Storytelling Hub
Blog articles to Help You Tell the Stories of the Past
Writing Postcards: A Lost Art in Need of Revival
Like my pack-rat tendencies, I come by my love of writing postcards honestly. My mom was an avid postcard writer and both my parents were sentimental savers. They saved greeting cards, mementos, letters, and of course, postcards. After their deaths, I found that they...
In Lieu of Flowers
It's a pleasure to have John Kingston guest post and share his moving tribute to his mom. It remains one of my earliest memories of childhood: my brother’s 7th birthday party in the backyard of our house on Stevenson Street; Flint, Michigan, 1976. While my brother and...
Dear Mommy: How to Describe Your Relationship with Mother
No Treasure Chest of Memories is complete without a description of our relationship with Mother. Of all our family relationships, our relationships with the woman (or women in some cases) who raised us are perhaps the most poignant. As Lori Gottlieb writes in Mother,...
Writing about the Fulcrums in our Lives
We all people, events, and situations in our lives, who (or which) determine the teeter of our life’s teeter-tooter. Writing about the fulcrums in our lives provides a unique glimpse into our circumstances and relationships with and affections for each other. Who...
Why Write About Death Anniversaries
Try as we might (or as I have), we can’t avoid marking the death anniversaries of loved ones. It’s unavoidable. Perhaps that’s because we need to remember our grief and gauge our progress. In Acknowledging Our Grief Anniversaries, John Pavlovitz describes the way the...
Honeymoon Diary Part 3: Philadelphia and Atlantic City
Today, we think of honeymoon trips as romantic getaways for a newly married couple. For Sid and Myrtle’s honeymoon, however, seems to be more along the lines of a nineteenth century “Bridal Tour,” a trip made to visit relatives who weren’t able to attend the...
Why the past doesn’t define you but it’s still part of your story
That time that I lost it with my kids and screeched like a wounded hyena instead of remaining calm, doesn’t define me. A lot of the time, possibly even the vast majority of the time, I was a reasonably good parent. (And I’m not claiming that there was only that...
Story Prompt: “Roads Not Taken”
Do the proverbial "Roads not Taken" really make all the difference? They could for your stories. In her “PLEASE Stop Misinterpreting “The Road Not Taken,” Susan Baroncini-Moe makes a compelling argument that Robert Frost’s poem is about looking back at the roads not...
How to Preserve Meaningful Stories à la Humans of New York
If there were a contest to see who could collect and preserve the most personal, meaningful stories, Brandon Stanton, founder of Humans of New York, would be winning it. Not that that’s what he set out to do. But looking carefully at how Stanton conducts his...
Family Stories: Luck or Fate? (And the Hedgecock Family’s Close Call with the Titantic)
Depending on the researcher, writers portray family stories as tales of luck or fate, or of hard work, or even divine intervention. It’s not a new theme. Since its inception, scholars, educators, and high school students have contemplated whether Romeo and Juliet were...
Belonging to Ancestors and Storytelling
“Connect. Belong.” The 2018 #RootsTech theme doesn’t only apply to current family members. Our ancestors belong to us in a sense. They are our family. But the reverse is also true. Belonging to ancestors provides us with an impetus to tell their stories, their truths....
Connect. Belong. #RootsTech 2018
“Connect. Belong. Because it matters.” That’s how the opening session of #RootsTech 2018 began. And that theme will echo through the classrooms, main stage, and exhibit halls. Meaning family historians will be able to learn about storytelling and vice-versa....
Family Love Letters Aren’t Just for Lovers
We think of family love letters as missives between star-crossed lovers. That’s not always the case. In fact, one of the loveliest testaments to love that I’ve ever read was a letter between sisters. After my mother’s death, I found it in her top dresser drawer. My...
Honeymoon Diary, Part 2: Meeting Grandfather
Reading and researching Sid and Myrtle (Lookabaugh) Earhart's honeymoon diary found in a postcard album, continues to be a journey back in time. In this "Meeting Grandfather" edition, our starry-eyed honeymooners take in some sights in the Washington D.C. area, before...
Childhood Stories: 37+ Questions to Jog Your Grandparents’ Memories
It’s important to preserve our grandparents’ memories while we (and they) still have access to them. When it comes time to sit down with your loved one, the following list of questions can help eliminate any lulls in conversation. Use it, as well as your own...
Writing about Wealth and Finances: It’s Part of the Family Story
Writing about wealth doesn’t entail revealing your net worth, bank balance, or what you hope to inherit from granny. Or at least it doesn’t normally. But like it or not, or finances do play a significant role in our life-style, the opportunities we’ve been...
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