A key part of creating meaningful family records has absolutely nothing to do with tracking down dates of long dead ancestors. A vital part of what we do as genealogists is to begin with creating a record of our own lives by keeping journals and writing personal histories.
Let's face it, the bare-bones details of when people were born, married and died can be pretty boring. After all, the most boring part of the bible is the sections that are all who-begat-who. Does anyone really care? It is only when photographs, stories, correspondences and other information is found that I really begin to get connected to my ancestors.
It is important that I do not overlook my own history while I am busy searching out information for my kindred dead.
Some time ago I posted a list of questions over on one of my other blogs that can be quite useful in writing a personal history. I gave these questions to my father-in-law years ago. He made a practice of writing down the answer to just one or two questions every Sunday afternoon. When he got them all done he gave them back to me and I typed them up. This gave us a wonderful record of his life and history that is a real treasure to have.
I used those same questions as a "get acquainted" game in an empty nesters family home evening gathering. I cut the questions into strips and had everyone in the group pick a question out of the bowl which we then all answered out loud. It was a lot of fun. So however you may want to use them, the link to my list of questions is HERE.
Here are a couple other resources about how to write a life story:
Family History Quick Start
Your Life is Your Story
The important thing to remember in writing a personal history is that you don't have to write about your WHOLE life. Just begin telling stories of things that you recall. Then write another. And another. Over time you can arrange these stories either topically or chronologically to weave a story of your life. The important thing is to GET STARTED!
