Write down your own past. It can make for a better future | Opinion

May is Personal History Awareness Month. Some may wonder the value of looking back when it’s difficult to take in everything happening in the present. As it turns out, looking back and preserving our personal and family histories not only benefit future generations, but can also help us personally in the here and now.

Emory University and Family Narratives Lab research shows young people who know their family history exhibit higher self-esteem, have fewer behavior problems and suffer from less depression and anxiety. A grounding through family stories also helps young people cope with times of national and global crisis, such as 9/11 or the COVID-19 pandemic. This resilience lasts a lifetime.

Interest in preserving family stories and personal history has soared in recent years, especially with television shows such as “Finding Your Roots.” Aging baby boomers and Gen Xers are seeking ways to strengthen family ties through their own life stories.

Thanks to that new interest, many write-it-yourself kits are available. These tools present customers questions they answer to jog their memory to assist in writing their own stories.

Joyce Hoegerl grew up In Kansas City, Kansas, but she spent her childhood immersed in the stories her parents, Richard and Diane Stohlmann, told of their childhoods in rural, small-town Nebraska. Her parents took Hoegerl and her sister to the Nebraskan family farm at least once a month to ensure they knew their extended family and what shaped their values and lives.

As Hoegerl’s parents grew older, she wanted to ensure that history was preserved for her children and grandchildren. “As time goes on, those memories get replaced with new memories, and we lose some of our capacity to retain what really made us who we are,” she said.

She purchased one of the write-it-yourself kits, which allowed her parents to write answers to generic questions. However, Hoegerl’s parents didn’t enjoy the process. As a result, she thought her parent’s answers to the questions lacked the depth of her experience sitting at the kitchen table listening to them tell their stories. She then sought a professional legacy writer to bring their stories to life.

That proved to provide what Hoegerl was seeking. “I cannot speak highly enough of this process,” she said. “The value of this document goes well beyond money; it is the history of us. I am so thankful that we have documentation of the life highlights in our own history book.”

My interest in helping people preserve their family histories came after my mother told me she was writing down all the stories she remembered. She’d heard so many anecdotes from her grandfather such as mustard-gas attacks in World War I. She lived through the hardships of the Great Depression, and met my dad during World War II.

When Mom passed, however, she left only about eight pages, and her documentation lacked personal stories about what shaped her own values and life. I now regret not sitting her down, doing interviews and writing her history for our family’s posterity.

I didn’t want other families to regret not having recorded their stories, so I began writing people’s life stories, as well as legacy letters, also known as ethical wills. Legacy letters are priceless gifts outlining the portion of a person’s history that shaped their values and morals, and they also clarify what legacy a person wishes to leave for descendants and loved ones.

I urge everyone to think about your personal history. Get out the pen and paper, or have someone video you, which may be fun project for a younger family member. Purchase a write-it-yourself kit. Or If you’re not a writer, find and hire a professional personal legacy writer to do it for you.

The important thing is to do it now. There’s no time like the present to start preserving the past.

Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell is a Kansas City, Kansas, native who now resides in the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. An award-winning memoir writer and former journalist, she now uses her passion of studying history as a personal legacy writer. You can contact her at fivecoat86@gmail.com