LDS Genealogy

Writing a personal history seems like an overwhelming assignment, particularly if you’re older. You may find it difficult to remember everything you feel should be included, and you may find yourself in the wrong mood to tackle some subjects.

Who says it has to be done in order?

Thanks to computers, it is very easy to write your history in any order you choose, a little at a time. Start a file, saved on your desktop, called, “My personal history.” Should something happen to you before you finish it, it will be easily found by your family.

Now pick a time in your life you feel like writing about. You might want to describe your current life, or you may find yourself remembering your first date. Whatever the memory, write it down, giving it a date or approximate date.

The next time you write, pick another memory from any time in your entire life. Did it happen before or after the previous memory? If it happened before, simply move your cursor above what you wrote last time and start writing. If it happened afterwards, put it below. Put a date at the top so you can easily figure out where to insert upcoming entries.

If you continue to do this, perhaps each Sunday, you’ll eventually get caught up. Then you need only write something once a year or so. You’ll find it easier to remember Christmas stories at Christmas time, and vacation stories when you’re on vacation.

The nicest thing about doing it this way is you can easily add to a document you considered finished by inserting a new story that suddenly occurs to you.

Once a year or so, print out whatever you have so far and put it into a notebook. You may want to include dividers that help people find general time periods–childhood, marriage and parenting, retirement, for example.

If you change something along the way (your daughter reminds you something happened differently than you remembered, perhaps) you only have to reprint the page that has changed.

No fuss family history, one memory at a time.