Start Small
If you’re considering writing and sharing a family story, I suggest you start small—that is, write a little about what you already know. Often a small project is easier to begin—and to complete—than a large one that involves a lot of writing and a lot of additional research.
Even when we’re motivated to write and share family stories with our loved ones, sometimes we don’t know where to start. I’ve learned to grab a pen and paper and brainstorm what I want to share. It could be a memory. An interesting fact. An observation. A scent. A feeling. A touch. A thought. An experience. A sliver of life. An insight.
I backed into sharing written family stories with my loved ones.
In 1992, having reached an age where I had more perspective on life, I considered how a teacher’s comment encouraged my love for reading. I wrote a letter of appreciation to Sister Mary Gabriella. She was my first-grade teacher for eight weeks before my family moved to another community.
Thankfully, I tracked down Sister Mary Gabriella’s telephone number. Thirty-seven years had passed since we’d last seen each other, and she didn’t remember me among the hundreds of first-grade children she had taught through the years. During our conversation, I read her my one-and-a-half-page letter. I asked for her address so I could also mail my letter to her. Afterwards, I felt joy that I’d been able to express my thanks for her kindness, words of encouragement, and the impact she’d made on my life.
Writing a letter of appreciation to Sister Mary Gabriella gave me such joy I wrote to 29 more individuals who had also made a profound, positive impact on my life. I could connect with many of them. For some letter recipients, my research consisted only of searching for their contact information so I could share my letters with them in person, by phone, or by mail.
My son had just started college when I began writing and sharing letters of appreciation. When his 21st birthday approached, I printed and bound the 30 letters and gave them to him as a gift.
In 2000, I wrote my memory of my younger sister sleeping in a manger while Grandma milked the cows. A friend helped me design a graphic of a sleeping baby in a manger. I printed the graphic on one side of some heavy-weight paper, and on the other side printed my one-page story, “Manger Babies.” I folded the cards in half and mailed my remembrance as that year’s Christmas card to family and friends.
In 2002, bolstered by how much I enjoyed writing and sharing the letters of appreciation and the Christmas card, I wrote and gave a few family stories as Christmas gifts. I again started small. To complete some of the family stories I interviewed older family members to capture their memories and asked for relevant photos. For a few projects, I relied on other family members’ genealogy research.
The topic of my first gift highlighted six generations of women in our family who loved flower gardening. (I wrote more about this in the December 2026 blog article titled Gifts That Keep Giving through the Generations.
I included a cover page with a design wreathed around an appropriate quote, two pages I’d written, followed by four pages with photos that spanned the six generations of women. I labeled the photos with the women’s full names along with their birth dates, and, where appropriate, their death dates.
I could have as easily sent that one story as a gift that year, and it would have been enough. But I also sent a second story prompted by a tabletop decoration from my older sister that reminded us of the small white clapboard church we attended as children. I wrote about the wonder of sharing Christmas Eve candlelight services with my grandmother and two sisters. I found letter-size paper with an appropriate border design and printed my story on it. My husband had photographed the small porcelain decoration, so I added an enlarged image of it on a second page.
Flipping through the nonfiction stories I’ve given as family gifts over the years, I noticed many contain one page of writing and a second page with a relevant photo. In the first three decades of gathering, writing, and sharing family stories and histories for Christmas gifts, most were one to four typewritten pages plus several pages of photos. The shorter stories helped me build confidence and my writing and researching muscles. Only in the last few years have I tackled researching and writing longer family histories. But my favorites to research, write, and share are still the small gems.
Starting small helped me capture and share as gifts some family stories and history—part of our heritage and legacy.
Maybe you’ll write and share one or some of your family stories as gifts at a family reunion or for a holiday. Or as a birthday, graduation, wedding, or anniversary present. If this is new to you, I suggest you start small. You might write page or two, check a few facts, and add photos or graphics. Regardless of the length you choose, it will be priceless.
- What ideas do you have for starting small to write and share a family story or a bit of family history?
- Who do you want to write it for?
- Who do you want to share it with?