Personal Ethnographies

What Is a Personal Ethnography?

A Personal Ethnography is a portrait of a life told through many voices, angles, and sources. It is more than a biography, more than a scrapbook, and more than a collection of memories. It is a method rooted in anthropology—taking the tools of ethnography, usually used to study communities, and applying them to the fullness of one individual’s life.

Rather than a single perspective, a Personal Ethnography draws on plural lines of narrative. Friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, and acquaintances are interviewed, each sharing their own recollections and impressions. Stories are layered with historical data, genealogical archives, and public records to provide context. The result is what anthropologists call thick description: a textured, multi-dimensional portrait that reflects not just what happened in a person’s life, but how it was lived and experienced across different relationships and settings.

Where the Idea Began

The idea of the Personal Ethnography first took root for me amidst a personal loss. Amidst the grief, I attended a doctoral conference. A lively discussion broke out around the question: Could an ethnography be written about just one person? The question stuck with me. What if we used the tools of anthropology—listening, observation, layered narrative—to create a deep, thick description of a single life?

A person’s life, seen from many perspectives, is a world unto itself. Through the voices of those who knew you, the documents that traced your path, and the histories that surrounded you, a Personal Ethnography reveals the richness of one life as lived in relation to others.

Why They Are Impactful

Personal Ethnographies are impactful because they do what no single voice can do alone: they collect, weave, and expand.

• They collect stories that might otherwise be forgotten or left untold.

• They weave together multiple perspectives, showing the many sides of who you are. You will read things about yourself long forget, or hear angles of yourself from your closest connections. 

• They expand your legacy beyond a single version of events, allowing others to see the fullness of your life in context.

For families, these books become heirlooms. For individuals, they are a way of reflecting on a journey while it is still being lived. For future generations, they are guides to understanding who came before them.

How It Works

Creating a Personal Ethnography involves listening, gathering, and weaving:

1. Listening – I begin with you, learning about your life, your experiences, and your hopes for how your story will be remembered.

2. Gathering – I reach out to others who have known you in different times and contexts. Each contributes their own stories, memories, and perspectives. Alongside these voices, I gather genealogical records, historical data, and archival material to give depth and context.

3. Weaving – I bring these elements together into a single narrative, written and designed as a book that feels both intimate and expansive.

The result is not just a book about you, but a book that reflects the many ways you have touched others, lived in history, and created meaning across your life.

A Unique Portrait of You

Every Personal Ethnography is unique. Some focus on celebrating a milestone—retirement, anniversary, or birthday. Others serve as legacy projects, created to ensure that your children, grandchildren, or future relatives can know you in your own time and voice.

Personal Ethnographies as Gifts

A Personal Ethnography is one of the most meaningful gifts you can give. Unlike material presents that may fade with time, these books preserve something lasting—the voices, stories, and memories that define a life.

They make unforgettable gifts for:

• Retirements – honoring a lifetime of work with the stories of colleagues, friends, and family.

• New Babies – Give a new life something to look back on from their earliest arrival.

• Anniversaries – weaving together memories that celebrate decades of partnership.

• Milestone Birthdays – giving someone the joy of seeing their life reflected back through the eyes of others.

• Graduations – capturing the early chapters of a life just as a new one begins.

• Family Gatherings – a collective project that strengthens bonds and ensures stories are preserved for future generations.

• Hospice & End of Life Work- Document the precious reflections and moments before a next journey.

• Trauma Processing- Celebrate how far you've come by looking at where you've been. 

Example Pages

Please find below two sample pages that I created to show as examples. There are not two pages the same in my work.