Committed to the Process

Okay, you have committed time you don’t have available to a process you are not sure of…now what do you do? First of all, commend yourself for having the unction to attempt such a task because you felt that it was the right thing to do. With the formalities of the moment out of the way, let’s get started. Yes, you have many questions to ask about lots of information they may or may not have answers to. But this is always the place to begin when collecting data and information. The more you can collect the easier it will be to categorize and prioritize later. Try to track the information you receive in a chronological order if possible and then cross-reference it into categories. This will become clear to you as to why this method is important when you begin to identify each item’s priority. Think about the books, music, and other perishable information and what to do with it. In the autobiography you can transfer these to CD or DVD and include it in the back of the book. Be sure to have all materials of value copyrighted, even the autobiography when it’s complete. Reference these materials’ location from the copyright forms in the book also. After the book is completed donate printed originals to several library repositories that maintain genealogy publications.

When enough is enough, well, you will know because it just won’t fit properly anywhere. But until then let’s look at the process as a funnel. You have a ton of information and data; obviously you can’t put all of it in this 250 page book. Identifying several pipelines of information that parallels one another helps to see what genre of information it is and where it belongs. What do I mean by genre? Here are some examples (probably others can be added) that are very basic: personal (his/hers), professional (his/hers), family (one generation level each), hobbies (for each one), volunteer activities (for each one), education (his/hers), experiences (for each one), and others. Remember the matrices I referred to…now is the time to employ it and populate it with these and their relevant information and data.

Probably one of the most important things to do is completing the discovery phase that includes compiling all of the autobiographical materials available. Going through the question list in a chronological fashion promotes triggers that bring up past years’ knowledgebase. As you go through the plethora of items, data, and information begin an outline of life endeavors on a timeline. Marry that with significant U.S. and global events to view their lives in the proper context. Now you are ready to build a tale for future generations to read.