Workshops

This month marks my return to running workshops from my series, “How to Write Family History and Memoir, Even if You’re Not a Writer.” I started this back in 2007, after publishing my first book, Strength Within: The Granger Chronicles, a history of my mother’s extraordinary family.

Realizing there are plenty of resources for people setting out to research their family histories – genealogy groups and historical societies abound – I focussed on what you do with all that data you end up with. Nobody wants to read through lists of dates and places and who begat whom, and I’d met plenty of passionate genealogists who were dismayed themselves by their research results.

The question is: how do you tell a story from all that data? How do you write it so people will actually read it?

I realized I could teach people how to do this. And I’m still doing it six years later! After every workshop, there’s a buzz of energy as the participants hurry out, inspired to write and armed with techniques that get them past the “but I’m not a writer” lament.

I love teaching these workshops! Who wouldn’t, with these results? This year, I’m particularly excited about getting back to the classroom, because after many years I am returning to genealogy research myself. After a long-time focus on Muskoka’s history, I’m looking into my own roots once again: the Eckhardt family of Niagara.

Like the Grangers, the Eckhardt family is extraordinary; I know that even this early into the research. In fact, every family is extraordinary; I know that from my years of teaching.

And every amateur genealogist is exactly the right person to write their family story.