Most helpful blog posts for memory keepers, memoirists, and family historians

After years of blogging and helping people create books about their lives, I thought it would be a good idea to organize all the most helpful posts on the Modern Heirloom Books site in a way that makes it easier for you to find what you’re looking for—hurray!

What follows are some of the most comprehensive and useful posts to help you in all aspects of your memory-keeping—from capturing life stories through oral history interviews to writing your own memoir, from family photo preservation to finding the stories behind those precious photos, it’s all here!

how to use this catalog

1. Bookmark this page in your browser so you can come back to it easily.

2. Click on any of the topics below to go straight to that section.

3. Click on any of the story names to go straight to that post—they’re all hyperlinked.

topics to explore

Writing about your life

Capturing family stories

Creating a family photo archive

Honoring a deceased loved one

Finding ideas for heirloom books

Discovering why your stories matter

If you are interested in WRITING about your life:

Memoir Writing Prompts

• The foolproof life writing prompt guaranteed to get your pen moving.

• This multi-part writing prompt is generative—it will yield even more ideas for future writing.

• Learn about our Write Your Life memory and writing prompt subscriptions

• Writing prompts for life story vignettes: 300 words in 30 minutes

• Writing prompts for life story vignettes: the self-interview

• Writing prompts for life story vignettes: using the senses

• Thinking about the meaning of the word ‘family’ yields two foundational writing prompts

• Unexpected places to discover great life story questions to use as writing prompts

Memoir Writing Tips

• How to break down a life story book project into three simple steps

• How to narrow down themes for your memoir project

• How to create a life timeline for your memoir writing project

• How to set a realistic deadline for your life writing project

• How to choose which life story theme to write about first

• Four easy ways to find your way into life story writing

• How to use short vignettes to create a mosaic of your life

• Differences between biography and memoir—and why you should write your life stories (plural)

• Ever consider using a list format to explore your life stories?

• Feeling stuck with your life writing? Try this 3-step reset.

• How to get your memoir off your bucket list and onto the page.

• Three ways to research your memoir—and when to know your research is enough to begin

• Why—and how—to write using your authentic voice

• How to use your senses to trigger deeply hidden memories

Memoir Writing Resources

• Books to help you write your family stories, even if you don’t consider yourself a writer

• “Which life writing book is best for me?”

• A memoir writing workbook I recommend

• Three evocative memoirs as examples of using vignettes to tell the stories of a life

• Two great resources to help you write an ethical will

If you are interested in learning more about capturing your FAMILY STORIES:

Family History Interview Questions

• Essential questions to capture your parents’ memories

• The five best craft books to help you write about your life

• All your kids need to interview their grandparents, including family history questions designed to promote intergenerational connection

• Fun questions to ask mom and dad

• Questions to prompt food memories

• Holiday stories: Questions to prompt Thanksgiving memories

• Holiday stories: Questions to prompt Christmas memories

• 3 great first questions to get open a personal history interview

Tips for Preserving Your Family Stories

• Best practices for conducting family history interviews at home.

• 3 great ways to capture stories at a family reunion

• Three easy ways to get your family stories

• How to get a parent who doesn’t want to talk about their memories to open up

• Your 10-step plan for making an heirloom-worthy family cookbook

• Eight things you can do to be a good steward of your own family history

• Differences between scrapbooking and creating personal history books

• Ideas for preserving your and your family’s food memories

• Four ideas for family interviews

• Capturing the stories behind your family heirlooms

• How to interview a loved one who is on hospice: Ask questions that help create “a biography of joy”

• How to be a good storyteller if you are the subject of a family history interview

• Tips for interviewing a pair of your grandparents together at the same time.

• When to break a family history interview into multiple sessions

• How to edit your family history so it will make sense 20 years from now

• How to conduct family history interviews over the phone

• To read or not to read? How to handle a deceased family member’s personal letters

If you are interested in creating a FAMILY PHOTO ARCHIVE:

Organizing & Saving Your Family Photo Collection

• How to organize your family archive as a resource for sparking memories

• Follow these basic photo organizing principles so you leave a manageable photo legacy for your kids.

• What to do to ensure your kids don’t throw out your family photos

• Are you a photo hoarder? Here’s help.

• What does it mean to cull your family photos?

• Make sure you’ve digitized the family photos in frames around your home.

• Why sometimes a “bad” photo is the perfect picture—and worth saving

• The one thing not to do if you want your photos to print beautifully in your memory book

Telling the Stories Behind Your Photos

• How to use photographs as prompts for writing life stories

• How to choose the best family photos to use as writing prompts

• How to decide which photos to use in your life story book

• Ideas for three fun family photo books

• Why you should share your family photos

• How photographing our everyday moments helps preserve our stories meaningfully.

• Choose one photo, tell its story, then share it (please!).

• Three ways to tell a photo story

• How these three types of images (family charts, maps, photos of heirlooms) help tell your family stories.

If you are interested in finding ways to HONOR A DECEASED LOVED ONE:

• Tips for creating your own tribute book in honor of a lost loved one

• How tribute books create a lasting legacy of your deceased family member

• How to easily buy a tribute book as a group gift

• How to reach out when someone is grieving

• The healing power of remembrance for those who are grieving

If you are interested in finding IDEAS FOR HEIRLOOM BOOKS:

• Tribute books make great gifts for milestone birthdays.

• 6 steps for making your own birthday tribute book

• 10 heirloom book themes to narrow your life story book focus.

• Adoptive parents: Preserve your journey to adoption in an heirloom book.

• The ultimate wedding-day gift for the groom from the bride

• Six heirloom book ideas, from travel journals to family recipe books with a twist

• “Dear Daughter, on Your Wedding Day,” the most meaningful gift for the bride-to-be from her parents

• Heirloom book ideas for Mother’s Day gift-giving

• How to create a vacation photo book or family travel journal

Do you need to be convinced that YOUR STORIES ARE WORTH SAVING?

• Storytelling is good for your health.

• How your stories’ enduring value can offer life lessons to your grandkids and beyond

• Writing about your life is not narcissistic.

• No readers, no matter—your life story benefits YOU

• How to leave a legacy that is a blessing to your descendants

• Hear one client’s experience: “It was more for me than anyone else”

• You might be surprised to learn that writing about your life is as much a gift for you as for your family.

• Wanting to know more about our parents’ lives is not a trend.

• Your grown kids might not care about your stories now, but they will someday.

• Genealogists share their reasons for valuing our own family stories.

• “I wish I had asked my mom that” and other heartbreaking regrets you can avoid

• Let Josh convince you that now is the time to tell your stories.

• You’ve got reasons why you aren’t telling your story; I’ve got reasons why you should.

• From “my life is boring” to “it seems narcissistic,” the top five excuses for not sharing your stories, nixed.

• Why a life story book, not an audio or video recording?

This post will be updated regularly as new relevant content is added. It was most recently updated on February 14, 2024.