Twenty eight pages from dates...

I went to my personal history writing class last night. The title was "a sketchy life sketch". Though we normally write vignettes of various incidents in our lives, we were encouraged to sketch out major events in chronological order so that the pieces might make more sense. I have thought that recording just a list of dates and events was a great idea - ever since Cherri mentioned that is what she does, but I STILL haven't done it.

The discussion that followed was so interesting. Debbie said that she had wanted to write the history of a great grandmother who had died with little personal history known. [Of course, I couldn't figure what would motivate someone to write a history with no information but dates.] She said, "I listed all the years she had been alive 1870, 1871, ... Then I inserted major events in her life - birth, baptism, marriage, birth of children, deaths of family members. In a parallel list, I entered historic events - Utah became a state, Spanish-American Ward, Ford Motor Company founded, titanic sinks, first radio broadcast, the great depression, social security act, and so on. Then, I could look find connections and see patterns." Three of her children died within a month and a half, of a disease with a six week incubation period. She was pregnant with a fourth child at the time she lost her three children.

Her husband had died in a mine accident. Debbie checked the Deseret News to see what they had reported about the accident and found detailed descriptions of the accident, the number killed, the funerals, who spoke, and descriptions of the deceased person's injuries. By putting dates and events together, she could piece together a twenty eight page story.

Mary said that once you start writing the history, information surfaces - as though the individual wants their story to be told.

I found it fascinating that doing such writing would become a passion for people. Not me. But maybe I will work on a "sketchy life sketch".