Learn to Write Family History

Dan Powers

Author Dan Powers is a retired teacher who has lived in Door County since 1986. There were no storytellers in his family, so he grew up knowing almost nothing about his extended family. In the 1990s, using only the few ancestral names he had, he began a genealogy search which uncovered extensive family and led to lots of unanswered questions.

While writing up his discoveries, he began to link people with historical events and dabble with writing a family history. Instead, he wove these elements together into a novel How Long A Shadow which fictionalized his findings and questions in an attempt to both honor and breathe life into his family history.  

Join Powers Oct. 20, 2 pm, at the Sturgeon Bay Library to learn more about writing about family history. The goals of this presentation are to explain how family history can be explored in writing, the questions and mindsets of writing fiction and nonfiction, and the joys (and perils) of turning family into fictional characters.

The program is available in-person or via Zoom at doorcountylibrary.org/writing_family_history.