Review
Family researchers like to tell their ancestor�s story. Carolyn�s book is an excellent guide to take it a step further�create and publish a compelling family history for future generations.
�Janice Meredith, Professional Genealogist, Tulsa Genealogy Society
As a full time educator and novice genealogist, I can appreciate Carolyn Steele's no-nonsense approach to researching and writing about one's family history. Her instructions lead the reader step-by-step through the often confusing terrain of family trees, reliable search sites (both on land and in Cyberspace) and validation of documents. Illustration from her own eloquently written accounts of her ancestry ensures that even beginning genealogists never make a misstep in their efforts.
�Carol Johnson, M.A., creative writing teacher and�author of Autism: From Tragedy to Triumph and Everlasting
Preserving Family Legends for Future Generations is filled with helpful tips and examples that will allow even the novice writer to record the stories of their ancestors in an entertaining manner.
�Judy Howard, author of Oklahoma Centennial Projects, Heavenly Patchwork I and II, and Centennial Stitches.
As someone who is increasingly intrigued by their own family ancestry, I have recently had the pleasure of discovering a book that takes a unique approach to genealogy and which I would recommend to anyone interested in the subject.
Preserving Family Legends for Future Generations (Roots & Branches, 2008), by Oklahoma author M. Carolyn Steele, approaches the subject of personal genealogy from the perspective of preserving family history by writing semi-fictionalized stories based on the best information the interested historian can obtain. Steele's personal preference is for short stories, but she also discusses novel-length stories and even provides an entire section on self-publishing, largely for the purpose of creating custom-made booklets suitable as gifts for interested relatives.
"My purpose is to encourage everyone, no matter their writing abilities, to preserve their family stories in an entertaining and readable format," Steele writes in her introduction to the book. "Relating a family legend brings the story to life for that instant, but writing it down preserves it forever."
While Preserving Family Legends for Future Generations is very encouraging and instructive, it is also frequently entertaining. Steele includes a number of samples of her own writing, for example, which relate stories about an ancestor who escaped an enemy firing squad during the Civil War and a somewhat risqu� grandmother who was murdered by her fifth husband at the age of just 29!
I was very pleased and flattered, by the way, to learn that Steele's source material included my own Everyday Life During the Civil War. Just as she strives in her work to produce something worthy of sharing with others, I am always happy when I am able to accomplish the same thing in my own.
Michael J. Varhola's TravelBlogue
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