Family History Writing Challenge 2018 starts Feb 1

Every February for the last several years Lynn Palermo has run the Family History Writing Challenge.

Lynn Palermo, who is also known as The Armchair Genealogist   sets out some good reasons to join the challenge:

Why Should You Join the Challenge? 
•    Do you have a desire to turn your ancestor’s dry documents into exciting stories? 
•    Have you procrastinated for far too long?
•    Do you want to start but not sure how to begin?
•    Have you been writing sporadically never finishing a story?
•    Do you need to polish those stories making them more interesting, less of a yawn?
•    Do you need that nudge to finish your stories and finally publish?
•    Are you overwhelmed and need some support in getting started?

I'm so glad I stumbled across Lynn's Family History Writing Challenge  several years ago. It has helped me complete two family history books. I keep coming back and have done the Challenge three times now.

This time around I will be writing about my father, Bede Smith and I have several posts about him already on this blog. I've been working on my book about Bede for about 18 months and hope to finish this year.

Family History Writing Challenge

Bede Smith in 1909.. The ancestor I will write about in the Family History Challenge

Every February for the last several years Lynn Palermo has run the Family History Writing Challenge.

I'm so glad I stumbled across Lynn's Family History Writing Challenge several years ago. I keep coming back and have done the Challenge three times now.

It really doesn't matter what stage you are at – whether you are starting out or are more experienced at writing family history, you will benefit. It's all about setting goals, staying focussed and sharing results with a friendly bunch of fellow writers.


This time around I will be writing about my father, Bede Smith. There is a sad story behind the baby photo in that Bede's twin brother died at birth. His mother, Alice Smith was living in rural New South Wales where medical care was not close by. Bede survived and went on to live a fascinating life which I hope to capture in my writing.

Hunger winter

Hunger Winter The Canadian Army slogged north through the harsh winter of 1944-5. Before them, the Germans had fled, leaving behind a population, reduced to squatting like rats in the rubble. My father Bede was with a field ambulance team in late 1944, when they approached a bombed-out town in northern Belgium. One of his jobs was to inspect the town and establish if any medical or other supplies had been left behind by the enemy. Snow had piled up beside the road leading into the town and two ragged bow-legged children were scrabbling in the rubbish, fighting over an apple core. Bede recoiled at the sight. The army trucks growled to a halt in the centre of town and Bede and a fellow officer jumped off. As they entered a side street, they caught a nasty whiff of stale urine, but the town seemed deserted. Half-way along, they found a boarded-up shop, displaying a sign that read: "niets in Winkel, alles in Kelder". The other officer looked at Bede. 'What does that say?' 'It means something like – "there's nothing in the shop, it's all in the cellar".' Bede pushed open the front door. 'Let's take a look.' Down a wooden ladder, they entered a basement where a frail old woman stood in the gloom. When she recognised them as Canadians, her face brightened. She pointed to a couple of dried-up potatoes on a shelf. Bede shook his head. 'Nee, danke.' The woman gestured, putting two fingers to her lips and blowing out. Bede rifled through his pockets, handed her a cigarette from his packet and bent over to light it for her. Their eyes connected and she gave him a wide grin, showing a row of nicotine-stained teeth. They nodded a farewell and started to back out towards the ladder. Outside, the two hollowed-out children they'd seen earlier were standing in wait. They must have had followed the convoy into town. Until the Army set up camp, they had nothing to give them. In the years to come, that time in Belgium and Holland would be referred to as the "hunger winter". My father never talked much about what he had witnessed there. Instead, he would berate us when we refused to eat our food and remind us of the starving children in war torn Europe.

A description of Bede

Day 8 in the Family History Writing Challenge is looking at using the sense of sight to describe an ancestor.

The exercise

"Sit down and for 10 minutes write a description of your ancestor that is your viewpoint ancestor for February.  Write as much as you can interesting descriptive phrases or full sentences if you like. Use only sight as your sense to describe him or her. Now don’t go dumping all of this into one big paragraph into your story.  Save it. And when the time is right insert bits and bobs into your story at just the right moment."

This description of my father is based on photos of him as a young man and my memories of him when he was middle aged. He died when I was a teenager.

My description

With his broad smile, full lips and straight, debonair moustache he had a Clark Gable look about him. The black hair was thick on top and cut short at the sides, displaying his prominent ears. There was something about the strong cut of the jaw, the pale skin and dark blue eyes that hinted of his Irish heritage. His smile revealed a straight row of teeth and he took particular care to keep them clean.
In his rugby team photo he stands erect, arms folded, smiling, looking straight at the camera, as though ready to pounce. A lifetime of playing sport gave him the easy agility of an athlete, despite his imposing 6 feet. He exuded the confidence of the first-born in the family, like a leader of the tribe. The rest of the family all looked up to him and, if there was dissension in the ranks, I certainly never heard about it.

Family History Writing Challenge for 2017

The Family History Writing Challenge is on again for 2017. This is run during the month of February 2017 by Lynn Palermo The Armchair Genealogist
You can enrol here.

This year I am going to write about my father, Bede Smith. 

Captain Bede Smith 1942

 Here's a brief synopsis of his life:

Bede Smith was the first in his family to go to university, where he studied dentistry. He captained the University of Sydney cricket team and could have become a full-time cricketer, but the Depression was on, so he took up his profession and worked as a small town dentist in Henty, New South Wales, while saving money to travel to Canada to further his education.  He was on the ocean journey across the Pacific when World War 2 broke out. He continued on to Canada and completed postgraduate studies at the University of Toronto. While in Toronto, he fell in love and married a Canadian girl and had a daughter. As the war continued, he enlisted and fought with the Canadian Army in the Canadian Dental Corps, landing in Normandy and seeing action in Northern Europe. After VE Day he volunteered for the Pacific Force, and returned to Canada to start training for jungle warfare, but peace in the Pacific saved him from that fate. In 1946, he brought his Canadian wife and child to live in Sydney, Australia. He bought a dental practice in Sydney and had two more children. After turning 50, he had a mid-life crisis and decided to change direction. He sold his private practice and moved to Perth, Western Australia to lecture in the Dental Faculty at UWA. In his spare time he enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts Degree, but then fell sick with cancer, and died at age 55.