General Chat

I have been stuck at age 5 for about 4 years now - my dilemma is do I write it warts and all as from hereonin my mother does not come out of it very well as a mother!

She had narrisstic tendencies wholesale.

Hello everyone and thank you all for your ideas.
I haven't started yet as some of you may know I have been rather unwell of late and life has been rather difficult BUT I am going to start this quite soon. OH has put the new book case in place and I now have to put all my files etc in good order, as i do this I shall make a list of the people who I want to write about and I will start with my mother and the her parents as I knew them rather well and the work from there.

If anyone is willing to share ideas please post your suggestions on here or send me a personal message and then I will send my email address.

I will keep you all updated,

Bridget

Maggie in Winchester, Janet, Phyllis, Rambling rose and everyone who posted here have you moved on with this proposed project and would you be willing to share some examples of what you wrote either by email, or on here??

Alison can you give us some guidelines to help at least me getting started. Any news on your hoped fro publication?

B

Good morning Bridget ~~~to All

Come on Bridget join our 'club' most of us have written about our lives and ancestors.You know it's good to share :O) and (for myself) we can learn from one another

Mau xxx

Ann, in Glos, I have sent you a personal message

Alison you must be on tenterhooks wondering what decision will be made about publishing you story...

I am keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Bridget I have replied.

Many of you will know I have written my own life story as I put it on here chapter by chapter. But I had not thought of writing from my ancestors' view point. will have a think about that.

Hi there Spanish eyes,
Yes very nervous about it being published. Just Hoping. Give me a little while and i will try and come up with some help. Sharing computer.

Google must be paying attention to what comes into and out of my Inbox! lol

"Want To Get Published? - www.**********.com - Expert critiques & mentoring from 30+

I did have a piece written , I don't think I sent it out to everyone in the writers group as it was when we first started so I may send that out to you Bridget ( and anyone who wants it) it was two connecting pieces of when I was a child basically and a third connecting piece when i was adult. let me know if you would like it, it's written in the first person so bit like a diary on different days years apart.

Good luck Allison , fingers crossed for you!

RamblingRose

I for one would be delighted to read your piece. I tried looking on the writers group today fo the few pieces I submitted but couldn't find it (them), if anyone else can find it, them) please let me know.

Bridget

well i wrote a whole piece for you folks and it crashed boo hoo. If i get time i will try again.

Bridget, if you submitted pieces for the writers group it wont be on the thread, as I said a few posts back we only send out by e mail not on the boards.

Around about the 17th January 2010 you sent it out Bridget. Not sure how you sent it. I can see where you comment about getting everyone's comments back on the thread. And in my e mails I can see where I commented but can't find the actual piece.

Anninglos, thanks for looking,it must be in the ether somewhere1
i will just start again

Hi Bridget and Ann, thanks Ann I have just found the piece from your date there...I looked earlier but missed it somehow as it was an attachment...

Bridget I have copied it to my doc's so will send it back to you now >>>>>>>

Well folks i will try again.
First great place to start is with the part of the family that you want to include in your story. Make sure that if you include more than one, that you tie them in with a timeline. So don’t mix up your 1880s with your 1930’s it just makes it easier.

Have your story in chapters so that you can look at your history in a simpler way. If you want subheadings within the chapters, that is good. You could name your cooking and home life section or servants as Upstairs Downstairs.

Make a timeline on paper of your relatives and which line you will take. Then you can research just those timelines for your information.
Include photographs along the way and if you can draw, some drawings. You can include photos of not just of the family, but of the churches and gravestones and surrounding areas that they lived.

Almanacks are a good source to find interesting facts on health and ways to live a simple life. For your own story that will stay in the family, you are fine, but if you wish to do anything else, then it is best to keep a list on a separate bit of paper, where you found the information. You can also find adverts of the day and how to treat certain diseases. So if your family member died from Asthma, you can find the treatment at the time and list that.

Medicines are great too and you can find some really nasty ideas out there for treatment for certain illness. You can also find these in newspapers too.

Use the newspapers for adverts, you can get these from ebay or photocopy or print from the library. Some will include holidays and meats etc. Great for putting in when you have to use a comparison with prices.
You can include recipes of the time and Mrs Beetons book is good for that. It also tells you the work of Servants.

Try and find information on clothes and fashion. There are a lot of good websites for this.

You can find lots of information about work and jobs on the internet. Mine were miners and the internet is a great source, including large accidents.
Look into the local papers and find any information about your relatives. This you can include. Its great then as you can now form a picture.
Include the simple things, if no-one does, then who will know in the future.
Nothing is right or wrong. If you find a better way to do it. Great. Any way we record this information is brilliant. So there is nothing set in stone.
Include poems. I used some from the 1st World War and put all my relatives who had died in one chapter and put a photograph of a single poppy.

Money is also a good way of putting a slant on your story. So if you have a relative who has £10 in 1860, find out what you could get for that in 1860 and what its worth today.

If you want to include more than 4 families try and work a story around each one and either keep them separate or try to include them at the point them come into your history.

If they were arrested, in an asylum or workhouse. What was life like for them? Can you visit it and take photographs and get a feel for the building and let your imagination run wild.

Most of all, Have fun and don’t get too stressed about getting it right, its your story.

Really good ideas there Allison :) I really must get on with it!

Allison

Many thanks for your posting with so much info and so many suggestions. I have now got my Ford family in a separate folder and I am going to start during this week writing about my maternal grandparents because I new them very well and have quite a lot of original pics and records. Also they lived with us for a few years.
Your time as with most of us is precious and that is why I wanted to say a personal thanks.

I will let everyone know how I am getting on towards the end of the week.