Writing Your Own History
“History, it is said, was written by the victorious… the winners. But history is really a patchwork of stories about ordinary people whose daily lives and legacies have become the fabric of our world.”
Nicole Christian, History and Social Sciences Educator
I hated history as a youth. I’ll admit it. Despite a strong educational beginning with a fascination for early Australian explorers, a monotonous history teacher in my middle school years was all it took to wipe that slate clean of any interest whatsoever.
It took another 35 years to be bitten by the nostalgia bug, and start my journey back into my city’s rich and fascinating historical past. This then led to a personal fascination with people’s historical stories, and then, finally, to my own ancestral journey.
I became an accidental historian the day I decided to look into the back-story of some old documents I’d found hidden under the lino of my hundred-year-old home in Milton. When I shared my discovery on social media, the community’s response was astounding! So many people wanted to help me research, and answer the questions that arose from what I’d found.
Over the course of a year, we developed an online research group, establishing a safe space for sharing ideas and telling stories. We gathered over one million words about the people and times surrounding those hidden documents, and I was able to pull the most important words together in my latest book, Under the Lino.
Each of us has a lifetime of stories to tell, and behind that, is a rich and varied historical trail that deserves to be explored! We might have a chest full of black and white photographs, letters from our elders, video or audio recordings of events and stories, and perhaps, family keepsakes and heirlooms that are gathering dust on our shelves. What are we doing with it all? Will our children and grandchildren be able to decipher the background? Or will they have to embark on a journey of exploration after we’ve gone, and taken most of the answers with us? Or, even worse, will it all end up in a skip?
Collecting stories from other family members is not always easy, but if you use photographs and keepsakes to jog memories, while audio recording with a few well-placed questions, you’d be amazed at what you can discover.
History begins with us, always, and works backwards. Our family, our houses, our schools… there’s so much to discover about our fabulous heritage! I use mind mapping, family tree and journaling techniques to gather information, gleaning stories from old letters, and notate conversations and anecdotes I can remember from years gone by.
There are some wonderful writing programs, such a Scrivener, which can augment your information, and assist with organisation, or perhaps, you’d like to stick with paper scrapbooking. The new world of self-publishing and e-books opens up simple methods of sharing at reduced costs, so all family members and interested parties can access your work.
Family history research sites like ancestry.com are useful for building trees and making familial discoveries, and trove.nla.gov.au is just that, a treasure trove of online resources containing books, images, historic news articles, maps, music and other fabulous archived information that might lead you to what lies in amongst your family’s history.
If nobody else in your family is doing it, be the driving force that creates your family’s fantastic patchwork of history! They will thank you for it one day, I promise.
If you’d like to get some help, get in touch with us here at Snapshot Storytelling, and we can help you manage your project, and be your accountability and research partners. We also run workshops that you might like to attend.
Testimonials from History Writing Workshops (Noosa Library and Queensland Writers’ Centre)
Entertaining speaker, willing to share her expertise. Caylie has inspired me to write more!
Caylie’s workshop was informative, fast-paced, with great group facilitation and shared tips. So keen to start my Dad’s history now!
Caylie’s workshop was brilliant! Very well presented and now I can’t wait to start writing my family history. Her approach to writing history was so helpful, I will certainly be using it to write my own.
I loved this workshop! Caylie provided some direction on how to make a start with some short pieces. Great ease and flow, and I loved the website links she gave to help me access more information. Particularly loved the letter-writing and mind-mapping.
I really enjoyed getting information about how to interview relatives – Caylie’s workshop gave me more creative ways to structure my family history.
I enjoyed Caylie’s History writing workshop so much! She was a fabulous presenter who kept me interested, and I learnt so much! I will try now to write my memoir using the information she shared.
I loved everything about Caylie Jeffery’s History writing workshop! It was productive, useful, valuable, inclusive and inspiring! I loved her anecdotal, story-telling style… Now I am so keen to research, order and compile my own family story!
Caylie’s workshop was engaging, true to topic and full of useful starters. I feel so motivated to find direction for my own writing goals now!
Caylie is very engaging. She is a warm and personable presenter who speaks and teaches with empathy and encouragement.
I came away with a much clearer picture of how to tackle historical fiction writing. Caylie has provided me with so many ideas!
This workshop was excellent. It’s given me new and unexpected ideas, and Caylie was excellent.
Caylie provided loads of information in a very personal and enjoyable way. I took away lots of great ideas and left inspired.
Caylie workshop delivered, for me, an inspiring method of organising the memorabilia and inspiration to start my complex project of activist women.
