Customer Reviews

You Can Write Your Family History

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This text is a blueprint for getting your family history on paper. I belong to a family history writing group that grew out of our local genealogy group in Oakland, California, The African American Genealogy Society of Northern California (AAGSNC). Our group, some writers, some not, wanted to get our families' stories and histories on paper and into print to hand down to future generations but was having a difficult time in how to go about doing it. The method used in this volume makes it simple; one step at a time, one story at a time.

Excellent tips on bringing characters to life, collecting social history, and organizing one's data is included. In chapter ten, there is an excellent example of showing vs. telling as we looked at Gay Talese's storytelling of his family, in particular in his description of his grandmother. You could see the lace collar and smell her perfume by his use of language. I also appreciated that the information applies to writers of family history no matter if one is writing a history, a memoir/bio or fictionalizing their family history. The methods are direct and painless and our group is producing some wonderful stories that will be handed down through generations.

I have been wanting to write a family history on my family's deli for almost 12 years. School and other priorties have gotten in the way. After the passing of my grandmother last year (one of the founders of the deli) I figured that this is the year I would like to start. It is now or never.
This book is very easy to read. It has a step-by-step process to gathering data and unlocking your inner writer through a narrative non-fiction. She makes writing sound so easy and provides good, and not so good, examples of writing family history to get information across.
I didn't realize how time consuming this type of writing was going to be so a realistic time line is suggested so that everything is researched and not fictionalized.
I truly recommend this as your first guide to collecting data. She recommends others throughout the book.

Another good book by this author. Clear presentation. Explanations regarding each written family history approach -- reasons why one would pick one over the other. If you want to read someone who explains succinctly but fully ... this book is a winner

But I've never read one of Sharon Debartolo Carmack's books that wasn't! You can depend on her.

One of the best sources of genealogical information for future generations are the recorded family histories provided by our elders before they pass into history. Recorded family histories are ideal sources for 'the story behind the story' of how people met, fell in love, came to be married, of their failures and successes, their losses and their gains, the anecdotal stories of living through 'interesting times'. But these family stories don't record themselves. That's why Sharon DeBartolo Carmack has written an instructive and thoroughly 'user friendly' guide to recording our family histories in the do-it-yourself instructional manual "You Can Write Your Family History". Every aspect of the process is covered, from selecting the bet type of family history to write; to deciding on a theme; to conducting efficient research with the goal of fleshing out a narrative; to putting subjects into the context of relevant social history; to the actual work of getting the words down on paper and preserved. Every aspiring and practicing genealogist, as well as non-specialist general readers wanting to preserve the stories of their parents and grandparents for the benefit of their children and grandchildren, should read "You Can Write Your Family History".

Being in the middle of writing my history, I now have this excellent book to inspire me to go on. My next step is an advanced writing class that starts this month. The author brings up points that remind me to investigate and also write more detail, or, delete some of the detail.
I highly recommend it for ones library.
Bev

The book is in excellent shape and having scanned several chapters and really digging in to the first 3 chapters I feel like this is just the book I was looking for to help me put my family history into an exciting book form for the rest of my family.

Excellent source for writing your family history and full of ideas and things you did not know or even think about. Great companion to Producing a Quality Family History by Patricia Law Hatcher. One is about writing, the other is all the technical information you need to produce a book.

I have purchased multiple books on the subject of writing a family history, from journalistic non-fiction to memoirs to writing fiction based on historical family facts. While they were all good in their own way and provided helpful insight into writing techniques, none of them was what I was looking for. This book, however, was as if I personally went to the author, told her my ideas and thoughts on what I wanted to accomplish and asked her to write me a book that would give me the confidence to do it and explain how to go about it. I was struggling with how to write an interesting narrative based on this heaping pile of facts I have collected, something that was actually worth reading and wouldn't sound like a textbook. How do you accomplish such a feat without fictionalizing, especially when writing about ancestors you never knew? I contemplated a fictional approach so I could get into the heads and hearts of my characters, but consciously I couldn't do it. I have no way of knowing if my ancestors were good or bad people, and I'm uncomfortable portraying them as either without proof. This book explained how to create the illusion of emotion and thought without actually committing to it as fact and thusly migrating into fictional waters. The book gives wonderful examples and clear ideas. I was having doubt about my ability to pull this project off, but after reading this book, I am filled with a renewed sense of confidence and ambition. Writing a family narrative is no easy task, but I can see the finished product in my mind's eye and I'm anxious to make it a reality.

I do wish, however, that the author would release a revised edition. The book was originally published in 2003 and my copy reprinted in 2008. I feel as though the internet has come a long way since this book was written and that some of the resources could be updated. But nonetheless, it's a fantastic book!

A must read for anyone doing genealogy research on family history. It is detailed without being cumbersome in both words and size of book.
I wish I had purchased it before I started to organize my history as it has
various suggestions on different ways it can be done.

As a beginner on geneaology -- I found this book to be an excellent
/easy to read & understand/clear references -- I read the book twice
and higlighted key phrases -- I could not put the book down - just
had to read it again -- the author has done an excellent job !!!
Thank you --