How to Find and Tell Your Family's Story Workshop - Market Place

A hands-on workshop with heritage writer Alison Marshall

There's a photograph in your grandmother's drawer with no names on the back. A recipe that tastes like home but comes with silence instead of story. That question you've been meaning to ask before it's too late. These aren't just gaps in your family history. They're thresholds. Invitations into rooms you didn't know existed.

Perhaps you've felt it, that tug toward the past. The sense that something important is slipping away while you wait for the right moment, the right skills, the right words.

Here's what the old storytellers knew: the stories that matter most are rarely the ones already written down. They're living in the pause before someone answers. In the recipe, your aunt makes without measuring. In the way your father goes quiet when certain places are mentioned.
Maybe you cant find out the details of your story however, its a window into history. Dont lose it.

In this workshop, you'll discover:
- The Fragments Method: how to transform scraps (a single photograph, a place name, a half-memory, an object tucked in a drawer) into rich narrative that holds generations
- Voice and Narrative Craft , techniques for writing family memoir as narrative non-fiction: true stories that read like you can't put them down
- The Story Arc: a proven structure that transforms overwhelming research into story that moves people (not just information, but feeling).
- Flexible approaches: being open minded about where your research takes you.

This workshop is for you if:
- You've been meaning to capture these stories before they're lost, and you're done waiting for "someday"
- You have boxes of documents, photographs, or letters but no idea how to turn them into narrative people would actually want to read
- You're secretly worried your family's story isn't "dramatic enough" or "interesting enough" (it absolutely is , you just need to know where to look and how to listen)
- You know there's more to the story than what gets said at family gatherings, and you want to honour what was hard as well as what was hopeful
- You want to create something meaningful that your children or grandchildren will treasure, not just dates and documents, but story that helps them understand who they are

What you'll leave with:
- Practical tools that work immediately, not theory, but techniques you'll use that same afternoon when you get home
- Your first interview questions ready to ask, shaped specifically for the relatives who hold the stories
- A clear framework for turning research into narrative (so you stop feeling overwhelmed and start feeling excited about the journey)
- Permission to tell it honestly, messily, powerfully , including the complicated parts
- The opening lines of something that matters , quite possibly the story you were always meant to write
- A personal action plan outlining your research sources, the main questions to answer, and next steps

About Alison Marshall:
Alison knows migration stories aren't clean or simple. She's spent years helping people excavate the stories that shaped their families , holding space for complicated truths, honouring what was hard, finding the courage in the crossing and the cost of it too.

Her own journey began with discovering her grandparents' letters from the 1920s. What started as curiosity became a book: Journeys of Hope: The Letters of Meyer and Sonia. It charts two people's emigration journey across continents, drawing moving parallels between their experience and that of parents, grandparents, and relatives who migrated across generations and countries.

Alison's approach combines deep research skills with storytelling craft. She won't just help you gather facts. She'll help you find the feeling underneath them , and the narrative arc that makes your family's story come alive.

She lives in Settle in the Yorkshire Dales and is involved with local refugee support activities, bringing contemporary witness to the timeless patterns of migration, loss, and belonging.

What you'll need:
No writing experience required. Just bring:

* Any family memorabilia you have (photographs, letters, objects or pictures of them, even one item is enough to begin)
* Curiosity and willingness to see your family's story with fresh eyes

Workshop Details:
Date: 20th June 2026
Time: 2 - 5pm
Location: The Joinery, Settle
Investment: 45, including a copy of Alison's book. 'Journeys of Hope: The Letters of Meyer and Sonia'

Limited to 12 participants so everyone receives personal attention and space to discover their story