I Don't Know What To Write

Are you a writer? Have you written your autobiography? Most of us will answer no to those questions. So, here are some ideas to get you started.

Don't forget, here is the Memory Submission FAQ to submit your memory.

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Genealogy.com has a biography helper on their site.

Family Traditions is one of the topics that they list:

What traditions did his family have? Select this Topic to preserve his family memories. Biography Assistant offers special questions at different points in his life to highlight how his family traditions changed over time.

If you follow the link on their site for Family Traditions, you will eventually get to a page with the list of questions below. Answering any one of those questions would make a great Memory for the book. You can answer them for yourself or for someone who has passed on... an example

"I remember my grandma always made mundu (the Korean version of wonton soup) for New Years. Me and my sister would sit around the table at my grandma's house with our many aunties and fold trays and trays of mundu."

If I had the time, maybe I would get more descriptive of the house, or list the names of the people, or include a recipe for mundu. But since this is a public blog, I won't go into more detail here; however, in your memory, please put as much detail as you can think of. Don't worry about grammar or spelling - I am most interested in getting a feel or flavor of the memory. More is better.

From the Genealogy.com website:

• What traditions did he and his family have? Did they eat special foods on special days? Did they make a point of spending time together on certain days?

• Were there family customs that he disliked? If yes, what were they and did he have to go along with them anyway?

• As a child, was there a special holiday on which he and his family carried out family traditions? Religious or state holidays, for example? What did he do on these days?

• How were birthdays or anniversaries special in his family? What did they do differently from what other families do?

• Describe his everyday family routines. Did they always eat together at the table? Did they play games or spend time together in the evenings? Did these later become customs in his own family?

• Did he and his family get together regularly to take family portraits? Did he like to do this or did he dread it?

• Did he have family reunions when he was a child? How often? What did he do at them? Were these times to revive family customs? Whom did he look forward to seeing?

• Of the customs that he shared with his family while growing up, which ones did he introduce to his own family?

• Many years later, what family tradition from this time was most memorable to him and why? Did it bring back memories of loved ones or the way life was in "yesteryear"?