#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2024 - Week 1 - Family Lore

FAMILY LORE

I am struggling with this prompt as I really don’t have any stories passed down through my family that I can remember.  

Unfortunately my parents weren’t into sharing stories of their life and my grandparents were all gone by the time I had turned two years of age.

But through my research and doing an online University Diploma of Family History, I have dabbled in the creative writing genre and written a few stories of my ancestors and shared them in my blog.

As these stories are all Creative Non-fiction it means that research has been done and names, dates, places etc are correct, as far as I am aware. I have added flesh to the bones of my ancestors with stories of what or how things might have happened.  So in a lot of cases minor characters, may also be named from actual document records, but my imagination comes into play with scenes and descriptions.

So I am once again going to attempt to complete the #52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Writing Challenge with Amy Johnson Crow. I have participated in this challenge on and off since 2018.  I have never lasted the distance though, but maybe this year I will. My mantra will be from Amy’s own words…“Whatever you write or record is more than what you had before.” I agree with her wholeheartedly!  With all the best intentions to see a thing through though, sometimes life just gets in the way.

So what happened to Family Lore I hear you ask? 

Our adult children gave my husband and I an online subscription for Christmas 2022 of a weekly writing exercise where we were each given a prompt chosen by them to write a story or memory from our life.  These stories will be turned into a hard cover book now that we have finished.  We have to proof read the 53 stories and edit them in the next three months. Then we hit submit and we will both receive the books in the mail!

So maybe some stories from our books will evolve into Family Lore from here on in!  

I am hoping with this practise now a weekly habit, this year will be the year of success in the #52 Ancestors in 52 weeks. I look forward to this challenge and appreciate the push to continue and preserve my Ancestor stories and maybe create some Family Lore of my own! Thanks Amy Johnson Crow!