Share your unique experiences. Pay tribute to someone special. Tell the human story of an ancestor’s life. Leave a legacy of memories and family history.

There’s more than one story to tell. Everyone has unique experiences and memories to share. A life story captures a lifetime, yet there are many stories along the way.

Which stories to tell from your life and family history? Consider your aim and your audience, and look for elements of story.

Share your family history in ways that suit you and your audience. Perhaps a booklet of ancestor profiles, a custom-made map, or true tales of ancestors’ lives…

Choose from a variety of formats to tell your stories, your way. Consider these options to a full memoir. How about short stories or voice-memos to share your experiences?

Here’s a look at some short formats I’ve used to write stories about my family, ancestors, and life experiences. Check out my “take-aways” learned in the process!

Help capture someone’s stories – and memories from people in their life –while you have the chance. Show appreciation and honour their legacy.

Ask these types of questions to invite stories of challenge, change and chance. Go beyond basic aspects of life to tell stories of the journey.

Find your ancestors and discover details about their lives, so you can tell their true stories. Here are key places to look as you trace your family history.

Help your relatives connect with their past through stories of your ancestors as real people – not statistics. Leave a legacy of family history for next generations.

Wonder how to tell a real-life story about your ancestor? Line up the info you have, then look deeper to find the story you can tell. Here’s how.

My relatives like brief, visual, real-life stories about our ancestors. Here, I share some experiences telling ancestor stories in short formats such as letters, profiles, and family history booklets.

Apps, learning resources and services are available to help you capture and share life stories – as you research, write, record audio, arrange visuals – and get your project done!

Family, friend, or ancestor – help their stories be remembered. Choose among these 14 ways (mostly short format!) to shine a spotlight on someone’s life.

Here, I share some of my experiences in giving life-story books to family and friends to celebrate memories – and in publishing memorial tributes when the time comes.

Bring us on a journey with your main character (you, someone in your life, or an ancestor). What do they want, and what’s at stake? Take us through their ups and downs, until…

What if you have memory gaps, lack details, or your story seems too ordinary…should you make stuff up? No need, when you can tell a real-life story in an engaging way.

Choose which experiences to share, then shape facts and memory into an engaging storyline. You don’t need to stray from the true tale to hold your reader’s attention.

Tell some of your stories and family history through images. Engage your viewers with photo books, slideshows, interactive maps and other visual formats.

Here are some ways I’ve found to portray life stories through pictures – for people to see and enjoy. Photo-essays, diagrams, interactive maps… and more!