Family History Writing Challenge 2015

Things may be a little quiet here as I am participating in the Family History Writing Challenge 2015. For 28 days I will be blogging a story on my Write Formation site. I am actually not writing about one of my ancestors, but instead will be telling the tale of John Murdoch who, after so many years of research, feels like one of my family members. There probably is not enough interest in him for me to produce a book, but this way his story will see the light of day. I hope you will stop by and check it out!

Finding New Leaves on the Family Tree

Things have really been moving on my genealogy trip to Germany this fall. Family Tree Tour reps Kathy and Matthias have found people in both Germany and Switzerland who are willing to do some research on my family and also meet with me when I arrive. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the volunteer in Insheim is looking for my Metz family records. He will also accompany me to Steinweiler where my fourth great-grandmother was from, though she married my fourth great-grandfather Andreas Mez in Insheim in 1777. The volunteer sent an email with a document about this couple, which lists 10 additional children that my cousins and I did not know about! It was in German, so I ran it through a translating program in Gmail. I got a chuckle out of the fact that the program translated Apolonia Schwein to Apolonia Pig. Somehow, I don't think she would have appreciated that!

Meanwhile down in Switzerland, volunteer Rolf has been a busy bee! He has taken photos of over 400 documents to share with me. Wow! But perhaps even more exciting is the fact that he has contacted 25 members of the Kubler family in the area, and they want to have a family meeting with me. This is so above and beyond anything I could have imagined! We are still working out the logistics, but I believe I will leave my tour group in Boppard, Germany and take a train to Busserach on a Thursday. I have no concept of how long that will take by train, but it looks like it is about four hours by car. Then on Friday Rolf and I will go to the research center together and look at records, and Saturday will be the family gathering where we will talk about what we have found. At this point I am not sure if I will take the train to Speyer, Germany to meet up with my group on Saturday night, or if I can stay until Sunday. Currently I am scheduled to go to Insheim on Sunday to meet with the volunteer there, but Matthias is checking to see if we could do it on Monday instead.

Near Busserach is an inn called Gastof zum Kreuz where I hope to stay. My ancestor in 1854 sold his house and his land to finance his voyage to the United States. He left Switzerland after February 1854 with four children. We are uncertain at this time what happened to his wife. But how amazing would it be to stay at an inn that is part of my ancestor's history?

Yesterday I attended a workshop on writing your family history. While I have written other books, writing about family is another animal altogether. Trying to take dry statistics and turn them into something others will want to read is a challenge indeed. But I have a feeling that after my trip this September I will be able to find a way to make two of the branches come to life.

The Pitch

Yesterday, along with 24 other hopeful authors, I pitched my book to a New York Literary agent at The Big Read. I was 22nd out of 25, so I had a lot of time to get nervous. There were a lot of heavy hitters in the lineup! It was a fascinating experience, and I am so glad that I did it. Some of the pitchers were funny, some melodramatic, and a couple were downright scary! But all carried a great passion for their book, which was inspiring in and of itself. The agent and her husband/co-author were encouraging and constructively critical when need be. Following my pitch, I was told that I had done a very good job - there was nothing that they would change. I had explained what my book was about, who my audience is and why I am the right person to write the book, all in less than the minute I was allowed. All good news. Then came the bad news. They were so glad that I had come to pitch my particular book (a how to book on researching the history of a St. Louis County home), because it was a perfect example of the type of book a national publisher would not be interested in. (There went my chance at the winning prize - an opportunity to meet with them to help get your book published.) Instead my book should be pitched to a local publisher. Good thing I am one step ahead of them and already have a query in to Virginia Publishing in St. Louis. And on that note, Virginia Publishing had a booth at The Big Read, and I was able to meet the President, Jeff, face to face. I had a copy of the book with me, so he was able to see what I have in mind. I think he is a little concerned about the lack of potential audience, but I explained that I think genealogists would appreciate the book as well. He seemed to like the fact that I have a background in marketing, so I can definitely help sell my book. I might have swayed him to a more favorable opinion of the book. Whatever happens, I think I will now at least get an answer out of him so I can move on to option B if they decide not to publish my book.

Writer's Group

Tonight I went to a writer's group meeting. It is comprised of the students who took a non-fiction writing class together in the spring. We meet to encourage each other and supply a sounding board and, since we are all women, share food and laughter. I am hoping that the group gatherings will supply me with added incentives to keep going on my book. I actually have accomplished a lot in the past two weeks. I am happy with sections one and three of the book, and have made good progress on section two, which is the heart of the book. My goal is to have a solid first draft of the book done by the end of August. I think that is very realistic. This summer I also want to get back to researching our building in Shrewsbury. It will be good for me to go through all the research steps again to make sure I am accurate in my book.

Back to the Book

Now that the wedding is over and all the company has cleared out, I have been able to get back to work on my book. I am writing about how to research the history of a St. Louis County home. When I tried to research our century home, it became a very frustrating process. Records are here, there and everywhere, and there was nothing to use as a guide. I felt like I could put something together to assist researchers so that they don't give up part way through, like I almost did on numerous occasions. The book won't be very long as I don't want to overwhelm readers with stuff that doesn't matter. Instead it will be more of a workbook with lots of helpful reference sheets, giving them a systematic approach to follow. I have sections one and three pretty much where I want them. Section two is much more tedious, as it is really the heart of the book. But it is moving along nicely. One of the next steps will be picking up the research I have been doing on the old house that serves as the office of our landscape architecture business. Going through the steps at the Recorder of Deeds office again myself will help insure that I am accurate in what I put in the book.