Writing Family Memories
You look at old family photos and wonder "what was their life like?" Start now writing about your childhood memories to pass along to your children and grandchildren. Don't leave them wondering.
Save Family Memories on Our Echo
How to Get Started on the Website
Go to www.ourecho.com. Click on "Create an Account". It will ask you for an e-mail address and to choose a password and a password reminder. It then asks your name, city, state, and country. You can add a photo and a brief biography and a link to your website if you have one.You then have the option to view posts or to add a post. Browse around the home page and also view what other people have posted. This will give you some ideas for your own postings.
Sharing your story only takes a minute.
1. Select "Add a Post" from the OurEcho homepage.
2. When prompted, sign in using your email address and the password you selected.
3. Select the type of story you are writing and include a primary person, year and individual. These three items identify the main components of the story are used by OurEcho to organize stories. The more specific you can be, the easier your story can be located within OurEcho, as well as by search engines like Google and Yahoo.
4. In the space provided include your story and then select "Continue."
5. If you wish, on the pages that follow, upload photos and audio to accompany your story - select "Continue."
6. Review your story and select "Publish." You must select "Publish" for your story to be published on OurEcho.
This is a great site to record your family memories and history to share with others.
Add Photos
to Your Our Echo Postings
You can add photos to your posting and also record your voice reading your story. These enhance the experience of reading your memories. Memory Triggers
To Start You Writing Family Memories
by Gail Lee Martin, author of My Flint Hills Childhood: Growing Up in 1930s Kansas. For a number of years, Gail taught classes for writing family memories at the Shepherd Center in Wichita, Kansas.
- How to Trigger Memories to Use in Writing
- A sheet of blank paper intimidates many people. They'd like to write about memories of their childhood and of special times in their life, but getting started is hard. Here are triggers to start you writing.
- Write Memories of a Child's Birth Year
- It's important to write down memories from the year of your child's birth. This can be a birthday surprise for them and a gift they will cherish from Mom or Dad.
Here's what to include in writing about their birth year. - How to Write Memories More Vividly
- Writing family memories saves them for your children and grandchildren to enjoy. Each person's memories remain unique and there's no single correct way to write them. Here are tips for enhancing your memory writing.
- How to Write Family Memories Triggered by Photos
- Over the years we tend to forget little things. Now's the time to record your memories of special times in your family before you forget. Share these with family and even post them on the internet or put them in a book. Here's how to use photos to trigger the memories and start writing.
(article by Virginia Allain)
Here's my favorite link:
Get Featured
Writings get special attention on the home page in the "Editor's Choice" and the "What People Are Saying" columns. There's a Hall of Fame and a Popular Postings section. Maybe your writing will be featured in one of those. Different writers are highlighted in the "In the Spotlight" column on the home page.
Books on Writing Family Memories
Editing Your Stories on Our Echo
1. Select "My Stories" from the top right corner of the OurEcho "Home" page. If you are not signed in, be sure to do so.
2. Find the story that you would like to edit from the list of stories that you have uploaded, and select the edit button to the right of the title.
3. If needed, change the type and location of the story and select "Continue" at the bottom of the page.
4. Edit your story then select "Continue."
5. When you are finished editing, add photos and audio if you wish - if not select "Continue." Then review and "Publish" your story.
2. Find the story that you would like to edit from the list of stories that you have uploaded, and select the edit button to the right of the title.
3. If needed, change the type and location of the story and select "Continue" at the bottom of the page.
4. Edit your story then select "Continue."
5. When you are finished editing, add photos and audio if you wish - if not select "Continue." Then review and "Publish" your story.
Visitors to the site add comments to the postings. Those are e-mailed to you.
A Self-Published Book
by an Our Echo contributor
Gail Lee Martin posted her family memories over a period of years to the Our Echo website. Her daughter realized that she had enough content for a book. They self-published it using blurb.com, a print-on-demand website.
My Flint Hills Childhood
- Gail Lee Martin's Books in the Blurb.com Bookstore Online
- Preview a portion of her book at this website.
- Gail Lee Martin's Author Website
- Read a short excerpt from My Flint Hills Childhood. Find out more about the author and what her next book is about.
Memory Triggers for A Year of Writing
Click on each link to see the full article with dozens of memory prompts for each month.
- January Memory Triggers
- In January, children head back to school after the holidays. Here are some memory triggers to start you writing about your childhood.
- February Memory Triggers
- Writing family memories gets easier if you use memory triggers to get started. February, the sweetheart month, brings some great memory starters.
- March Memory Triggers
- Writing family memories becomes more important over the years. Memories start to fade and the chance to save them grows slimmer. Here are memory triggers for the month of March. Use them to start writing down memories for your children and grandchildren to treasure.
- April Memory Triggers
- It's hard to get started writing sometimes. Here are seasonal memory triggers to get you started writing about your life and family stories. Your children and grandchildren will appreciate that you put these memories on paper.
- May Memory Triggers
- It's hard to get started writing sometimes. Here are seasonal memory triggers to get you started writing about your life and family stories. Your children and grandchildren will appreciate that you put these memories on paper.
- June Memory Triggers
- When June arrives, it should start you thinking of many topics to write as family memories. Your children and grandchildren will thank you for saving these memories to paper. Here are some ideas to get you started.
- July Memory Triggers
- Writing family memories becomes more important over the years. Memories start to fade and the chance to save them grows slimmer. Here are memory triggers for the month of July. Use them to start writing down memories for your children and grandchildren to treasure.
- August Memory Triggers
- Writing family memories becomes more important as memories start to fade and the chance to save them grows slimmer. Here are memory triggers for the month of August. Use them to start writing down memories for your children and grandchildren to treasure.
- September Memory Triggers
- School starts in the fall and school days should jog your memories of how you dressed, or carried lunch or ate at school.
- October Memory Triggers
- Here are memory reminders for the month of October. Use them to start writing down memories for your children and grandchildren to treasure.
- November Memory Triggers
- Here are memory reminders for the month of November. Use them to start writing down memories for your children and grandchildren to treasure.
Are You Thinking of Writing Your Family Memories?
submit
-
Reply
- eclecticeducation eclecticeducation Nov 27, 2009 @ 10:02 pm
- I had never heard of this site. Sounds like a great idea!!! Thanks for suggesting your mother's book, I'll have to check it out some time. It sounds interesting. Great lens.
-
Reply
- JenOfChicago JenOfChicago Nov 24, 2009 @ 10:54 am
- I didn't know about that site, but I think it's great. Capturing family history is so important.
Fill-in-the-Blank Memory Books on Amazon
and Books of Memory Triggers
Don't know what to write? Try one of these to get started.
Virginia Allain's Blog
Where I post weekly memory triggers
Use the memory triggers to write about your family.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byA Worthy Cause
Books for Kids
First Book provides new books to children in need, addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy—access to books. Since 1992, First Book has distributed over 60 million free and low-cost books in thousands of communities.
by vallain
I'm a retired librarian and now devote myself to writing, photography and designing books to self-publish. Having fun!
I write for eHow (almost 500 a... (more)
I write for eHow (almost 500 a... (more)
Explore related pages
Haile Gebrselassie- Haile "The Emperor" Gebrselassie was born April 18, 1973 in Asella, Arsi Provinc...
Everything You Need to Know About George Washington- George Washington, the Father of Our Country, was a man of great importance. As...
Maya Angelou- Maya Angelou is an American poet, memoirist, actress.
KAB Lensography- Anyone trying to explain who they are will only succeed in describing who they t...
Biography Audio Books- Biography Audio Books (and Autobiography Books too...) are great! I love biograp...
Writer Eoin Colfer And His Imaginative Books- Eoin Colfer has written dozens of works but is most famous for his 'Artemis Fowl...
