Family History Narrative Series - Optimizing your Organized Records
Creating an Efficient Environment for Writing your Family History Narrative
Are you interested in writing a family history narrative? If you’ve done some research and have a collection of names, dates, and facts that you’d like to self-publish in a meaningful way, you’ve arrived at the place you need to be.
This post is part of a series that provides lessons on how to develop a family history narrative from your collection of genealogical records.
In this lesson, you will learn how to:
Optimize the organization of your family history records to anchor your family history narrative in the facts you have about your ancestors.
Frame the data you have collected around the elements of a narrative.
Interact with your data within the context of creating a narrative.
The introduction to this concept is in my previous post, which is an overview of the first three steps of writing a Family History Narrative. Here it is:
CuZens Toolkit
Optimizing your organized records can be daunting when thinking of where to start and what to do with all that information. Our Ancestor One Page Data Sheet can help. If you have a Subscription to CuZens genealogy matters newsletter, all the tools are provided to you for free. There is more about CuZens Toolkit below.
When you are ready to write, the Ancestor One Page Data Sheet provides easy access to your information. It is a Google Sheet that you can fill in and be able to refer back to as you’re writing. It is completely free for all subscribers.
Here is an easy look at the page so you can see what I am referring to.
Ancestor One Page Data Sheet for Writing a Family History Narrative.
To access this tool as well as others:
If you haven’t subscribed yet and would like your own copy, just click on the subscribe button. You will receive the link to the Ancestor One Page Data Sheet in the Welcome email, which is sent to you as soon as you subscribe.
If you are already a subscriber, an email was sent to you on October 1, 2023, with the title, CuZens Toolkit or CuZens Toolkit for You. If you cannot locate it, reach out to me in the chat and I will get it to you.
Step 1: Organizing Your Records
The ideas included in Step 1 have 3 parts:
O: Optimize your records (Using the Ancestor One Page Data Sheet). This tool is free to you with your Subscription to genealogy matters. See above for a sample of the page.
A: Aligning your records to the elements of the plot of your ancestor’s narrative: sequence of events, exposition, rising action. Add information within the framework of the Ancestor One Page Data Sheet to sort your information in a way that makes the narrative easier to write.
R: Review your records now that they are placed in the Ancestor One Page Data Sheet to identify missing information.
These three parts create the acronym, OAR. To remember the parts, think of needing your oar to paddle your way down the stream of your narrative! This is the first step. Step 2 is coming soon. Watch for it in your inbox!
If you prefer a more in-depth lesson on
Optimizing your records
Aligning your records to the elements of the plot of your ancestor’s narrative
Reviewing your records once they are placed in the Ancestor One Page Data Sheet to identify missing information.
A more detailed explanation follows. If don’t have full access yet, you can upgrade your subscription here.