Have you ever thought about your grandparents’ stories and what they might be able to tell you? Or maybe how special it would be to give your children or grandchildren a personal glimpse into their family history?
Writing out your own searchable personal history is the perfect way to capture the moments, cherished memories, lessons learned and more that define who you are. It is also an excellent way for families of all ages (from millennial parents to doting grandparents) to connect with each other, build meaningful relationships, commemorate events and keep valuable records – no matter where life takes them.
Here are tips on how to best write your personal history so that it can live on in the hearts of future generations.
Do You Need to Record Your history? Here Are 2 Compelling Reasons Why
Continue your legacy – Your family will pick up and learn about their ancestry. Today, many people are searching for their roots in genealogical records, family tree sites, but you can help future generations by creating a private time capsule of memories.
For historical preservation – meaningful events in your time that shape history often come from records from people in historical periods.
How Do You Write and Preserve Your Personal History?
What comes to mind when you hear personal history? Most probably a chronological record of life events (year by year).
While a personal history is a record of life events, when it comes to writing or recording these events for historical preservation, doing it year by year is a tedious affair. One you may not finish.
A better and simpler way to actually do this is in a three step process:
- Create event categories by topic
Instead of writing or recording your personal history year by year, create topics for personal stories you want to capture around major events, experiences, family moments and beliefs, views on politics, religion and even love in your era. - Build out your categories with relevant content
Developing concentrated information about your life will help people get more out of the time capsule memories. - Identify the format and technology for preservation
Your personal history will mean nothing if it is not kept safe for four generations into the future to find it.
With that said, find a digital preservation method that can outlast technological advances, for instance a digital time capsule that can adapt to tech innovations of the time.
Speaking of format, you don’t have to restrict your personal memories to written documents. If you enjoy writing, that’s fine. But modern apps allow creating audio journals, voice notes, videos and photo albums that can add to a rich historical preservation of your stories.
Ideas to Write About in Your Personal History
Here is a list of topic categories you can create for your stories:
- Family experiences
Homes and places you have lived, events, siblings and relatives, recipes, favourite vacations, family heirlooms - Hobbies
Pets, gardens you’ve grown, cars, collectibles, hopes and dreams, charities, technology of your day, poems and writings, favourite restaurant and foods. - Views and Beliefs
Raising children, religious and spiritual experiences, politics, family, marriages, values, influential people in your childhood
Each of the topics above (or others you can think of) that you write about turns into your personal history and can be compiled into a personal archive for historical preservation for your family.
In the meantime, you are creating stories and insights that you can look back on, reflect on, and organise your thoughts.
We have created a simple family-oriented digital time capsule app that offers all these features- feel free to download it and check it out here.
