Review: You Can Write Your Family History by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack

You Can Write Your Family History by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003, 245 p. Reprints: 2009, & 2013.

I recently rediscovered this gem of a book in my library and felt that it merited a review, even though it was originally published eighteen years ago. I was looking for a book that would provide guidance and, perhaps more importantly, the inspiration I needed to begin work on a long thought about family history book. This is one of the best books on genealogical authorship I have found.

Sharon DeBartolo Carmack is probably best known for writing the accessible and useful Carmack’s Guide to Copyright & Contracts: A Primer for Genealogists, Writers and Researchers. Here, she has produced another no-nonsense guide for genealogists, one that will enable readers to write that engrossing and well-documented family history book or journal article they’ve always dreamed about.

Carmack guides would-be authors through a writing project with a step-by-step approach, by devoting each chapter to an important point in the process. She begins by asking the reader, “What type of family history will you write?” and then discusses how to define the scope of that project. She addresses the questions that most researchers will have on their mind, including the inevitable, “Have I really found all I need to write a decent family history or do I need to research more?”

More than the usual how-to-write-family-histories guide, this book provides techniques and approaches to incorporate overarching themes into the story, and how to build suspense, humour and romance by using some of the same elements that might be found in fictional works. The author also discusses ways to use social histories to set your ancestors accurately in time and place, and how to settle on a particular narrative style to tell your unique story in the most appropriate manner possible.

She also explains how to use scenes and summaries in a work of creative non-fiction. “Scenes allow your readers to feel like eyewitnesses to the events you describe,” Carmack explains. “Summaries, on the other hand, simply tell the reader what happened in a way that moves the story along in time more quickly.” Helpful examples of various styles, narratives, and approaches can be found in the appendix.

While most of the book focuses on the gathering of information and the actual writing of a book, it also addresses post-writing concerns, such as marketing and promotion.

You Can Write Your Family History is a comprehensive, easy-to-follow guide to writing a family history. It might be just the book to inspire you to finally tell your ancestor’s story.