Family Story Short Takes

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Q. I want to share my genealogy research with my family. My long-term goal is to put everything into a book, but in the mean time, I’m looking for smaller projects that will engage my relatives. Do you have any ideas?

A. So you’re not ready to take on writing the entirety of your clan’s history, but you still want to preserve family lore or put your research discoveries into historical context. Here are six quick ways to share your story:

• Family history journal: Keep a diary of your genealogical discoveries and how you felt or what you thought about them.

• Photo narratives: Pick favorite photographs and write down everything you know about them — names of the people pictured, the event shown, the location.

• Family atlas: Put maps and photos of your ancestral towns into a book or album, and add details about the locales, ancestors who lived there and historic events that took place in the area.

• Legacy book: Fill in a pre-printed memory-prompting book with information about your life and your family tree, or use the prompts as a springboard for your writing. My Life & Times by Sunny Jane Morton is one example of a book to guide your writing.

• Heritage cookbook: Create a scrapbook or use a photo-gift website to record favorite family recipes. Include photos of the cooks, stories about them, and other relatives’ stories about the occasions when the dishes were served.

• Website: Use your genealogy software or a blog to plant your family tree online. Include photos, scanned records, family stories and GEDCOMs.