How to Create a Personal History
Writing a personal history is a good way to help future generations get to know you more personally. It can be a good thing to will to your children and grandchildren. In addition, writing a personal history can help you look back on your own life and reflect on what was really important to you. In general, a personal history can take the form of a book or computer document, but you can add anything you would like. You can supplement your family history with photographs of yourself and others, newspaper clippings from the time, correspondences and more.
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Things You'll Need
- Pen and paper
- Computer (optional)
- Family photographs (optional)
- Old newspapers (optional)
- Historical memorabilia (optional)
Instructions
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Start with the basics, in chronological order. Think about where you grew up, what the town or city was like and what your house was like. Include information such as what your parents did for a living, what your favorite school activities were and how you got along with your siblings, if you have any.
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Use photographs to stimulate your memory as you move through the process of reminiscing about your life. The pictures can also go into the personal history book to help the reader get a better sense of who you are. If you write that you were silly as a young person, for instance, you could include a picture of yourself doing something silly.
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Make the personal history come alive by adding historical context. Look for any old news clippings you might have kept. Include notes on what you thought about major historical events as they were occurring. Tell your children and grandchildren what the majority of people felt about historical events at the time and how you were similar or different from the majority.
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Include facts about your relationships with other people. Were there any friends, for instance, that made a major impact on your life? Was a there a particular mentor that guided you to make a career decision? If you have any pictures of the important people in your life or letters you sent to or received from them, include those in the memory book.
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Find someone to interview you, or pretend you are interviewing yourself. This can help you include information you might now have thought of by simply remembering things. If you are interviewing yourself, write a list of questions for yourself to answer. When you make the list, pretend you are helping someone else make his own personal history. If you are being interviewed by someone else, it might help to be interviewed by someone who doesn't know you particularly well, since their questions might be more objective and uncover information that a close friend or family member might not have gotten out of you.
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References
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Comments
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honkytonkranch
Oct 28, 2010
You would be skilled with this two-face. Two-face, actually more like 8-face. I mean how many bridges do you have to burn to become an expert on this subjecct. How many times do you want to be left alone. Get ready for another one cause I'm leaving you.
