Welcome to Writing Family Histories
A newsletter chronicling my work to unearth lost family histories, with writing prompts so that you can, too.
Hello! Welcome to Writing Family Histories, my newsletter about tracking down my own family’s lost history—with a lot of help from cousins who did the genealogical work and/or have shared their memories with me—in order to explore how family history impacts identity and experience in my generation.
At irregular intervals, when I have something interesting to share with you, I’ll be sending out updates about both these family stories and also about how I’m writing about them, with prompts that might also be useful to you if your work also engages with the lives of your predecessors.
I will also be hosting bi-weekly discussion threads in which we can discuss your experience with those prompts, ask each other questions about this kind of writing, and share our experiences unearthing lost family stories. These discussion threads will be for subscribers, mostly to avoid trolls. Sadly, anyone writing about the Jewish experience in this moment and time has to consider ways to build a safer space for all participants. If you aren’t interested in talking about the writing process, and just want the family stories (hi Mom!) and free prompts, there is no reason to subscribe.
Thanks for joining me on this journey, and I look forward to sharing it with you!
Sarah