Personal Histories

1
Personal Histories

• What, Me write my history!
• But I am not even dead yet!

2
Why do we NOT record our life history?

• Nothing to record
• Do not have time
• Nothing important has ever happened to me
• Its all done, my mom did it
• I dont want to share what I have been through or
  learned
• I am not a good writer
• My spelling is bad
• Im not dead yet!

3
Reasons to keep a personal history

• Its a Commandment
• We can continue to influence our posterity
• Teach our families our beliefs and testimony
• Looking at the past, we broaden our perspective,
  and see our lives more clearly
• Gain a greater appreciation for our parents

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• Helps us to clarify our lifes meaning and
  purpose
• Can encourage us when we are down, by reading of
  our past experiences
• Reading our ancestors journals can encourage us
  in our lives
• Can strengthen our family ties
• Opportunity to share what we have learned with
  our descendants

5
Ways to keep a Personal History

• Journal can help us better understand ourselves
  and recognize the responsibilities we must take
  for our actions
• Use journal to write your life history
• Scrapbooks showing pictures and writing about
  how you felt or what happened (journaling)
• Tape recording your voice for posterity
• Video recording you talking about your life

6
What do I include?

• Birth certificates
• Blessing certificates
• Baptism certificates
• Ordinations
• School papers graduation certificates
• Awards
• Photos
• Mission papers
• Travel papers
• Testimony of the Gospel
• House papers or addresses you lived

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How do I Start?

• Get a shoebox and place all your documents in it
• Get a notebook start to write anything about
  your life that comes to your mind
• Use memory joggers to help pull the memories out
  of the cobwebs of your mind
• You could use the computer to format you history.
  
• Keep in mind that there may be several revisions
  of your history. Save each one as a separate
  file.
• Carry a notebook to write your thoughts were ever
  you are

8
Success comes from

• Organizing your time, so set aside a regular time
  to write.
• Sharing your life and testimony with your
  descendants
• Being obedient to the commandment to keep a
  journal and write our history

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• As a people we ought to write of our own
  lives and our own experiences to form a sacred
  record for our descendants. We must provide for
  them the same uplifting, faith promoting strength
  that the ancient scriptures now give us.
• Elder Theodore M. Burton

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• What Me Write My History!!!!
• Write your history! Take five minutes and sit
  down and write all you can think about in that
  five minute period. Write it as it comes to you.
  Then put this page in a binder and you have
  started your life history. After all our life
  history is just a bunch of short stories. Here
  are some memory jogger sites that can help you
  get started.
• http//articles.scrapbooking.com/family_history.ht
  m
• http//www.rootsweb.com/genepool/oralhist.htm
• http//fcs.tamu.edu/families/aging/reminiscence/fa
  mily_history_questionnaire.php
• http//genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interv
  iew.htm
• http//www.rootsweb.com/lineage/famhist.htm
• http//www.youthsource.ab.ca/teacher_resources/ora
  l_question.html