Treasure Chest of Memories

Tips for Writing about Memories

Memories of Me: A Complete Guide to Telling and Sharing the Stories of Your Life (by me) helps you put the episodes of your past onto paper and share them with loved ones.

National Association of Memoir Writers‘ Linda Joy Myers’ article Mining Your Memories

For Collecting Memories from Relatives:

The Oral History Workshop: Collect and Celebrate the Life Stories of Your Family and Friends  by Cynthia Hart and Lisa Samson (Workman, 2009).  Technically, this book is more about interviewing techniques, rather than writing, but you have to hear the oral history before you write about it.

Improving the Craft of Writing

For getting it right, the go-to girl is Grammar Girl from Quick and Dirty Tips. Search her archives and your answer will probably be there.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk https://www.alibris.com/The-elements-of-style-William-Strunk/book/2001929

“Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling”

“Nonfiction Writing Tips: How to Tell a True Story in a Creative Way.” by Tim McConnehey makes many helpful points.

Family History Resources 

How to Get Started Building Your Family Tree

How to Begin Genealogical Research by the National Archives is a great primer.

Your friendly local reference librarian. (Sorry, I don’t have a link.) If you’re truly just beginning, they are the best ones to point you to their getting started resources, both online and in print.

Church of  Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Family History Centers:  Find the one closest to you. They have volunteers that will help orient you with various record sets.

Learning More about Family History

The FamilySearch Research Wiki allows you to enter your geographic target area, such as “Kershaw County, South Carolina” and it will return with all the genealogical records in it’s own library and website, as well as other libraries and online vendors.

Cyndi’s List is a “comprehensive, categorized & cross-referenced list” of over 300,000 Internet links to online genealogical research sites.

Looking for scrapbooking resources?  These only scratch the surface, but they’re some of my favorites.

Incorporating Narratives into Your Scrapbook Pages:

When we look back through scrapbooks, we love the artistic pages and the fun photos. What we really yearn for, however, are the stories behind the shots.  Here are some great resources for incorporating journalling and narratives into your pages.

Debbie Hodge is, in my humble opinion, the master at all things scrapbooking and elevates the “story-telling” behind scrapbooking to an art form.  Talk about scrapbooking resources! Perusing her site, Get It Scrapped, is definitely worth the time.

My Pinterest Scrapbooking and Paper Craft  board has pins of projects I’ve come across that do a good job of sharing memories through scrapbooking or paper crafts.

Digital Scrapbooking Resources

For users of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements: Your First Digital Layout using Photoshop or Elements, posted at www.DesignerDigitals.com.  (They also have video tutorials for Photoshop Elements’ users.)

Speaking of which, here’s my own slide share tutorial of creating a digital layout (which, of course, includes a narrative) using PhotoShop Elements. I put it together in 2013, but most of the commands are still available. Adobe tends to add features without messing too much with what people already know and love.

Laura Alonso Vega has a Digital Scrapbooking Resources Pinterest board packed with ideas and freebies._

Digital Scrapbooking Resources for Telling Family and Ancestor Stories

View TreasureChestofMemories.com Digital Scrapbook layouts and tutorials.

Marion Estes “Heritage Scrapbooking” Pinterest Board has beautiful pins with links for those wanting a nostalgic touch.

More Creative Ideas

Check out these memory-sharing pins.