I was also fortunate to latch on to a Canadian Military enthusiast who guided me to the story behind the emigration of my Great Uncle from the East End of London to fighting in the Canadian Army (Finding Hidden Stories in Military Records) Like many family historians I often find myself chasing a lead that is two generations away from where I should be! When you put this along side the habit of earlier generations of naming their first born son after the father it is not surprising that I often find myself wondering how John Smith managed to produce three children before his 10th birthday! My solution to this muddled approach was to have a simple family tree template within easy reach. My first blog post centered on my immediate family and, surprisingly it was my Great Niece who responded so positively that gave me the motivation to keep posting. My end goal when researching is always to find stories that I can share with my extended family. Choose, Write, Now! Family History Template #1 Short Story In school they were known as “Pen Portraits”If you’re stuck at the “list” stage or if you want to take a “one step at a time approach” to something bigger then writing family history templates is the easiest, most stress free way to start. I began by using research recording forms but I found the final product was just a different shaped list! What I needed was something between a list and a short story.

The better I became at finding information the more disorganized I became. Unexpected stories turned up in Canada, ( Finding Hidden Stories In Military Records) and a family secret saw the light of day ( What A Tangled Web We Weave) The process I went through each time was chaotic and in many instances I lost and found important information many times over. Using the magic of ancestry research I accumulated a plethora of names, dates, occupations and roots in many English counties.

It was simply my way of dealing with the belief that, as I could not write a novel I would write what I know about my family history as I found it. The first post I wrote for this blog, (Not The Beginning) was not intended to be a cryptic clue.

Free template for family history book