Heidi Lyss has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and a Certificate in the Teaching of Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles.

She has led creative writing workshops for adults on writing about history, and on the Heroic Journey, and has taught undergraduate English composition classes. Two of her short stories received contest awards, and she has published creative nonfiction, poetry, and trade/academic articles.

Heidi also has an MBA, works as a healthcare consultant, and currently serves as a board member of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.

“Writing Your Family History” (Tues-128), 10:30-11:45 A.M.

As genealogists we spend much time collecting family information and organizing it into trees and notes. In this seminar, we will discuss how you can enhance the sharing of your research via writing narrative family stories, or histories.

These histories may be about your relatives, and/or about your own experiences, and may be as short as one paragraph, or as long as a book.

We will consider how to choose whom to write about, identify your audience, deal with information gaps, include photos and documents, and structure your work. We will also look at several examples of family histories and briefly touch on considerations for sharing your work in print and electronically.

A handout on the topic, along with a suggested reading list that includes Jewish family histories set in various locales and time periods, will be provided.

Category: Beginning genealogists

Topics: Jewish history and culture, Organization and preservation, Approaches/structures for writing family histories