Partial contents. Family history and its importance. History is a story. History and building a sense of family. Family history and the professional historian. Writing family history and personal values

Techniques for writing family history. Narrative writing. What you already know about writing narratives. Learning to trust yourself as a writer. Getting started writing. Writing as a way of remembering. Engage the reader's senses. Mixing summary and scene. Writing a composite scene. Telling narratives from a specific point of view. Making a person real with words. Re-creating conversations. Use your imagination. The narrative mix : place, people, action, and narration. The slice of life versus a beginning, middle, and end. Care about what you're writing. Digression. Sense of humor. The role of revision

The forms of family history. The narrative journal. Interviews. Writing captions. Letters. Occasional history : cards and letters. Cookbooks and recipe collections. Biography. Autobiography. The family newsletter. Fiction, historical, biographical, and autobigraphical

Printing and publishing your family history. What do you do with what you've written? Printing your history easily and cheaply. Photos. Laying out your book. The types of publications. Self-published family history books.