Are you a family writer?
You know, the person the family turns to if they need something written down.
I’m that person and here are the ways my family has tapped me to tell the stories.
I’ve come to see it as a ministry.
Keeping Track of the Journey
“You’re the writer,” Mom said, handing me a binder filled with paper. “I want you to write about our trip.”
Mom had saved her teacher salary for an entire year. She wanted to take her children, then aged 14, 11, and 9, to Europe for the summer.
We needed to learn about culture, see new places, and visit her Sicilian birthplace.
My job, along with rolling up sleeping bags every morning and being available for other chores, was to write about the trip.
I accepted the vinyl folder with awed gratitude. Mom had recognized my desire to be a writer. This was my opportunity.
I began at the airport, sitting on the floor as we awaited our flight.
Reading my fourteen-year-old reflections in this faded notebook as an adult makes me cringe.
I spent a lot of time complaining about my eleven-year-old brother.
I have since edited the travel diary into a story my extended family enjoyed.
The glimpse of my mother, frankly, is priceless twenty-three years after she died.
Write your stories.
Needed: a family writer to commemorate historic events
My grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary about this same time.
“You need to write a poem about your grandparents,” the same mother ordered.
“Really?”
“You’re the family writer.”
Since my English teacher assigned writing a poem for our homework about this time, the job became a two-fer.
I won’t bore you with the poem, but suffice it to say I got an “A” and had a lot of fun rhyming words with “Fortunata and Antonio.”
The other big family event was Antonio’s 100th birthday party.
Since I lived in Washington State at the time and my family lived in southern California, my task was to write my grandparent’s biography.
I interviewed my family members via letter or phone and researched 100 years of history.
We drew family trees, included old photos, and everyone got a copy of the final book.
I edited the book last year by adding all the new family members and scads of color photos. By turning the project into an Ebook, everyone got a copy.
It’s important to maintain our common heritage.
Write your family’s stories.
Family history
My paternal grandmother loved attending my maternal grandfather’s 100th birthday party.
I noticed how much she enjoyed her copy of the family biography, wistfully turning the pages.
Several years later, Grammy moved into a nursing home.
As the family writer, I got all her family papers–including a photo album I’d never seen before.
I spent the next year writing her story, The Rose of Mayfield.
I’m not sure she lived long enough to fully appreciate her biography–though her children and grandchildren did. Her headstone reads “The Rose of Mayfield.”
Writing the stories helps families remember, grieve, and laugh–together.
An entire family history project!
During a research trip to Utah–where Grammy grew up–I happened on the LDS family history computers.
For the first time, I wondered about my mysterious paternal grandfather’s family tree.
We knew he was vaguely related to Abraham Lincoln through Nancy Hanks.
But how?
I spent the next five years consumed by a genealogy hunt.
Pioneer Stock is available through the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City (I’ve seen it on the shelf), the Library of Congress (I’ve seen it in the catalog), and a variety of genealogical libraries around the country.
That writing project launched me into obscure corners of the Internet, hunting Colonial homes in Maryland, DNA sampling sites, and a career as a writer of historical fiction and biography!
All in all being the family writer has been a joy. It enables me to use my interests and gifts to benefit my family.
It also means when someone’s got a question like, “Where did this family name come from?” I have an answer.
Or, as my brother recently said after I traced a family name back 8 and 11 generations, “Thanks for the history lesson.”
Who’s the family writer in your family?
Why not you? Write your family’s stories.
Tweetables
Why families need a family writer–if only to personalize events! Click to Tweet
What are the tasks of a family writer beyond genealogy? Click to Tweet
Who would you ask to write a poem for your grandparent’s 50th anniversary? Click to Tweet
Thoughts? Reactions? Lurker?