Product Description

There's no reason a fully documented family history can't read like a page-turning novel. In this concise and accessible book, Sharon DeBartolo Carmack shows genealogists, history buffs, and writers at all levels exactly how to record the fascinating tales of their ancestors. Based on her own extensive experience writing family histories, the author shares her best methods for:

Conducting historical and thematic research
Organizing materials
Outlining and plotting a story Illustrating with pictures and charts
Making money writing the histories of other families

The advice, inspiration and instruction in You Can Write Your Family History makes it possible for anyone-even those who've never written a single page-to successfully chronicle the lives of near or distant relatives. It's the next best thing to having a personal instructor by your side.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71865 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 260 pages

About the Author
Certified Genealogist Sharon DeBartolo Carmack is nationally recognized in her field and lectures to thousands of genealogists every year. She's authored five highly acclaimed family history narratives and a number of genealogy books, including Organizing Your Family History Search, and Your Guide to Cemetery Research.

Customer Reviews

A Blueprint for Writing One's Family History
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.

The Great Motivater
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.

Excellent resource
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.