Write Your History Book

**Share the book!

Once you're done putting your book together, you can use a service like www.lulu.com to share it with all your family members.

Write Your Book.

Everyone has the ability to write their own family history book. There is no set structure, no boundaries on how it is presented. There is really no right or wrong way to write a family history book and you can be as creative as you want to be. The fact is, I find the true genealogical study prepared for the sole purpose of providing names of all descendants on a lineage, extremely dry, boring and just not interesting. One of the main reasons for documenting and writing your history is to provide something that can be passed down with pride through the generations. It needs to be interesting so each generation will want to keep reading the story and passing it on. That's what keeps your family history alive.

Organize Your Research

So you have taken the big leap and decided to set aside some time to start turning your family history research into a book. What an exciting decision and one your family will be thrilled over, however, how do you get started? At this point in your research, you most likely have stacks, drawers and files of records, documents, bible pages distributed in several rooms of your house (if you are like me). These stacks have probably accumulated for several months or perhaps years and as you look through them a rush of 'what have I gotten myself into?' overwhelms you. Take a deep breath and start the necessary task of organizing your research. Divide your records and documents into lineage groups. Separate them out between each family and place your documents into chronological order, from the earliest up to the most recent. Most importantly, do not attempt to put every name and date into your book. Only use the ancestral information that is well documented with proofs because without sources, your family history is only a myth. Now you are ready to start!

Books For Family History Writing.

Author M.Carolyn Steele, provides beautiful and helpful lessons on writing your family history. Visit her website and follow her blog for insight on writing your family history.

Incorporate The Family Stories.

You've heard the same story every holiday since you were five years old about how great granddad Jack traveled to California during the 'Gold Rush'. That's a family story that can be written and developed in greater detail that will enrich your family history book. These stories need to be retold and with a little research and digging deeper into the story you will learn even more. Use your genealogical records and documents about great granddad Jack to verify the story such as census records or land records. By the time your through, you'll end up with an entire chapter!

Interview Your Elders

This is something I have already recommended on my page on 'genealogical research tips' so if you have previously taken my advice then this part should already be done. If not, go back and spend some time interviewing the elders in your family. Take a recorder with you and let granddad tell his life story. Ask him to describe his family home. What were his first childhood memories? Who influenced his life the most? Ask him to describe how their family celebrated the holidays and what family stories where passed to him from his parents and grandparents. Have granddad describe his hometown and first job and if nothing else, get the details about his war experiences. You will not only get wonderful information for your book, you'll gain a memorable experience with your elder.

Study Your Family's Migration.

This can be one of the most enlightening processes you will find in genealogy. Take a lineage and follow their records, looking at where they came from, when and where they end up. Perhaps you can trace them back from the time they immigrated and where their boat landed. Then look where they settled after they arrived. Did they make their home close to the city where they embarked? Perhaps you find them living further west in the next US Census. Maybe they continued westward and ten years later you find them living in the middle of America. What happened to your family to cause them to pack up their children and continue on their journey? If you dig deeper, I bet you'll find some very exciting information. Perhaps they kept moving westward because your ancestor worked on the Erie Canal!

Incorporate Historical Events.

Your story will begin to grow and become even more exciting when you incorporate your family's history into the historical events of time and or place. I grew up listening to my mother tell stories about her father and grandfather 'pulling some of the first big oil wells during the Oklahoma Oil Boom'. As I decided to look further into my grandfather's life and history, I gathered records of his family's migration from Pennsylvania to New York to Ohio and down to Oklahoma. I became curious about why this family would pack up and move almost every ten years. What drew them to each state and city? I began to search what was happening at each new city during the time they moved and I discovered they were moving from oil boom to oil boom! Now I had a story and you can to just by delving a little more deeply into the local history and learning how your family was living the history we now hear about.

An Oklahoma Oil Pool

Pick A Theme.

After spending hours looking at documents to verify your genealogy you may very well start picking up on a 'theme' about one or several of your lineages. Perhaps several generations within your family were farmers or inventors. Maybe you discover that just like yourself, there were several artists in the family. You can develop the theme and weave it throughout your family history book. Its almost like developing a plot to a novel. You can take a theme and pull your story together with a beginning, middle and end. This will bring life to your family history and bind it together so the reader will continue to be drawn in.

Give The Reader Extra Details.

Sometimes as hard as you look, you have a lineage that you just can't find a lot of details. The records aren't there or you have little luck in finding the wealth of ancestral names that you may have on other lineages. Maybe you find nothing to really write about with this lineage. Rather than moving on to the next lineage or chapter, weave some interesting facts into your story that can transform a once boring lineage into one that others find interesting. Perhaps the family immigrated from Russia. Do a little research about Russian immigrants during that time period and integrate the information around your ancestor's history. When, where and why did Russians immigrate? What was happening in the country of Russia during the time your ancestors immigrated? Perhaps you will discover why your ancestors would have uprooted their family to make a new life in America.

Research the ancestral home site and study the geography, topography, cultural makeup of the town where your ancestors lived. Provide a visual description of the area surrounding the home-sight and give the reader information about where the location can be found on a map. You may know all of this very well as a result of your research but remember, your audience is starting from scratch and they need the details in order to understand the story.

Bertha Rolston: My grandmother's cousin.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

So, do you get my point? Pictures, wills, military records: they all add greatly to your story and make it come alive. Do you remember the feeling when you looked at your ancestor's Revolutionary War Pension record? The 'ah ha' moment and thrill of seeing his signature in front of your eyes! That is the feeling your family will have when they open your book and see the record for the first time. Give them the same experience you had. You can also include pictures of the town where your ancestors lived or perhaps schools, churches, and letters your ancestors wrote. All of this can take what could be a dry and boring book into something that is dynamic and can read more like a novel than a genealogical manuscript.

Please take note: In using pictures and documents, most of which are very old, it is critical to use a high resolution when scanning. It is recommended that you use at least 300 ppi in order for your pictures to look good in print. If you choose to do this yourself, rather than taking your pictures and documents to a professional, here is a great tip: Bookmark Photo Editor Online. This is a free, easy to use and wonderful tool to crop, lighten, improve all of your pictures. You will fall in love with this great website.

Table of Contents, Bibliography and Index

Did I just say, 'table of contents, bibliography and Index'? Yes, and that's all I need to say. You certainly need to list a table of contents page to provide organization and directions for chapters. And again, list your sources whether it is footnotes or a comprehensive bibliography or both. I can't emphasize this enough as without sources, all family history is just an interesting story but only fiction. Remember that if you choose to donate your books to libraries or historical societies, other genealogists need to utilize your sources in order to complete their own research. Also, although burdensome ( I can attest to this), an index is a vital part of your book. Genealogical histories usually list hundreds of names. Provide the Index so your readers can utilize the list to locate their ancestors in your book without flipping through volumes of pages.

Just Do It!

No matter how your write your story or in what form it is presented, the most important point to take from all of this is do it!. Too often I have heard other family historians comment "I would really like to write my family history book but......" The fact is genealogy has no finality. If you wait until you find that one document or learn that one ancestor's name before composing your book it may never get written. Put it all down in writing now. The next generation can pick up where you left off and they will be glad you gave them the gift of their family history.