What I learned from the Family History Writing Challenge

I joined the challenge with a lofty goal to write 1000 words a day for 28 day. It was ambitious and maybe a little out of reach but everyday I attempted to meet the goal. What did I learn?

1. Set the goal high.

I can write a 400 word article with ease. I have been writing them for a long time. I am lazy so to make the challenge work for me, I had to up the anty.

2. Meeting the goal

I only made the word limit on 2 of the 28 days. It was much more difficult than I thought. The material is there but stretching it to meet the word count is not the best way to write. Instead, I gave myself permission to write only what was needed.

3. Life gets in the way

If life got in the way, I wrote about it.  The blog is about family history and trips to the doctor would qualify as a family history for future generations. I don't promote the blog so the only people who read it regularly are family. When writing a family history, life doesn't get in the way, it is current events that will be history tomorrow.

4. There are holes in the story - Creative non-fiction

Martha Jane Rhea did not leave a diary or a blog. Heck, they didn't have electricity. I have learned to accept the holes and realize that if I write her story, some of it will have to be creative. That's not the original plan, it just worked out that way as I tried to imagine the scenes.

5. Read the other blogs

There is a lot of talent out there in blog land. There is also a whole lot to learn from others. I didn't always leave comments but I made it a point to read the blogs of the other Family History Challenge members. Their stories touched and inspired me each day.

6. Challenges are fun, tiring, and well worth the time

The Armchair Genealogist never fails to deliver. I don't know how Lynn does it but there is always something new to learn or enjoy. When I first considered the challenge, it was something new. The thought was since I was only competing with myself, how hard could it be? It's hard but I ended up with is a disjointed 28 days of writing that could possibly be turned into a story. The bones are there. That's so much more than I had before. Can't wait for next year's challenge. 

 

Finding more on "Find A Grave"

Find a Grave is a relatively new site for me. When searching Ancestry.com, the site would popup in the search and lead to another website. The website would display graveyard information about the person I was researching and quite possibly a corresponding headstone. I would blindly add the gravesite to my ancestor’s page and move on. I didn't quite get it but thought it was really cool.

I don't know when it changed but suddenly, like most of my genealogical research, it hit me that there was more to Find A Grave than I realized. The website is not flashy. Its plain look threw me off and the features don't come with bells, lights, and whistles. However, I'm not complaining because I discovered advantages I never expected.

The format is straight forward. Fill in the information and press search. The trick is to put in enough information to get close to the person you are searching for but not more than was posted on the site. For example, I typed in William Ogden Rhea.

This is the message I got:

Grave Search Results
Sorry, there are no records in the Find A Grave database matching your query.

Well, at least the system is polite. So I played with it and found that if I put in “Rhea”, added the state, and omitted the William Ogden, there were 16 results. From there, it was easy to find my grandfather. With those results, I could also see my grandmother.

Wait, I am getting ahead of myself.

Martha Jane McColloam is my great grandmother. She is my topic for the Family History Writing Challenge in February 2013. Lynn from “The Armchair Genealogist” does this every year. I have spent weeks getting ready.

When I found Martha’s headstone I was delighted. It confirmed birth and death in a very concrete way. However, buried with her was a L. V. McColloam and a link to that page. Scrolling over to her page, I saw it was assigned to a Lillie McColloam. I knew that wasn’t right. Lillie married Nelson Snodgrass. I also knew that Martha’s daughter Luvena never married and died young. Sure enough, the dates I had for her matched the headstone.

On the Find a Grave page, there is a tab called edit. Clicking on the tab takes you to a form where you can correct information, add a bio or add other information for others searching for that person. Corrections were completed the next day.

Curious, I wondered who got the form so I starting reading the forum. I found that mostly volunteers maintain Find A Grave. I also found that it is possible to request a marker photo if there is not one on the page. Given the new-found knowledge, I tried another family and asked for the photos of my husband’s biological grandparents graves. The next day I received an email from the person who was going to take the pictures. She had questions about the family who makes up 90% of the cemetery. We had a very long conversation. I added her as a guest on my Ancestry.com to aid her in identifying many of the graves with markings that aren’t clear anymore. It was very beneficial for both of us and we still correspond.

Back to the Rhea’s…the pictures of the markers were available almost immediately. They came with a message. Was the other two Rhea’s part of the same family? I didn’t realize my aunt and uncle were buried there too. I looked them up on Find A Grave but there were no pages for them. That’s when I learned I could add people if the cemetery is known. I completed the bio and the links and then requested the photos. I had always assumed that if they weren’t there, they didn’t exist. Now I know better.

I will admit that there is more for me to learn but giving back is big on my list. I am a new volunteer and take photos at my local cemeteries. If it doesn’t rain tomorrow, I will be out taking photos of the headstones in my queue.

Getting ready for the Family History Writing Challenge

The Family History Writing Challenge is coming up really quickly. I have pledged to write 1000 words a day. I don't think that it is an issue for me. It helps to be wordy. What I find difficult is the research. Having all the facts is only interesting to me.

The Armchair Genealogist is one of my favorite blogs. It is a complete one-stop-shop for research and writing family histories and she pulls in others who share their information as well. I have been reading all the new posts and have discovered I am woefully under-researched.

I have one week to find out what was going on in Sneedville, Tennessee during the time period I want to write about. I need to know what was going on in the country. I know that James McCollum missed the Civil War by going to California. I know that the Clinch River flooded at times and the family lived on the river. I read in the letters that they had to pull up the corn as the river rose along the banks where they planted.

I don't know where my mother found the information that John Brewer is the one who shot my great grandfather. Since Brewer must have lived in Sneedville too, that is another avenue to explore. The Brewer family does have a history that includes later relatives who had a gun battle in town over an election around 1900. Is it the same family?

The more I find, the more questions there are. This is going to be a busy research week.