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.

Straddling the line between fact and fiction

Lying in the land of Memoir: Straddling the Line Between Fact and Fiction is an incredible article sharing thoughts about what we remember when writing a memoir and the actual truth.

I am joining the Family History Writing Challenge and don't know what was said in 1918. I wasn't there but I do have information about that time from my great grandmother's letters. To tell her story, I have done the research into her past and can make educated guesses about her life. Still, I will have to embellish some to fill in the gaps.

The article clearly shows how it is possible to add dialog and details because what we really want to share are not the exact details but the flavor and texture of the times and the person we are writing about. It won't make her story any less true nor the trials and troubles she endured. I want to write about her strengths, ability to overcome obstacles and abiding faith.

Need to find out who James Northcross McCollum really was

Finding that James Northcross McCollum left his family in Tennessee while he went off to the gold mines in California was interesting enough. Then to find out that in the 1880 Census, Mary Polly McCollum listed her marital status as divorced, added another wrinkle. I don't have the records to back the divorce but have written to the Hancock County Historical Society for help.

I had great success with other historical societies in Wisconsin when researching my husband's family so I am hoping for similar results. I have lots of questions. Most of the historical societies do research for reasonable prices and can often find the backup documentation. The hardest part is waiting.