Writing Your Family History course

Details of a forthcoming course from Gill Blanchard:

Writing Your Family History
E-Course
W: www.pastsearchlearning.co.uk
E: gblanchard@pastsearch.co.uk

Starts Friday 12 March 2021
Ends Week ending Friday 4 June 2021
12 Weeks. 5 Lessons. Weekly Live Discussions.
Cost £150

Tutor: Gill Blanchard
Author and Professional Family Historian
MA. Biography and Creative Non-Fiction (UEA)

Module One is a practical writing course spread over a twelve week period that guides participants through the process of bringing their ancestors to life. The aim is on producing an entertaining family history that other people want to read in a format that suits them. The tutor provides personalised and in-depth feedback throughout the course so that you put words on the page.

Students are encouraged to move beyond a basic ‘John begat William and Jane begat Mary’ chronicle; learn how to integrate relevant social and local history materials and how to deal with repetitions, missing pieces and anomalies in their writing.

The course is comprised of five lessons. The first four lessons are posted online at fortnightly intervals, with an extra week after lessons four and five to allow additional time for reading, writing, critiquing and feedback. Each lesson includes writing exercises, focused guidance, useful tips, writing examples, links to useful resources and background reading. There are regular live online discussions with the tutor and other students. A dedicated learning hub can be used at any time throughout the course to share work, ask questions and post news.

This course is aimed at those who have completed a body of research into their family history and are ready to start writing. Although this first module can be taken as a standalone course those who wish to continue developing their writing in a supportive group with continuous feedback can go onto to modules two and three.

Gill Blanchard is a qualified and experienced tutor and author of several research guides, biographies and histories, including Writing Your Family History (Pen and Sword Books). She also works as a professional genealogist and house historian, and one of her specialisms is writing and producing family history and house history books for clients. She has an MA in Biography from the University in East Anglia and is starting a research PhD in Biography in Autumn 2021.

Module One: Lesson 1 Starting Out
    When to stop researching.
    Format and what to include.
    Planning.
    Introduction to the Writing Craft.
    Introduction to Adding Context.
    Writing exercises and feedback.

Module One: Lesson 2 Expanding a Family History Biography
    Structuring a family history continued.
    Dealing with repetition and anomalies.
    Adding background context.
    Writing exercises and feedback.

Module One: Lesson 3 Bringing your Family History to Life - Building Background Material
    Social and local history context continued.
    Creating authenticity.

Module One: Lesson 4 Developing a Family History Further
    Focussed work using local histories, biographies, autobiographies, letters, memoirs and oral histories to build context.
    Writing exercises and feedback.

Module One: Lesson 5 Introduction to Publishing, Layout and Production and Review
    Editing and layout.
    Printing and publishing.
    Reviewing progress.
    Writing exercises and feedback.

Gill also advises that she is also running modules 2 and 3 later in the year for students who have already taken module 1. All modules are repeated twice a year. For further information Gill can be contacted on gblanchard@pastsearch.co.uk

Chris

Just out, Sharing Your Family History Online is on sale at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.