An Ancestor Profile vs. A Family History Narrative

I recently received an email from a reader about the structure of stories vs. profiles. She was wondereing how a profile was different from writing a family history narrative.

Whenever someone asks me a question like this, it generally means there are more of you out there with the same issue.

So let’s tackle this question and break down how an ancestor profile and a family history narrative are like apples and oranges. They are similar yet different.

An Ancestor Profile

An Ancestor Profile is a snapshot of a single ancestor. It can be an overview of an ancestor’s life, but more importantly, it should focus on something specific or unique about your ancestor.  It can highlight an ancestor’s achievements or accomplishments or an event or critical aspect of your ancestor’s life. For example, it could focus on an accomplishment like an award, or educational achievement or sporting success. It could focus on a career achievement or military history. You may wish to focus on some aspect of the person’s character, or particular interest. Maybe they were they an artist of some kind, or a did volunteer work. The possibilities are endless. It’s not an autobiography or even a biography but more of a biographical sketch. It’s not meant to convey every researched detail you have of an ancestor’s life but rather to shine a spotlight on a specific theme, or idea about that ancestor. It compliments a few pictures and a pedigree chart very nicely. Ancestor Profiles are quick and easy to read, and that means they are more likely to engage your family.

Key Points of a Profile

• Run anywhere from 500 to 2000 words with a snapshot profile tapping out at 500-600 words
• Use description, details, action, structure, and theme to create an enjoyable and stimulating sketch of an ancestor
• Told from the third person point of view
• Ideal for when there are gaps in your research, and you can’t tell a complete story about an ancestor but do have fascinating facts or events you wish to convey.
• A good starting point for the beginner writer
• Fit wonderfully into legacy books, alongside pictures and documents or as a sidebar to the main story.
• Ideal for newsletters and blog or Facebook posts.
• Can be weaved into a larger story

A Family History Narrative 

A narrative’s primary purpose is to tell a story.  Don’t let the word ‘narrative’ confuse you. It means nothing more than story. Therefore a family history narrative is in the most basic terms a family history story.

A narrative tells a story using characters (ancestors). Often the story is told from the point of view of one ancestor.  Just like profiles, narratives also rely on creative writing techniques to make them fascinating and entertaining.  In stories, we lean on description, details, action, dialogue, and theme to create an enjoyable read.

The one fundamental difference between a profile and a narrative is the use of plot.  What does plot mean? The plot is the storyline. The writer puts together a series of events to create a story. The sequence or structure of those events is the plot. Typically, an author develops a plot in such a way to pique the reader’s interest. That said, the storyline is not usually resolved until or near the end of the narrative. Plot is fundamental to writing a story. This is why if you want to learn to write a family history story our plotting class is so important.

A family history narrative can fall into the narrative writing style of a novel, short story, novella, poetry or biography.

Key Points:

• Tells a story or event about an ancestor.
• Told from 3^rd person POV
• Includes, description, detail, and dialogue.
• Has a definite and logical plot with a beginning, middle, and
• Has situations like actions, motivational events, and conflicts or obstacles with their eventual solutions.
• Narrative writing answers the question “What happened then?”

When it comes to writing about your ancestors, you don’t need to choose between profiles or narratives. You want to employ both styles. They are equally important in sharing your research and have their place. Some ancestor’s lives may be more suitable for one over the other. And of course, if you’re writing a family history legacy book, there is nothing wrong with using a combination of both profiles and narratives.