Last week the conversation led us through our “why we preserve family history stories.” We considered our children with the hope that they will lean into their heritage when the time is right for them. Our goals included writing books and transforming our Substack articles into enduring documents. We considered new ways of safekeeping our stories such as the Internet Archive and talked about family versions of the Century Safe. The conversations are important to our collective understanding of our own family history stewardship.
This week, let’s step our toes down into forward movement. Leaning into Family History Stewardship, for our purposes, takes us into the first stage: writing. The stories that we hold in our minds, that we mention at family gatherings, that we feel the weight of responsibility for become the impetus for writing. Writing the stories down is a significant step.
For some, the writing has been happening for sometime. For them, with many Substack or blog articles written and published, that step has been taken.
For others, the journey into writing has just begun. Maybe an article has been published or the story is in a document on a hard drive. It could be on a platform for genealogy.
If the story is floating around in your mind — and you know it needs preserving, you may not know where to begin. Where ever you’re at in this continuum is completely okay. It’s all about that next step in front of you.
So, my question for you this week is designed to start the conversation about a story. Pick a story. It doesn’t have to be the perfect one. It can be any story— the one that popped in your head when you thought about it, or the one that feels safe enough to focus on. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve already written it or it is living in your mind among the shopping lists, errands to run and all the other things you juggle in your thoughts each day.
Pick the story, knowing it won’t be the only one you ever write. What are you picking it for? It is your starting place, your small step forward. I invite you to take this step along with us. We are on the verge. The Storyteller Project begins in 10 Days! Be ready.
The Question
Which story will you take a step forward with in your family history stewardship?
Have you written it already or are you ready to write it?
Who is it about?
What is the event or moment?
When did happen?
Where did it happen?
Add your answer in the comments. Read the comments made by those who walk with you into this next step, whatever it may look like.
Now that you’ve said it aloud, you’re one step forward.
It’s that time! Friday, May 22 is our Coterie Collab!
We will continue the conversation we’ve been having about preserving our stories. Anyone interested in preserving family history in a meaningful way is welcome to join us. ✅It’s on Zoom. ✅ It’s easy. ✅It’s free. This month I will be coming to you live from the Pacific Coast in Mendocino County, California— one of my favorite places! See you there!
Stewardship Matters: The Storyteller’s Guide to Preserving Family History is coming soon.
If you’d like an advanced Ebook copy, join the Coterie as a paid subscriber/member —
The official record was never designed to hold the lives of ordinary people. The archive will not complete itself.
The stories are in your hands. The records that will never be found in the official history and the knowledge that exists about your family history, right now, is held by you.
That is the traction that builds alongside the collecting of research, records and family lore. The recognition that what you are holding is fragile, and that whether it survives depends entirely on what you do next.
That is where stewardship begins.
Stewardship Matters gives family historians the tools to make the shift from private knowledge to public record. In this guide, you will learn how to:
Write your family’s stories one scene at a time, anchored to evidence, so that a future researcher meets the person behind the name.
Create Collections from your existing published articles and blog posts.
Build unshakeable credibility by being transparent about what the record says, what you inferred from it, and where imagination filled in the gaps.
Publish and place your work so that a descendant you will never meet can type a name into a search bar fifty years from now and find what you left there.
The stories survive only if someone decides to carry them.
Then join us in the upcoming Storyteller Project (coming in 10 Days) when we walk through the steps of publishing your stories and making them findable for the long-game.
Joining us is easy. A friendly, supportive community of family historians awaits you.