Family History Writing Challenge: Day 3: A Fresh Start

Day 3 of this Challenge, and a reply to my forum query has produced startling results.  There were plenty of helpful suggestions on writing about ancestors who existed in living memory, such as your grandparents etc.  But I was frustrated! because the earliest of 'my' ancestors I would be writing about was born in 1687, and the 'youngest' or latest was born in 1844 - and I certainly didn't remember them, nor could I interview relatives who knew them.

So once again, my dreams of finishing 'Faith and Silk' seemed more like obstacles.  Until at last somebody suggested that I might not like to write something so full of guesswork and speculation at first.  That somebody was Lynn Palermo, the Armchair Genealogist who has initiated this Challenge.  Why didn't I think of that before? why did I beat myself up year after year for not having finished a project which was too difficult for me?  'Faith and Silk' will still happen - just not yet.  Let me get a little more comfortable writing family histories first.

William Hubert Ball

Edmund George Haywood

So I have started a new project.  'The Big Four' is going to be about my four grandparents: William Hubert BALL, Minda Mary EDGCOMBE, Edmund George HAYWOOD, and Elsie Beatrice BLAGDON.  Some of them I knew better than others - but I knew them all.  Although they are all deceased, they lived in recent enough times that there are photos of them, and events they lived through (like World War One) which have a plethora of things written about them which I can research, if I can't remember.

Minda Mary Edgcombe

 

 

Elsie Beatrice Blagdon

Already I feel much more relaxed about this Challenge.  More keen and eager to get started, more enthused about trying, more likely to progress.

Scrivener, here I come!