How to write a genealogical crime mystery story
Nathan Dylan Goodwin
Content
About this webinar
About the speaker
Key points and insights
The final Webtember writing webinar featured acclaimed author and genealogist Nathan Dylan Goodwin, who shared practical guidance on crafting genealogical crime mystery stories. Blending genealogy with mystery and crime, this niche genre offers a unique way to turn family history into compelling narratives. Goodwin, best known for The Forensic Genealogist and Venator Cold Case series, walked attendees through the fundamentals of building a story from scratch—covering themes, characters, research, and writing techniques. His insights highlighted how genealogists can transform real-life discoveries into rich, fictionalized accounts that both entertain and preserve the essence of family history.
Key Takeaways from the Webinar:
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Core Ingredients of the Genre: A genealogical crime mystery typically involves uncovering past crimes or secrets through genealogical methods. Central themes such as adoption, illegitimacy, false identities, missing persons, hidden crimes, and family secrets drive the narrative and ensure genealogy plays a central role in solving the mystery .
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Building Authentic Characters and Settings: The protagonist is usually a genealogist, often with a personal backstory that intertwines with the case. Writers are encouraged to create well-rounded, believable characters with everyday lives, hobbies, and flaws, as well as carefully researched settings that reflect authentic historical detail .
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From Research to Storytelling: Just like genealogy itself, strong stories are grounded in research. Goodwin emphasized balancing factual accuracy with engaging storytelling—using census records, photographs, obituaries, and newspapers to add authenticity while weaving in dialogue, tension, and dramatic arcs that keep readers invested .
This session demonstrated that genealogical crime mysteries are not just for professional authors—anyone passionate about genealogy can experiment with this form to share family secrets, mysteries, and discoveries in a captivating way.
To fully benefit from Nathan Dylan Goodwin’s expertise, genealogists are encouraged to watch the complete webinar. The step-by-step examples, brainstorming exercises, and practical tips will help transform family history into vivid storytelling. Additionally, the accompanying syllabus offers extended resources for research, writing techniques, and genre exploration—perfect tools for anyone ready to begin their own genealogical crime mystery journey.
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Comments (79)
Really enjoyed Nathan’s presentation. I have just the mystery in my family genealogy. Thank you for triggering my writing impulses to get this done. This was very helpful.
Excellent presentation Nathan. Thank you.
Enthralling! Wow, excellent presentation - so much involved in writing. I'm not AT ALL a writer, but would love to give it a try. I guess the best thing to do is research and see how it all can fit together. Thank you! Thank you!
After having read several of his novels, this webinar showed me the process he used to develop the characters and the story line of his books. I especially liked the way he discussed how to realistically and accurately include genealogy into his novels. I have a greater appreciation for his writing and am looking forward to reading anothr of his mysteries.
The sharing was tremendous (very informative about writing a genealogy crime solver). Greatly enjoyed the German webinars and today's writing ones. You couldn't have chosen two more relevant topics for me...THANK YOU!!!
I've enjoyed today's webinars on the writing theme. Good to get different perspectives on research, context and writing.
Interesting to hear the process of story development. In terms of "theme" days: good idea. Watched several for Germany last week and all for writing today. For writing, those geared to me documenting family facts in a captivating way were the most relevant.
It was good for my soul! I used to write Nano every year, so hearing you combining my love of genealogy research with the fun of creating a story made me happy to know there might of a community of such writers out there to find. Thank you so much!