Genealogy Chat

I have done a similar thing with a book for my aunt who was recently 80.

I printed a tree which was available on the net and was able to add people onto the picture. then made a storey on each person ie where they lived what they did and photos and maps and newspaper articles.

What made it special was I found a shop online which had a binder with "family history" in gold letters on the front, the joy on her face was amazing but the binder made it so special. This wasnt expensive either.

The paper it came with too is guarenteed to last 200 years so hopefully my book will last a while.

Hope this is a help

Kazza

Thank you everyone for ideas and suggestions,now to work!

Mike

You can have the spiral bindings done at Staples. Choice of colours and I think only £2 each

Not a book as such, but have had articles published in the magazine of a few family history societies, and in the magazine of familytreeforum.com.

Hi Mike,
I typed up a book for my Nanna as a present which I have had to make more as other family members wanted one too.
I found it was really hard to sort out how to lay it out. So it the end I wrote a fan tree with the names put this in the front, then an index of names and then had a page or more per couple.
The type of info I included was dates of birth marriage death, census info, children and pictures if I had them (old pictures of the places/towns if I didn't have real photo's).
I typed and printed out the book and took it to work (naughty) and bound it into a book with a spiral binder, it looked ok and the family liked the idea.
Might be able to find a copy centre that can bind books, hope this helps.

Have fun
Julie in Oz

Hello Mike,
A friend of mine has written up his family history with charts and copies of certificates including pictures of people, places and family gatherings. In addition ship passenger list and details of the ship when a member of the family emigrated to the States as well as his unfortunate demise less than 12 months later in an accident. It also included a copy of a report of the accident written up in a local newspaper.
All done on his home PC. A small treasure trove. A master copy held on CD.
Looks really good.
Paul

Go for it Mike , I wish you well !

Hello Poirot,mon ami!
That is something like I had in mind.You can produce quite good results on your own computer and printer can't you.I thought like you that several written word copies might last a bit longer than hard drives.discs or tapes.As with photographs I do not think disc images are going to last as long those hundred year old prints that have survived!
Thanks for the good ideas and suggestions!
Mike

Hi Mike, I have typed up my family history but not had it published into a book, I am having copies made to pass on to my children and grandchildren,
including photographs, documents, certificates etc etc, to add meat to the bones as you might say. I even have the added bonus of having my fathers handwritten life story which I have also typed up and included.

Why not just create your own website?
There are lots out there already in fact if you google your family name you can find out all sorts of things.

Has anyone managed to write up their family history and have it privately published? It must be wonderful to see years of searching,collecting and sorting information finally put into a book.I realise that there can never be "the end" to such a book but going back a couple of hundred years would make interesting reading for generations to come. I was thinking of tackling it before it is too late,if you know what I mean!

Mike