it.

Don’t forget the “assignment” part entirely, though. Here’s what I wrote one of my Crappy Drafts when I noticed myself going wildly off topic and getting distracted:

Man, do you ever think about the butterfly effe– [I AM HIT OVER THE HEAD WITH A COMICALLY LARGE HAMMER. NEXT PARAGRAPH PLEASE !!]

Optional step: Change the font to Comic Sans or some other stupid-looking font.

This is also a neat trick for resetting your brain when you’ve been staring at your words for hours and are starting to hate them. Different font? Ooh, it must be a different task! How new and exciting!

3. Get a good night’s sleep and revise another day.

I’m hopeful that your Crappy Draft will surprise you and make you smile. Read your draft with an open mind. Follow what jumps out at you, and you’ll find the makings of a strong, cohesive essay.

How to Write an Essay in College: Next Steps

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Tina brown, and when even autism becomes politicized.

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Tina Brown, former editor of The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, and author of high profile books on ... [+] Princess Diana and the House of Windsor, has recently sought to link autism to the current partisan politics. Why is even autism becoming politicized? (Photo Jeff Fusco/Getty Images)

“That’s my father”: Within minutes of Gus Walz’s pronouncement at the Democratic National Convention in August, the autism blogosphere filled with positive comments about Gus and the heightened profile of an upbeat young man seen as being on the autism spectrum.

But it wasn’t long before even this positive, non-political moment became politicized. In a New York Times guest essay two days later, Tina Brown used Gus’s moment to contrast a supportive worldview toward autism she attributed to Gus’s father, Vice President nominee Tim Walz, with the dark worldview of the Trumps and their supporters. In turn, the essay quickly brought 570 comments from Times readers, nearly all of them congratulating Ms. Brown and denouncing Trump, Republicans and conservatives for their indifference and even cruelty toward individuals with autism and other developmental differences.

This politicizing of autism and disabilities is not surprising: nearly all issues today are seen through the lens of partisan politics. But in the case of autism, it is especially misplaced and counterproductive. For some years, the autism community has stood apart from most of America precisely in its lack of partisanship. Republicans, conservatives, and Trump supporters all are active in the community, along with Democrats and Independents. Nobody thinks of linking autism to Tim Walz, Donald Trump or any other politician. Further identity politics, so prevalent elsewhere, are largely absent: race, gender, religion, sexual orientation are recognized as unimportant and divisive in favor of shared goals.

The Autism City—an economy and society that has a role for all adults with autism—can only be based on rejecting any partisanship. And partisanship makes no sense, since both incidences of autism and community involvement cut across all partisan lines. Let’s briefly explain.

In her essay, Ms. Brown writes about recognizing Gus Walz as “one of ‘ours,’ a sweet, unfiltered, slightly bewildered-looking young man who wasn’t quite sure what was expected of him in this epic moment of political adulation.” Gus has been described as having a learning disorder and ADHD. In him, Ms. Brown sees her son George, 38, who is on the autism spectrum, and also unfiltered and of a positive nature.

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George struggles to find steady employment and social connections. Brown notes, “Their loneliness can be agonizing…Having a friendly, forgiving workplace to go to is critical. It’s often their only taste of community and what makes them such reliable and rewarding employees. The work from home movement has been a killer for people with special needs, often depriving them of the only social connections they have.”

Ms. Brown is correct. Among all the priorities in the autism community, finding and retaining a job is at the top. In fact, having a steady job is usually far more important for adults on the autism spectrum than for adults in the general population. It provides a role in the economy, self-esteem, and (most of all) somewhere to go every day.

George’s struggles are no different than most adults with autism. The estimates of employment among adults with autism vary widely from 40% without any paid work to up to 70% unemployed/underemployed. Whatever the precise employment number is, it is at least four to five times higher than the general population. Even those who are employed are often employed part-time, and/or have a tenuous link to their jobs.

Ms. Brown points to Governor Walz as a model, and Governor Walz and his wife do appear to be highly dedicated and devoted to Gus. Minnesota, like other states, has a system of government-funded job placement efforts that has been in effect for decades preceding Governor Walz, along with neurodiversity private sector hiring initiatives, such as the prominent Disability:IN Minnesota of Northwest Airlines, 3M, Express Financial Advisors and other major Minnesota employers. However, it is worth noting that the labor force participation and employment rates in Minnesota among adults with autism are no higher than in other states. The labor force participation rate, the key indicator of working age adults employed or looking for work, has been a dispiriting 33.6% for Minnesotans with disabilities in recent years.

Improving the employment of adults with autism, finding a place in the job market for George and Gus, will require multiple strategies. Some of these strategies involve significantly restructuring the edifice of government departments and non-profit groups and the hundreds of millions of dollars spent each year on and autism and neurodiversity employment activities. Other strategies involve expanding the network of mutual assistance groups: adults with autism, family members, and advocates who volunteer and join together to address employment, housing and mental health challenges.

Both sets of strategies require that autism remain free of partisanship. That’s currently the case, and needs to remain so. The mutual assistance group that I’ve been part of since 2011, AASCEND , has members from all backgrounds and political views—even in the deep-blue Bay Area. Similar volunteer groups exist in the more rural and conservative areas of the state. Republicans, conservatives and MAGA supporters in California are no less supportive of autism initiatives than others, and the many with family members participate in rates similar to others.

Ms. Brown claims to be pained by the “scorn of strangers” toward George, “the whispered insults or titter at the next table.” She provides no more detail on who are these “strangers,” or what she is referring to. Views toward persons with autism have shifted dramatically over the past three decades, in good part due to demographics and social awareness. Autism cuts across all politics, races, and religions.

The Times readers are more direct in characterizing Republicans, conservatives and MAGA supporters as hostile toward adults with autism. “Trump and his minions are ignorant, insensitive, and xenophobic,” one reader writes, and another adds, “Are we surprised by the horrible comments coming from the putrid MAGA crowd when their leader and some of his progeny have time and time again demonstrated their lack of the most basic empathy.” A good part of the comments are along these lines, including “It is upsetting to think that Gus…will have to content with the online bullying and rollout from this conversation that MAGA generated”, and “Too many of the cruel, tiny-minded bullies who mocked and stalked our kids starting in early childhood have grown into adults who are just like that.”

The rhetoric is not dissimilar from that of most reader responses to any mention of Republicans or MAGA supporters. No evidence is provided for these characterizations. Anyone who is actually engaged in the autism community would know how preposterous these characterizations are.

A few days after Tina Brown’s essay appeared, Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff weighed in with an essay, “Here’s Why We Shouldn’t Demean Trump Voters.” The “We” appears to be Kristoff and similarly-situated affluent, college educated liberals. Kristoff tells us that he knows about Trump voters because he lives in a rural area of Oregon and talks to a few of them. He assures readers that the Trump voters may be misled and mistaken, but they are not bad people.

Those of us who are old timers in autism have watched over the past few decades as younger members, especially those who are on the spectrum, have led a self-advocacy movement. It is a movement that is in opposition to attempts by any one group to own autism, and also in opposition to the condescension of the college educated liberal.

These recent essays by Ms. Brown and Mr. Kristoff, and the responses from Times readers, show we can all learn much from these autism self-advocates.

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Tips for Writing Family History Books - International Institute

• 1.1 Narrative Accounts
• 1.2 Family Reference Book
• 1.3 Theme Approach
• 1.4 Sources-based Approach
• 1.5 ‘How I Did It’ Account
• 1.6 Combinations

Simple Ways to Organize Your Book [ edit | edit source ]

There are many good methods of organizing a family history book. Your choice depends partly upon whom you have chosen to research and partly upon the way you want to present the material to your chosen audience. The most common alternative is a narrative account and this can take one of many forms.

Narrative Accounts [ edit | edit source ]

In addition to the information about your ancestors this can include accounts of how you did your research and discovered each one. The process of research can be just as fascinating as the actual discoveries. A classic tale is Donald Steel's delightful and masterful presentation on the English Honeycombe family. Discovering Your Family History , which was enthusiastically received on television and helped fuel the family history boom in the 1970s-1980s.

Two more classics of reconstructing ancestral events are J. Richard Houston’s Numbering the Survivors: A History of the Standish Family of Ireland, Ontario and Alberta , and John Phillip Coletta’s Only A Few Bones: A True account of the Rolling Fork Tragedy and its Aftermath , a history of the German-speaking merchants of the Mississippi Delta. Alex Haley deserves credit for his tale of black ancestry, Roots , which was phenomenally successful in promoting family history in North America, but it has since been shown to be partly fiction.

An equally fascinating account ( The Ensign. Oct 1998 page 69. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and episode 3 of PBS Ancestors series 2000) is that of Sheila Hsia’s discovery of 172 generations of her ancestors! I was fortunate to play a small role in this process in the following way. One evening whilst on duty at the Burnaby, Vancouver FamilySearch Center two Chinese women approached the counter. The younger one asked for about 100 blank pedigree charts. Now it isn’t unusual for someone to need 100 family group sheets, but 100 pedigree charts? My curiosity was piqued and upon enquiring I was told that her mother had recently been instrumental in getting family records going back to 2079 B.C. out of China. She was planning on putting them all on computer but needed to translate them from Chinese to English on paper first.

Records of the first 12 generations had survived two revolutions in China by being buried in clay pots by an illiterate man who didn’t know what they were, but knew they were valuable. This story and that of how they were found, copied and spirited out of China this century is an incredible one. Sheila continues to transcribe the records of over 15,000 kin.

The stories of how you discovered your ancestors may not be quite as dramatic as Sheila Hsia’s but they will be fascinating to your descendants so by all means include them. With a narrative account you may choose to tell the story:

• as a Descendancy
• along Ancestral Lines
• as a combination of these two by picking a pivotal couple and doing their descendants and then their ancestors.

Telling the Story as a Descendancy Although you do your research going backwards in time, the most satisfactory way of telling the history of a family is often the other way around. You will thus have to reverse gears, so to speak, and work forwards starting with the earliest ancestral couple. This allows you to see their life in the order that they lived it. So often we don’t do that when researching, as we find their marriage first then their birth and parents!

You may choose to do only one surname, or selected lines coming down in time, or all descendants of this couple. You will want to include the living members of the family and this will involve collecting their information as well. Be prepared to wait, and wait, and wait….. for them to reply! It’s odd how not everyone in the family thinks genealogy is important!

Our Descendants Book is part of a series and a copy of the letter requesting relatives’ assistance is included in the chart below.

It is helpful to the reader to create a numbering system for your book so that each person's ancestry can be readily visualized. I use a European system with an example from my own family in the charts below. North Americans may prefer the Register System or the NGSQ System (Hatcher; Curran, Crane and Wray).

STRØM/CHRISTENSEN Millenium Project!!

Numbering System for a Descendant Book

Descentants of William and Mary Ann GARDNER

Once you have organized the framework you can then proceed to write a paragraph about each person. The format in the chart below has proved successful:

Paragraphs for Entries in a Family History

The term Person refers to the lineal descendant

Then add a page of photos, and any maps and other illustrations that would enliven the family history.

Telling the Story Along Ancestral Lines Here you move backwards in time, telling the story of each family one generation at a time.

One Surname Here you are dealing with only one line, which may be your agnatic line (father, his father, etc.) or any other surname line. ‘Diversions’ through a female having an illegitimate offspring occur in any family as well. You simply describe each couple and their life in as much detail as you wish, perhaps following the paragraph formula above or in more creative ways.

Matrilineal Descent This deals with your mother, her mother, and so on and is a growing trend, appealing to those interested in the descent of culture and heritage through females. It’s also a more certain biological line!

Several (or all) Ancestors Start with yourself and work backwards, either one surname line at a time, or generation by generation.

If you deal with each surname line separately it is probably easiest to follow if you place them alphabetically in your book. You will need pedigree charts, starting with each female (who introduced this new surname) in the #1 position, to assist the reader.

If you choose the generational method then it is simplest to use the Sosa-Stradonitz numbers in ascending order. When you start a new generation, at numbers 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. then announce this in your text as Generation Number 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. With any of these ‘Ancestor’ methods or organization, if you are going to discuss the wider family grouping, and not just ancestors, then you should decide on and stick to a pattern of dealing with them as ‘children and their families’ or ‘siblings and their families’ of your main ancestors. This can get rather complex and you might be better off using a Descendants style arrangement instead.

Telling the Story as Descendants and Ancestors of a Pivotal Couple A combination of the above techniques also works well. Choose a Pivotal Couple whose complete descendants are reasonably well known, and divide your writing into three sections:

• Descendants of Pivotal Couple
• Ancestors of Husband
• Ancestors of Wife

If your generation already has grandchildren you could use your parents as the pivotal couple and work both ways. First do a history of the descendants of your parents, and then sections for each of their ancestors. Charts 78 and 81 concern this type of project. This is a combination of the above approaches so their numbering systems apply here also.

Family Reference Book [ edit | edit source ]

You may prefer to compile a simple fact book full of Family Group Records and short biographies, a kind of reference book rather than a narrative account.

Theme Approach [ edit | edit source ]

Another approach is to use themes which may be geographical, such as The family in England , The family in Canada, or by occupation for example, The lawyers, The carpenters, or any other themes relevant to your particular family.

It would be helpful to have a general section on the theme first to set the stage. They may not all fit into chosen themes, so you may choose to only do some families, or include an Other section. Your public library will have several references on how to do this kind of writing.

Sources-based Approach [ edit | edit source ]

The focus here is on the sources and repositories from which the information was gleaned. This tends to be a rather unappetizing variety for family consumption.

‘How I Did It’ Account [ edit | edit source ]

Alternatively one can choose to write a ‘How I did it’ book devoted to the methodology of your searches. This is unlikely to appeal to your family, but may merit publication to the wider genealogical public, particularly as an article for a family history magazine. Readers of good genealogical journals are avid to see how someone else solved a problem, either by locating little-known sources or by careful analysis and synthesis of information.

Combinations [ edit | edit source ]

Sometimes combining themes and How I Did It into a narrative account works very well, the example to follow being Steel’s work on the Honeycombe family. Or you can combine the narrative with the Reference ideas, perhaps by including substantial appendices of Family Group Records.

___________________________________________________________________

Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online courses Methodology - Part 1: Getting Started, Methodology - Part 2: Organizing and Skillbuilding], Methodology - Part 3: More Strategies], Methodology - Part 4: Effective Searching and Recording, Methodology - Part 5: How To Prove It, and Methodology - Part 6: Professional Preparation and Practice offered by The International Institute of Genealogical Studies . To learn more about these courses or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [email protected]

We welcome updates and additions to this Wiki page.

This website requires a paid subscription for full access. Some subscription websites are available for free at your local FamilySearch Center or Affiliate Library .

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