Course curriculum

    1. Meet Sunny Morton Your Instructor

    2. Write Your Family History Introduction

    3. Course Access: June 21 - July 18, 2022

    4. Learn To Use the Course Player

    5. Contact Us

    6. Before we begin ...

    1. Subject and Spin

    2. Who is the Subject of Your Writing

    3. Questions to help you find your subject

    4. What you’re going to write about them

    5. I want to tell this story because.

    6. Ideas for focusing on one person

    7. Who are you writing for?

    8. What format will your writing project take?

    9. Exercise and Discussion

    1. Book

    2. Article

    3. Blog

    4. Tips for Creating Your Blog

    5. Blogs Discussion

    6. Compiled family histories

    7. Historical narratives

    8. Family history memoir

    9. Record transcriptions

    10. Test Your Knowledge: Quiz

    11. Discussion Board

    1. Finalize Your Findings

    2. Perspective and Creativity

    3. Outline your Project

    4. Scope of Your Project

    5. Type of Outline and Background

    6. Fill in the Gaps

    7. Permissions and Sources

    8. Project Deadlines

    9. Give it a Try / Discussion Board

    1. Choosing Your Words Wisely

    2. The Draft

    3. Just Start Writing

    4. Writing the Draft

    5. Constructing the Narrative Plot

    6. Finding Your Voice

    7. Editing

    8. Exercises to Get You Writing

    1. Download the lesson text

    2. Please take our survey

About this course

  • Free
  • 45 lessons
  • 1 hour of video content

Instructor(s)

Sunny Jane Morton is an award-winning writer who has advanced training in genealogy, history, and memoir-writing. She is a contributing editor for Family Tree Magazine and Your DNA Guide; author of Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy and How to Find Your Family History in U.S. Church Records; and a writing coach and course developer for Family Tree University.

Sunny Jane Morton

Instructor

How Family Tree University Courses Work

  • Course

    Our courses consist of four or more written lessons that may also contain videos, slide shows, and other elements. There are self-directed quizzes and/or exercises to help you apply your knowledge. In addition, you'll have access to discussion boards where you can ask your instructor, questions about the materials during the course dates.

  • Instructor

    Instructor access for the duration of the four weeks, so you can ask questions about what you've learned.

  • Access

    Our courses are designed to be easily accessible! Once you've registered for the course, you'll be able to log in on the start date to see all the lessons. Each lesson is available within your browser. You can work at your own pace.

  • Materials

    All the materials will be available for download, and you'll have access to the course materials online for about a year after the start date. After the course end date, it will go into read-only mode, so you'll still be able to reach the materials, but you'll no longer have access to the instructor or message boards.

  • What You'll Need

    Please ensure that you have internet access and that your browsers and computer system are fairly up-to-date. The course materials are designed to be compatible with most devices.