Project for Writing and Recording Family History

There has been an upsurge of interest in doing family history research. Those bitten by the bug find there are many tools and technologies to help us quickly learn factual information about our ancestors and ancestry: vital records from around the world are online; a simple DNA analysis reveals our bio-geographical origins; software platforms instantly connect one family tree to another.

But names, dates, public records and the odd photograph or newspaper clipping leave us wishing to know more. We understand it is through stories that we build more personal and meaningful connections to those who came before us — and to the generations that will follow us.

Arizona State University’s Project for Writing and Recording Family, based in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at the Polytechnic campus, offers courses and community workshops to support and inspire individuals who want to bring the stories of the past to life and begin to record their own stories for future generations.

Led by experienced writing teachers and family history researchers, sessions focus on exercises to jump-start family history writing and strategies to reconstruct stories of the past even when the dots are hard to connect.