In this case, Nephi is drawing a distinction between two types of records. There's the full history, where you get a lot of detail about what happened and there's plenty of space devoted to long recitations of genealogical descent (Lehi was the son of so-and-so, who was the son of...). This is necessary because it preserves a large amount of information for future generations.
The second type of record is more selective, and Nephi tells us that what he is writing is more along the lines of this type of record. He is being very careful to include those things which will "persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved." Whatever from Nephi's history is most instructive in helping us recognize how the Lord operates and how this can benefit us ("things which are pleasing unto God"), Nephi plans to inscribe on his gold plates. The full history, Nephi tells us, has already apparently been recorded by his father Lehi. Lehi passed down the larger plates that he used for this full history through his descendants, and those plates (after being abridged by the prophet Mormon nearly a thousand years later) become the basis for most of the last three-fourths of the book.
There's an interesting thing that I was taught at USC 20 years ago in a college institute class I began taking before I was baptized. When the term "these plates" is used in this first part of the book (all the way to the end of the Book of Omni), that is referring to the more selective record Nephi started, also known as the "small plates." When the term "plates of Nephi" is used, that is referring to the full history Lehi started, also known as the "large plates." This is actually explained three chapters later, but now that we've gotten this out of the way, we can have a different discussion when we come to that chapter (1 Nephi 9).
Further description of the small and large plates is provided in one of the book's introductory sections, the Brief Explanation (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/explanation?lang=eng):
The Plates of Nephi, which were of two kinds: the small plates and the large plates. The former were more particularly devoted to spiritual matters and the ministry and teachings of the prophets, while the latter were occupied mostly by a secular history of the peoples concerned (1 Nephi 9:2–4). From the time of Mosiah, however, the large plates also included items of major spiritual importance.
So what we find out from Nephi's explanation is that the first part of the Book of Mormon is jampacked with stories and teachings very specially selected for us to consider for our spiritual edification. Knowing this, we can think back to the first chapters about the adventures of Lehi's family with an even greater sense of seriousness. Additionally, we are now prepared to continue the adventures in the coming chapters with a new perspective. We can constantly ask in our minds as we read, "Why did Nephi want us to read this? What is he showing us?" I believe that essentially Nephi is helping us uncover mysteries about the nature of God's plan for our salvation by involving us in the process, inviting us to think more deeply about how the Lord can intervene and provide guidance to real people living in the world, whether to Nephi and his family or to you and me, through the saving and enlightening power of Jesus Christ.
You can read the chapter here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/6?lang=eng.
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