October 26, 2026
Introduction: In this article – to celebrate Family History Month in October – Gena Philibert-Ortega describes how to write a short narrative about your ancestor. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”
It’s hard to believe that October is almost over. How are you progressing with your Family History Month tasks? If you’ve been following along you should have made some progress with your first four generations. As a reminder: Week 1: Conduct a 4-Generation Audit; Week 2: Create a Timeline; and Week 3: What Am I Missing?
This isn’t a contest, so if you didn’t start at the beginning of the month or are taking longer (I know I am) just keep going. Having those tasks completed will mean your family history is in much better shape than when you started.
Now, we are ready for Week 4.
Write a Short Narrative
When this Family History Month challenge started, I wrote this:
Week 4: Write a Short Narrative
Genealogy can be overwhelming and there’s no doubt that research is more fun than writing it all down to share. Instead of thinking about writing a book or an ancestor’s story, I’m going to choose one event and write up something that I can then add images to and share with my family. Having done my audit, created a timeline, and identified what is missing, this step should be easier than starting from scratch.
Why did I stress a “short narrative”?
When I started family history research decades ago, a family history magazine I read had advertisements for family history book publishers. The publishers would pose with these large tomes, hundreds of pages of someone’s life work about their family.
Back then I was convinced that was the end goal: publish a huge book on everyone in the family tree. Not only would this be costly (most likely $50 or more 30 years ago), it was also something that other family members weren’t as excited about. We keep hearing that people don’t read anymore and my guess is that a book of hundreds of pages of names, dates, and places isn’t a fun summer read for most family members.
My family is most likely like yours. They aren’t interested in family history. Sure, when I tell one story or show a photograph, they are interested. Or when we are watching a movie and I explain that a family member fought in that war or experienced something similar, they are appreciative – but to haul out a 500-page encyclopedia about their ancestral roots, not so much…
So instead of a dense book, I’m focusing on a few stories, heavily illustrated, to interest them. If they want more information I can share more, maybe even a longer narrative of the ancestor’s life. I want to start with more recent ancestors because I think they are more easily relatable.
Example #1 Ben McNeil
Last week I mentioned my ancestor Banjamin McNeil. I wrote:
One of the narratives I’d like to enhance is one written by a cousin about my grandmother’s father, my great-grandfather Benjamin McNeil (1881-1956). This three-page history was read at his funeral on 2 June 1956. One of the sentences in the funeral sketch reads:
“During this time, besides providing for his own family, Ben helped his mother file and prove up her homestead, and he helped his brothers build her a home.”
I’m interested in writing more about this homestead, so I am going to take his mother’s homestead file, add information from it and a map to show exactly where it is. I also want to add a photo of the area that it was in. I don’t have a photo of that, but it’s possible I can use Google Maps to locate it and use a satellite image. I also don’t have a photo of the home, so reaching out to other family members or looking through the family history book about her life might help with that. Other than that, I can identify which brothers were in the area during that time and add their names to that narrative. I still have information I need to gather so it’s not quite ready yet.
Example #2 Oscar Philibert
Another way I can write up a narrative is to take one document and explain it further. Years ago, I wrote an article for the GenealogyBank blog about my great-grandfather Oscar Philibert: Family Research Mystery: Great-Grandfather’s Kewpie Doll Tattoo?
I discovered the information about this tattoo on his WWII draft registration card. My family doesn’t know about WWII draft registration cards or even what they were for. So now, I need to take what I learned about this tattoo and write about the draft registration, why a Navy veteran would have a kewpie doll tattoo, and add some illustrations of what it might have looked like. I will also add the images of the registration card and him in his navy uniform. The blog post is a good starting point, but I still have more work to do.
A Few Tips
Writing can be intimidating to most people. As you consider writing up your family history keep the following in mind.
- Writing isn’t a one-draft process. Just get the words on paper. You can go back and edit later. Don’t worry if you can’t spell well, that’s what computer or online spell and grammar checks are for.
- Consider writing as you research. Creating sentences about your research as you research can help make the process easier.
- You don’t need pages of text. Keep it simple. Keep it to one or two paragraphs. Use bullet points.
- Use images to illustrate. People love images, whether it’s maps, photographs, postcards, or images of documents. Use what you have or what you can find.
- Ask a family member to “proof” your writing and make suggestions. They may have questions that you can answer in your text.
- Remember that you know this research, but your family doesn’t. Explain what the document means, label all family members in the photograph (stay away from general identifiers like “grandmother”). Act as though the reader knows absolutely nothing about what you are writing about.
Happy Family History Month!
I hope all went well with your family history research this month. Give us an update in the comments below. This is a great opportunity for us all to learn from each other.
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Note on the header image: Family History Month graphic. Credit: https://depositphotos.com/home.html
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