Writing your life story

Gramps49

This seems to have become a pretty popular pastime in the USA. There are many programs out there which will give you a set of questions to work on throughout the year. Not going to recommend any specific program, but I am working though one now that asks a set 50 questions. The idea is to answer one question per week, but I am so far behind, I am trying to do at least one a day to catch up.

Before my mother died, I encouraged her to write some of her story. Unfortunately, it was not organized very much, and she repeated herself quite a bit, but I did find out some of her story I did not know about, like how she married a musician to try to keep him out of the draft (WWII). It did not work. She also told stories of working at a church camp when I was growing up. Toward the end of her life, I sat down with her and asked some questions I had wondered about and then transcribed them. She enjoyed reminiscing about her experiences. We used a number of her stories during her funeral services. My brother and I each got a copy of those stories. I have passed copies of them on to my kids. I am not sure what my brother has done with his copy.

Is there anyone out there who is also doing this? Did you have stories you received from your parents, even other predecessors?

I have always enjoyed autobiographies and biographies of famous people. I certainly cannot claim any fame, but at least I want my kids to know a little more about how I came to be. Eventually the stories I write will gather dust in some attic or storage unit, but if they can carry on for at least one generation, I will be satisfied.

Lamb Chopped

I've got a COVID diary I started at the beginning of the pandemic. It focuses on the little things I experienced--it doesn't report the stuff you'd find in a newspaper, but more what it was like to go through a toilet paper shortage, what we did about not being able to get hair cut or dyed, how we coped with the restrictions on socializing. I haven't re-read it, though I think I probably ought. I hope my grandchildren may be interested some day.

Boogie

We had a narrowboat when our children were young and went off down the canals on it during weekends and holidays. I wrote a log book/diary and asked anyone who borrowed it to do the same.

I've got four full books. I love reading them. Especially for remembering long-forgotten details. I'd love a diary of the other days too but I had no time (full time job, two kids, cat, dog, husband, house).

Heavenlyannie

I’m currently writing an essay on seventeenth and eighteenth century health, and diaries are some of my key sources. I do not enjoy doing such writing myself (I’d rather write an essay than a diary!) but I love reading the historical diaries of ordinary people; the minutiae of daily life is fascinating to the historian and sociologist. I know so much about my diarists’ lives; their reading matter, current debates, religion, family rows, eating and drinking, the flexibility of occupational boundaries (a shopkeeper might also be the local scribe and undertaker).
Daily life diaries are the bread and butter of historians. Keep it up.

Puzzler

I have a hard-back exercise book which I write in from time to time. So far it is mainly about my family and my childhood. As well as various incidents I can recall, I write about life as it was then: the Saturday night bath in a tub in front of the fire, the weekly wash on a Monday, the carrier, the local baker etc.

Another thread running through is by way of my musical background, and my Christian life story- various churches etc.
In my mind I am hoping my children and grandchildren will read it one day, if they can decipher my handwriting.

North East Quine

Last year my mother hand-wrote an account of her childhood, which she wanted me to type up and then print a copy for each grandchild. I asked a few questions to extend it a bit, word processed it with photos, and had 20 copies printed. Mum loved discovering that she had written a book! She enjoyed signing copies for family and friends, and it generated a lot of interest.

I've been recording conversations on my phone since then and have been typing up stories with the aim of producing Vol 2. The first ended on her 13th birthday, the second will be additional stories from her childhood, and then take her story up to the point she left school. Once it's done, I'll get 30 copies printed this time, plus get a further 10 copies of the first run off.

Cathscats

Years ago my parents gave my Granny a pad of paper and a pen and told her to get on with it. I have a copy of the resulting booklet which is reminisces of her childhood as the second youngest of 10 in a two roomed cottage…. She seems to have written things as they occurred to her, so the murder of a neighbour is cheek by jowl with an account to of her mother making bannocks over the fire and laying them to cool on the bed, for lack of space. The connection in her mind was her mother, who was the one everyone in the little farm community sent for in an emergency. I treasure her 20 pages, and wish she had gone further, but she stopped at the point where she was teaching, and before she even met her husband.

quetzalcoatl

Yes, it's the detail that is gripping. Never mind the battle of Waterloo, tell me how you made a white sauce, and how many magpies were killed in your village. My wife has various feminist ancestors, and the political diatribes are less interesting than the details. Who was in charge of the sugar? How did you clean your teeth? Caroline Cornwallis, for one.

Sarasa

I have all my mum's diaries in the loft but have never had the courage to see what she wrote.

Doublethink

Maybe turn them over to a local historian you trust ?

Caissa

When my mother died she asked to have her diaries destroyed; my sister complied with this request.

Puzzler

My cousin gave me one of my aunt’s diaries, written when she was In Service. Mostly very mundane, there are occasional interesting incidents. A wedding present list shows that her employers thought very highly of her, as they were extremely generous in their gift. She was an orphan, so I guess they felt almost in loco parentis.
I expect my children will just throw it out. You can’t keep everything.

Boogie

Sarasa wrote: »

I have all my mum's diaries in the loft but have never had the courage to see what she wrote.

I have my Dad's love letters to my Mum when he was away in London at theological college, my brother and I were 2 and 4 years old.

I haven't read them either.

Stercus Tauri

Both my parents wrote good accounts of their early years. My father wrote about growing up poor in Greenock, qualifying as a radio operator and going to sea in 1926 at the age of 16. My mother's best notes were about working at the War Office in London during the blitz, but not enough about her prolifically inventive father and his brother. My own (so far unwritten) autobiography will take up one side of a sheet of A4, double spaced with extra wide margins.

Piglet

Stercus Tauri wrote: »

... My father wrote about growing up poor in Greenock ...

Good heavens - my parents grew up in Greenock too! They were a bit younger than yours; Dad was born in 1925, Mum in 1927.

Gramps49

By all means, dust off those old love letters and read through those old diaries. They may explain some things about your parents you had wondered about. True, they may be mundane as ever, but as was pointed out, every once in a while, a gem comes through.

As Doublethink suggested, local historians, libraries or historical associations would love to see them. That is one way we learn so much about the pioneering families in our area.

One question that is coming up for me is What is the bravest thing you ever did in your life. I am stumped on that one. Did not go to war. Maybe have to think of an alternative question.

quetzalcoatl

Got married.

Gramps49

quetzalcoatl wrote: »

Got married.

Now, that is a loaded statement.

Alan Cresswell

Consensus on the bridge is that the life story of this thread would be better taking a trip to Heaven.

Alan
Ship of Fools Admin

Lamb Chopped

I dunno, "got married" (after experience of my parents' divorce) makes really good sense for "bravest thing I ever did!" My dad actually met news of my engagement with these exact words: "You know I don't believe in marriage."

Graven Image

I write poems about my life and illustrate them. Nothing scandalous. Poems about our mail carrier, my dog, the weather, the garden, and the election. That might be a bit of a scandal word-wise, and my illustration of an upside-down flag.

Sparrow

Lamb Chopped wrote: »

I've got a COVID diary I started at the beginning of the pandemic. It focuses on the little things I experienced--it doesn't report the stuff you'd find in a newspaper, but more what it was like to go through a toilet paper shortage, what we did about not being able to get hair cut or dyed, how we coped with the restrictions on socializing. I haven't re-read it, though I think I probably ought. I hope my grandchildren may be interested some day.

I did something very similar, and I have kept on ever since, just a paragraph every day about what I did, where I went. It will never be of any interest to anyone but myself, but I still find it useful to go back and search it (it is on the PC) if I need to remember an event, even something as insignificant as when I went to get my hair done!

NicoleMR

I keep a daily journal on a blogging site, Livejournal, and also on a similar site, Dreamwidth.

Gracious Rebel

I've been writing a daily diary since 1970, aged 10, but I doubt it would be of much interest to anyone other than myself or my family.

Boogie

I have done a sketchbook with notes this year. I'm enjoying it. My latest drawings are 'Church mice', remembering my Dad.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tqXD5Tn77He61yzS6

Gramps49

@Boogie those are good. Thanks for sharing.

Cathscats

@Boogie I so admire those who can draw!

Arethosemyfeet

Cathscats wrote: »

@Boogie I so admire those who can draw!

I can draw. Those who've seen the results will have thoughts about whether I should.