Journaling in Family History

I guess you could say that writing is in my blood, having been passed down via multiple lines from different angles to land in me, giving me a chance to do with it whatever inspires me during a unique time in history of great opportunity and abundance. I often say that I surely have a book in me somewhere, but it hasn’t shown it’s face yet. In the meantime, journaling, especially the creative journaling of my family history has become an important method for putting pen to paper. Journaling is, truly, a passionate hobby of mine, a hobby I’ve happily begun weaving through various aspects of my family history documentation in a variety of ways.

By design, my journaling has always been a private affair, something I’ve done just for me. Recently, however, I’ve begun thinking more and more about creative journaling as a documentation of the exploration of life, how that all weaves into the tapestry of family history, and how important such works can be in the right hands after the author has passed.

I recently mentioned this crossover on my Instagram account in the sharing of the first few pages of my Heritage Journal and found a kindred spirit in India who is her family’s historian and an avid journaler as well. Kriti asked if I’d be interested in collaborating on a post and we had a lot of fun pulling it together. As a bonus, the post was well received and we’ve both gotten many comments and direct messages with questions and excitement around each of our approaches and methods. If you’re on Instagram you can see our short video collaboration here.

With the new year upon us, as fresh energy abounds, I thought I’d jot down all the methods I am currently utilizing to track my own life as well as to incorporate a more creative undertone to the business of documenting my genealogy and family history in the hope that one (or all) of them might resonate with and inspire you to weave your own tapestry between the past and the present.

Below are the five (+ two bonus) ways I put pen to paper on a consistent basis and am adding a little fun into it all in the process:

Everyday Journal

While I kept a journal as a kid and I’ve always documented my life in a variety of ways, it wasn’t until 2020 that I began a proper every day journal as an adult. As challenging as the beginning of the COVID Pandemic was, I felt it necessary to document our lives as well as my thoughts and feelings with pen and paper. I incorporated important dates (birthdates), places (previous homes), family traditions and a few recipes into my writings as the weeks and months inched on in addition to marking down and reflecting on important local, national, and world events.

I’ve added in a few photos here and there, played with colorful markers, and more recently added in pieces of ephemera as well as stickers and fun washi tapes to bring the pages to life in new and creative ways.

It is heavy and hard, at times… Hopeful and fun at others, just as the ebb and flow of life tends to be.

I don’t write it in every single day, though I once aspired to, instead accepting consistency over perfection.

Heritage Journal

As mentioned before, documenting my pedigree in a creative journal format is a way of connecting to each person in my pedigree more intimately while gaining a sense of time and place for each of my direct ancestors.

As I move down the line (2+x great grandparents, etc.) this will become less specific and more general to time periods and places of origin.

This is a very long term project as the time and energy that goes into the research as well as the intention and implementation of each spread will all be defined by the information available and my capacity for diving in, but I am deeply excited to see how this book develops over the years. As an NPE, it feels like an exciting and creative way to get to know my paternal side and I know it will deepen my connection to my maternal side as well.

I have written about this journal and will continue to share each spread here on the blog as I complete them. They are and will continue to be tagged as follows: Heritage Journal. Just click the link to find what’s been written to date.

Spiritual Journal

My spiritual journal is a space I have been using for a couple of years now to document the ancestral (and more recently acquired) spiritual practices I use to stay grounded in the present while working beyond the veil (through meditation and dream work) with the ancestors.

Because my practices are not based in a set religion, they are more land, seasonally, and ancestrally based, the pages of this book contain information on the moon cycles, seasonal celebrations such as the Solstices, the medicinal herbs I cultivate, forage or harvest, process, blend, and use/gift (individual herbs, teas, tinctures, salves, etc), reflections on various meditations and Tarot pulls, and so much more.

One might say this book holds a balance between a Grimoire and a recipe book, pulling from the knowledge of kin who lived centuries ago to practice in present time.

Yes, I am really a witch at heart ;-)

2024 Family History Goal Tracking Pocket Journal

2024 is my first year using this method and I’m feeling very excited about it! My pocket journal is 3.5 x 5.5 inches and only 30 sheets (60 lined pages) and is being used to track research goals and priorities, questions, to-do lists, relevant sketches/doodles, etc.

Historically I’ve worked out of a five-subject spiral notebook (the kind used in school with the pocket dividers), believing that I needed all.the.space to track all.the.things. Truth be told, I rarely pulled it out because it was so cumbersome, and more often made notes in my phone. While phone notes are fine, I wanted something tangible that I could carry with me, something that could be it’s own living document.

In remembering a tiny notebook my Uncle pulled out when I visited him a few years ago that held my Great Grandpa Dutch’s Oatmeal Cookie recipe, I grabbed a similar sized notebook from my desk drawer and decided to stop debating and just start anew.

The small format of it ensures I am concise and intentional with what goes into it, which will hopefully keep me on track with my family history goals for the year. If it works, I have a few more notebooks (they came in a set) that I can use in the years ahead.

Family Recipe Book

I signed up for the Cookbook Writing: Tell Stories Through Recipes class with Sumayya Usmani through Domestika a little over a year ago and dove in hard for the first couple of weeks, but fell off over the holidays and honestly forgot about it until I found the journal I was using to begin the process of jotting down our few family recipes in a creative narrative.

This journal now sits on the shelf with all my others, nicely in view, and I hope to throw myself back into it as the days unfold before me.

While we don’t have many “heirloom” recipes, handed down from generation to generation (I come from a few generations of women who couldn’t have cared less about such things), I’ve worked to hold on to the few dishes my mom made and have created several of my own that my daughters and little brother have looked forward to and loved for years. Maybe (eventually) they’ll become heirlooms in their right so I’d like to give them the chance by putting them to paper, officially.

As I’m thinking about it, a similar journal could be kept for Family Traditions, though I have not gotten that far yet.

Bonus Ways to Keep Track of All.the.Things:

In addition to keeping my general weekly To-Do list in check, I use my Moleskin Weekly Planner to keep Birthdays and Anniversaries at the top of my mind as well as recurring tasks like backing up my computer files to jump drives each month.

When I left Faceboook a few years ago I realized I’d become dependent on their system to remind me of old friends and loved ones Birthdays so I jotted them all down before I closed everything out. Whether I shoot them a text or send an actual card via snail mail, I enjoy letting the people in my life know I’m thinking about them and it feels good to not be reminded by the Meta-verse.

This year I’ve decided to allow a little more creative play to inch into my planner as well with a few stickers and colorful pens here and there. I guess some people will pick a whole theme for the year so every page looks consistent but that didn’t appeal to me. I decided instead to invest in some seasonally themed and colored planner stickers so the feel of my planner will shift with the shifting seasons. That’s the idea at least. We’ll have to wait and see how it all comes together in the end.

I also have a simple Word document saved to my computer which acts as a catch all Timeline Tracker. This document tracks the space between the last known entry in my Grandma’s documentation of our family history (~1937) and present time. It tracks important dates, moves, health information (as available), book publication dates, etc. Basically anything that may be important enough to eventually flesh out and add into the continuation of our family history in narrative form. It’s not fancy, but I use it regularly.

There’s no Telling…

There’s no way of really knowing if any or all of these methods will survive me to be handed down to the next generation…

Or if they might be helpful or meaningful to anyone but me in the future…

But I’m enjoying creating them as I climb my family tree and that’s truly all that matters, isn’t it?

Do Tell…

Do you use any of the above mentioned methods when documenting your family history? Do you have another method that you love and works well for you and your goals that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments below!

Thanks for being here!

Onward,

Melis