Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Judith van Praag on April 1, 2010 at 12:15pm

Lisa, I'm excited about finding this group. I've been working on a biography which is turning into a memoir with biography thread, it all started out with inheritance of content of "Papa's Chest". Will be back later to share questions and perhaps some answers as well. Judith

Permalink Reply by Diana Raab on May 29, 2010 at 2:21pm

Hello Memoirists

I would like to announce the release of my latest memoir/self-help book, HEALING WITH WORDS: A WRITER'S CANCER JOURNEY avaialbe on Amazon, bn.com or wherever books are sold. The book also has some blank journaling pages and lists of resources.

Let me know if you want me to do a signing or workshop in your town or to be a guest blogger.

Happy writing!
Diana
http://www.dianaraab.com

Permalink Reply by Lisa Rivero on April 2, 2010 at 5:56am

Judith, I am eager to hear more about your biography turned memoir. The same thing has happened to me. At first, I started a book about my great aunt's diaries and the time period they covered. However, the more I work on it and the more feedback I got in a couple of pitch sessions and from other writers, I'm realizing that the book I need and want to write is about my interaction with reading and transcribing the diaries, and what they are teaching me.

Welcome to the group!

Permalink Reply by Judith van Praag on April 9, 2010 at 8:31am

Lisa,
A week has gone by since your response. What tremendous riches for you to have your great aunt's diaries. What comes to my mind is Kit Bakke's book Miss Alcott's E-mail
Transcribing journals is no small task, is your aunt's writing easy to decipher?
The handwriting in the letters of my mother and her relatives is very regular but after a page or so my brains starts to curl or unfurl and I simply can't read too much at the time.

Have you considered voice recognition programs? I've thought about using such a program to record my own journal writing, but have been hesitant because of the learning curve (both for me and the program, it has to recognize my voice).
But looking up the link for the program gets me interested again ...

Permalink Reply by Lisa Rivero on April 15, 2010 at 5:10pm

Judith, thank you for alerting me to Miss Alcott's E-mail! It looks like a book I will love.

Hattie's handwriting is idiosyncratic, but I can read most of it easily, except for her later years, when her hands were obviously shaky at times. I do tire of working at a computer keyboard for so long, though, especially the back and forth of read transcribe repeat. I'm going to look into voice recognition programs and software (thanks for the link). My father suggested that as well. The only thing I wonder about is all of the odd names of neighbors, and how much work I would need to do to clean up the final text. Something to research, though...

Permalink Reply by Vanessa Saizon on April 8, 2010 at 8:29pm

This past weekend I got a picture of my grandmother from my aunt. Still waiting on my dad to give me his old family pictures and when I asked him again over Easter weekend if or when could he give them to me he told me that he doesn't know where they are. I wish I could just go rummaging through his house and bedroom closet to find the pictures. Also, seems like he is in any rush to look for them.

Perhaps he doesn't understand how important it is for me to preserve the family pictures, which in a sense is strange to me because my dad knows I've been doing the genealogy on our family. He has those black and white polaroid pictures of great aunts/uncles, 2nd and 3rd generation cousins, pictures when he was young and when he was in the Army, pictures of his mother's house, pictures of his sisters and brothers, pictures of the Catholic nuns from the Catholic school they attended and I think he had some pictures of working with his father. I remember looking at them all the time when I was younger. My dad always kept the pictures in a plastic container or something but never in a photo album.

At this point I am interpreting his procrastination and lack of interest to one of those I'll get to it when I get to it kind of thing. Until then, I guess I can continue to ask or better yet nag or just hush for awhile and be patient. The being patient part would probably work best and hopefully in my favor. Right now which I also told him that I have a scrapbook album that I'm still saving just for that whenever I get them.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Rivero on April 9, 2010 at 6:27am

My dad has reacted in similar ways at times to my interest in family documents and photos--almost possessive, or maybe fearful of what someone else will do with them, or think of them? It literally took me years to be able to borrow some diary volumes. Every time I go home, I try to scan in a few more photos. He has softened up quite a bit though, now that he sees how much he is enjoying the process, too, and he even gave me some photos to take home last summer (a huge step!).

Do you live close enough that you could scan them in or take photographs of them, at least for now? If it's a control issue, that might help.

Then again, as you wrote, he might just be procrastinating. :) In any case, good luck! I know how frustrated you must feel.

Permalink Reply by Judith van Praag on April 9, 2010 at 8:40am

Vanessa, Mmh. They say patience is the reward of being patient. Being patient in respect to family stories, names of people and places in pictures however most often leads to not knowing who the hell all those folks are, a lot of guess work and sorry to say, a loss of vital info one could have obtained by pressing harder.

You ask whether your father doesn't understand etc. and my guess is he doesn't. It is not his interest, that part of his life lies in the past, perhaps he doesn't care to look at, or just can't imagine his daughter would be truly interested, and therefore doesn't occupy his thoughts.

One way to engage him would be to tell him you want to interview him for prosperity, you're interested in hearing his life story and want to share it with the family. You can find publications on interviewing older relatives, or make your own list with questions.

If such an approach doesn't fly, think of memorable moments in history that he must have witnessed, or known about, engage him in a conversation. Surprise him with your curiosity and interest.

Make a point of setting a date. Tell him to gather photos, or at least think about where they might be.
Showing true interest may open a door that has been closed (literally and figuratively.
Do this while you can. Yes, there's only one way to get my point across and it is by being blunt.
Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Sandi Johnson on April 9, 2010 at 6:47am

For the time being, my Mother is storing alot of the old family letters, photos, etc. However, she photocopies the letters and scans the photos. My sister and I each get a copy of the letters, poems, or other paper stuff. Mom's taking all the scanned photos and using some photo recognition software on her Mac to organize them all. Eventually, we'll each get CDs with all the family photos. It's not the same as the original, but it helps keep everyone from over-handling some of the older documents.

I'm lucky in that there's a lot of public information available on my relatives. My great-grandfather wrote books on compensation & torts as a law professor. I'm trying to get my hands on copies of those - he graduated law school in the late 1800's, so his books would have been published pre-1930. My great-grandmother helped start a school for handicapped children in California - the original location is now a historical site, so much of that information is pubicly stored and archived as part of the site's history. (The building already had historic significance prior to the school.) Since my mother's side of the family was primarily academics, there's alot of documentation on their lives. Teachers and professors seem to historically have a "thing" with writing things down, keeping anything paper, writing and collecting books, and serious record-keeping. Makes it so much easier now to find documentation.

My father's side, however, doesn't seem to have saved much. If they did, it's all gone to my aunts & cousins who I doubt have much appreciation for preservation. I do, however, have copies of a family tree a relative of my father's did some years ago. It goes back 3 generations before my father. If I ever wanted to do some digging, at least I have names, dates of birth, etc. on that side. My mother, bless her paper-loving soul, has made copies and given them everyone who wanted one.

Permalink Reply by Judith van Praag on April 9, 2010 at 9:01am

Sandi, Wow, you're so fortunate to have great grand parents whose writing was published. This makes me think of Ellie Mathews who used a book by her grandfather to write her own version of his adventures based on the said book and the correspondence between her grandparents for her book Ambassador to the Penguins.

A couple of genealogists in the Netherlands who search way beyond the branches of their immediate family have provided me with the family tree of my father's family which dates back to the mid 1700's when our ancestors came to Amsterdam and Antwerp from Prague, in what now is the Czech Republic.
Of my mother's side I have some information thanks to the family tree of another far-far away relation.

I truly wouldn't have the patience to work on a family tree myself, I'm more interested in correspondence and other data and am glad there are other people who get a kick out of creating the family tree. I prefer to create the scaffolding around it from which to hang my snippets of information.

Permalink Reply by Nancy Hinchliff on April 14, 2010 at 7:08am

Lisa,
My goal is to put together a memoir which spans the 16 years I have been an Innkeeper. I am retiring in a few months and plan to spend all my time writing. I have been archiving stories (many of which have been published) about my bed and breakfast for quite a while now and want to include recipes and humor along with these in the book. I have not figured out an approach for structuring it and really don't know where to start.

Lately, I'm wondering if I'm in the right place, because my memoir wont be about my "family". I joined this group because it was a small, interesting looking group of good writers who appear to have quite a bit of knowledge about memoir. I'm desperate for feedback, knowing absolutely nothing about it myself. Can you, and any other members who are so inclined, please make some suggestions. "Should I stay or should I go?" as the song goes :=) and can you recommend some reading for me?

Permalink Reply by Lisa Rivero on April 14, 2010 at 7:37am

Nancy, I only have a moment right now (a newsletter I edit has a deadline of tomorrow and I haven't received all of the submission yet--yikes), but I want to say please do stay! Your idea is fascinating, and I love the idea of combining recipes and humor. It sounds similar to what I hope to do with my aunt's diaries in some ways. This group can be anything the members need it to be, IMO.

I will write more tonight or, more probably, tomorrow. Meanwhile, maybe someone else has some reading/book suggestions?

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