Summarizing Journals

Have you ever given thought to creating summaries of your journals, or the diaries, journals, and other information you might have inherited -- maybe even preparing just a table of contents? 

One member of our writing group has been keeping journals for many years, and has recently been going through them and creating summaries, to make it easier, down the road, for her family to access and read her journals. Wow! That's dedication. While I firmly believe her family will want to read the full text of her journals, witness her world, and see the world through her eyes, the summary would highlight the main events noted, allowing readers to see what information is included within a single journal. She is also creating summaries of other experiences she has written about and materials she has inherited from her own ancestors, again to create a more ready access. 

Summarizing is especially good when you have a lot of disparate material to present. Journals are, for the most part, written chronologically (even is a time lapse between entries) and they have context. Military records and other types of documents might not be as easy to read, so it makes sense to extract pertinent information and incorporate that into a life story or a chronology of someone's life. This is what professional genealogists do in their reports. They summarize the main features of the material researched, carefully documenting where the information derived, and create a nice readable document. But the originals are still there for reference. Summarizing journals are something else.

While I have not created summaries my own journals, I have created a table of contents, that does something of the same thing, indicating the dates covered within a particular journal and the main events covered during that time period -- a wedding, the birth of a child, graduation, etc. The only problem, I think, in condensing, is losing the thoughts and feelings that tend to emerge as we write, which is, after all, the essence journal writing. In summarizing, we might tend to highlight the upbeat and positive, glossing over life's challenges and how we managed. 

But so long as the summary does not "replace" the full text -- in other words, we keep the original,  we can be fairly certain those who follow will want to read it all and discover, line upon line -- and between the lines -- the experiences and lessons of a life lived.

Creating Timelines

Creating a Timeline. What is a timeline and how do we create it? A timeline is simply a chronological listing of life events: birth, marriage, death . . . and everything in between. There is a saying that "Music is what happens between the notes." Life is like that, life happens between events. A good timeline will capture the music of life.

Beginning with your birth (or that of your subject), make a simple list of events, in chronological order. You can create your timeline using lined notebook paper or legal pad, a word processor (such as Word), or a spreadsheet (such as Excel), listing your events down the page. A horizontal timeline like those we see in books doesn't work so well for encapsulating detailed events -- you simply run out of room on the page.

Depending on how you work, a handwritten timeline may be the most convenient. I like using a spreadsheet because the lines go on forever and it’s easy to insert years and/or events, although I must admit, I typically write it out first. Regardless of how you create it, a good practice is to keep a duplicate copy as a backup. I can’t say enough about backing up anything and everything you do -- more later on creating backups.

In creating a timeline, it may be helpful to sequence your life (or your subject's) in general life categories; for example:

Earliest recollections

Childhood (0-11)

Adolescence (11-18)

Early adulthood (18-25)

Prime adulthood (25-45)

Mid-life (45-65)

Later years (65 +)

That is not to say this chronological order is how you will "present" the story -- there are many interesting ways to begin and tell a story, but grouping events can be helpful in recalling events that might not otherwise come to mind. The timeline and archive can work together in helping you outline your history and identify the gaps. Filling in the gaps is one of our next topics.

Preserving the Family Archive

In our writing group last month, we talked about the process of writing a family history, and step one of that process -- after making the decision to take action --  is to begin gathering, organizing, and preserving a working archive. 

A "working archive' is comprised of the material needed to write your story, and may include a variety of documents, photos, and other memorabilia. Whether you are writing your own personal history, the history of an ancestor, or someone else in your family, it's important to gather all the information you can pertaining to that person, and to have it organized and on hand when it's time to write -- more later on organizing your working archive.

The place to start is within your own home, gathering and organizing your "family" archive -- you might be surprised at home much information you have once you pull it all together. The family archive would include family documents, vital records, photos, and memorabilia, including newspaper clippings, wedding and birth announcement, funeral programs; and, in addition, any materials you may have inherited about your ancestors or other family members. Often this material is scattered in multiple places or piled all together in a box or suitcase and stored away.

Although modern day scrapbooking may have rescued the kids' photos and memorabilia from the pile, the proverbial cardboard box is still a reality for some -- a sort of catch-all for all those things we are going to get to  . . . someday. Not only is the box a catch-all, unorganized by definition, it is also subject to loss, damage, and decay. Our first step would be to gather all of this material, sort it, and take action to preserve it. This need not expensive, archivally safe page protectors, photo pages, and photo boxes available at your local craft store may be a good place to start -- more on later on preservation.

Once you have taken this step, it's easy to see what you have and what you may be missing to begin compiling your story. The next step is to create a TIMELINE for the person or family about whom you are writing. 

Mixing It Up

Although this blog is dedicated to the many aspects of writing family history, it aims, also, to encourage individual talent in writing and self-expression. In other words, you don't have to be writing family history, per se, to participate and gain encouragement. So we will be mixing it up a little bit, based on interests expressed by our readers. When it comes right down to it, whatever you are doing today is making history. Here's an example.

One member of our writing group reports that when her grandfather passed away, the family found a box of poems tucked away in his closet. The children had no idea their father, not one you would call a sensitive man, was writing poetry. In sifting through and reading the poems, it was found that some of the poems had been published. Active in his labor union, many of the poems were about labor loyalties and were published in the local labor magazine. Some of the poems, apparently written during the 1950s, were little ditties of a commercial nature. During that era, advertisers held contests, inviting the public to submit jingles and rhymes to be used in advertising their products. One wonders if that was the purpose of these little poems. In all, through his poems, the children gained new insights into their father's life.

For those interested, a movie entitled, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, based on a true story and starring Julianne Moore, explores the era of the jingle contest. The movie is rated PG-13.

Writing Group

For members of our local writing group, you can check here for follow-ups to our discussions and post your own comments and questions. The blog is a good way to keep the momentum going between group meetings. We hope the writing group discussion will inspire others to explore their own talents and interest in writing.

Writing for the ages . . .

You don't have to be over a certain age to be writing family history. Young people are doing it every day in the form of blogs. Blogs are modern day journals -- just remember to save your blogs offline. The idea of writing personal history is to save it for posterity. You can save your blog by simply cutting and pasting it into a word processing program. Some programs allow you to export or download your blog file. We will learn more about archiving blogs as we go along. The point is, writing isn't so hard after all, you can do it at any age, and you can do it in increments.

All of that said, I do have strong reservations about posting too much personal information online, so be mindful of what your share for the world to see. Privacy issues are something else we can talk about as time goes by.

Where to begin

Writing one's family history can take many forms -- where to begin is up to you. Some may want to begin by keeping a personal journal or diary; some want to write their own personal history; and some want to write a family history or the history of one or more members of their family. There are many ways to express and share family history, and when you find your particular medium, the writing will flow naturally. Getting over the initial hesitation and exploring the many avenues of expression is the focus of this blog.