Looking for ideas on how to write your family’s history? Take inspiration from these three bloggers

If you’re like many genealogists who want to write their family history, but don’t know where to start, you may be inspired by three Montreal bloggers who chose a different approach for their storytelling, instead of using the somewhat typical “He was born in…” format.

Sandra McHugh, Janice Hamilton and Barbara Angus are three writers who belong to a genealogy writing group of about ten members who have been meeting every month for more than five years. They share their stories on their blog, Genealogy Ensemble. In 2017, they launched their book, Beads in a Necklace, a collection of almost 50 short stories that are filled with fascinating characters and bits of social history. The stories are inspired by family myths, heirlooms, letters, and vintage photographs.

Three recent blog posts from the Genealogy Ensemble writing group may help you put pen to paper or cursor to screen.

Write about an heirloom and its owner
Anyone who owns heirlooms may want to take inspiration from Sandra McHugh’s story, Petimezi. She writes about a blackened cauldron that had been in storage at her mother-in-law’s home in Greece and how the family used it over a period of 125 years.

I can see myself writing 500-word stories about the history of my heirlooms and the people who owned them. Once written, I could turn the stories into a hardcover book with photos of the items. Right now, I doubt anyone would take more than a polite passing notice of my book, but one day when they’re going through my stuff, they may be curious to know why I held onto it.

Use with your personal memories and photos
In her story, The Man of the Family, Janice Hamilton, uses photographs of her grandfather to guide the reader. She begins the story with her own memories to provide context.

I was just eight years old when Grampy, my mother’s father, died, so I have few memories of him, only photos. There’s one of him holding me on his lap when I was about a year old, and another that shows him playing a toy musical instrument. A shot of him demonstrating his stone-skipping skills on a Maine beach was probably taken in 1956, during the last summer of his life.

At that time, children were to be seen and not heard; not all grandparents were as involved as he was, and that makes these photos all the more special.

Focus on a defining aspect
A significant part of the life of Barb Angus’ grandfather was his life-long involvement with the Masons and his role in the Grand Lodge of Quebec. She was asked by the Lodge to research and write her grandfather’s for the 150^th anniversary of his installation as their first Grand Master.

Her story, John Hamilton Graham: First Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Quebec, is a good example of how a genealogist can focus on one significant part of an ancestor’s life to tell their story.