Act Now Before They Are Gone

I went to a family reunion on Saturday for my Porter relatives. It was great to get together again, but there were several people that usually come but who were missing. Most of them pass away during this last year. It really hit me hard that several of them had not recorded their life stories and now they are lost for ever. Then I remembered about my neighbor, Dwaine H. Another friend used his video camera to record about three hours of interviews of his life and then just a few months later he passed away. Dwaine’s family were extremely grateful for this recorded history before it was too late.

So today’s post is to encourage everyone who reads this to contact the older members of your extended family and help them record their unique life stories before it is too late. Use a video camera, a digital recorder, or computer to preserve their histories. Do it this week. You will be so glad that you did.

Chris Stevenson  cs@sgenealogy.com  www.sgenealogy.com

Normal vs. Unusual

One of the challenges of writing your own history is figuring out what to put in and what to leave out. When we read someone else’s history, it is very easy to pick out the things that are interesting to us. When we are looking at our own life experiences it is much harder choosing those things that will be of interest to others. Usually, we just think of the unusual or spectacular things in our life. But the regular, day to day activities at different stages of your life will be very interesting to others. Then when you share something unusual it will stand out. For instance, when you are sharing about your youth you could write about the time that you got a ride to school because you broke your foot. But it would be better to first explain that you normally walked to school each day and what it was like and then share the one week that you got a ride and the next three weeks that you walked on crutches. This will make the experience stand out more, but it also gives the reader a better understanding of what your life was really like each day. Paint a clear picture of what life was like in a normal day and do this for each of the stages in your life. It may not seem to interesting to you (because it was normal for you) but it really will be interesting to your readers and help them to know the real you. Keep writing!

Chris Stevenson  cs@sgenealogy.com   www.sgenealogy.com

Important Work

Here is a short reminder of how important it is to publish family histories. Think back to all the things that you learned from your family growing up. They passed on to you many great (and some not so great) habits, information, and attitudes that have made you who you are today. This was a huge investment of time and love from your parents and other family members who helped raise you. Now, you are in a position to pass on to future generations the important events, stories, and feelings from your family before they are lost forever. It is well worth all of the time and effort to write and share your family history. I strongly encourage you to keep going until it is finished. You’ll be very glad that you did.

Chris Stevenson  cs@sgenealogy.com  www.sgenealogy.com

Hard Binding

Here is a short explanation of the different kinds of hard binding and the materials used. Case or edition binding, the most common type of binding for hardcover books, involves sewing the individual signatures together, flattening the spine, applying endsheets and a strip of cloth to the spine. Then the hard covers are attached.

Some of the materials used for hard bound books are cloth, buckram, paper products, and leather. Until the mid-20th century, covers of mass-produced books were laid with cloth, but from that period onwards, most publishers adopted clothette, a kind of textured paper which vaguely resembles cloth but is easily differentiated on close inspection. Buckram is a stiff cloth that is often coated with acrylic and is a very durable cover. Clothette and other paper products are very common and can be made to look like imitation leathers or given linen textures. These are quite durable and cost effective. Leather is rarely used because it is challenging to work with and very expensive.

Here are some swatches of what linen texture and imitation leather covers look like.

If you are still confused with some of the book binding terms, here is a great glossary of bookbinding words.

Here is a link to my post last year about book binding that you might like to read.

Chris Stevenson cs@sgenealogy.com www.sgenealogy.com

Descendant Numbering System

When you are publishing a book with descendants of a common ancestor, keeping everyone straight is a challenge. There are several numbering systems that greatly assist the reader (and you) to know how each person is related. The one that I like the best is called the d'Aboville number system. It was developed by Count Jacques d'Aboville in 1940. It start with the common ancestor being number 1. The oldest child of person number 1 is given the number 1.1, the second child the number 1.2, and so on. In the third generation, the oldest child of person 1.1 is assigned the number 1.1.1, the second child of that person is 1.1.2, and so on. The oldest child of child number twelve is 1.12.1, the second child 1.12.2, and so on. It is an simple system to learn and to follow from generation to generation. Here is a sample of what it looks like in the book.

Chris Stevenson cs@sgenealogy.com www.sgenealogy.com

Preserving Photos

Pictures add so much to family histories. I love pictures of people and places in the histories that we publish for people. Occasionally I am asked about preserving photos. Here is a great web site for different aspects of photo preservation. It includes organizing tips and a history of photography as well. There are a few tips concerning videos, too. If this is something that can help you, check it out. Here is the link:

http://genealogy.about.com/library/weekly/aa121000b.htm

Chris Stevenson cs@sgenealogy.com www.sgenealogy.com

Vacation Adventures

Summer is traditionally vacation time and so my thoughts are on getting away with my family. I thought that I would make a post about the adventures that can happen on vacations. I think that it would be great to include some of these in your family histories. Often when we talk about our vacations we mention the fun and normal parts of the vacation. But I think that the most interesting parts are when there are problems that we face and overcome.  I can think of the time when our family went camping at Bear Lake (a place that we love to go every year). We enjoy the beauty of the lake and playing on the great beaches. But the story that I think is the most interesting (and the one that my kids love to repeat) is the time when a neighbor told us of a different way to get there and we got lost. I was driving and everyone else was asleep in the van when I missed the sign that told me when to turn. I kept going, not knowing that I had missed the turn. It took us twice as long to get there because we ended up going all the way around the lake. It was quite an adventure.

The point of this story is to include problems, challenges and hardships in your histories. You will be glad that you included the real adventures in your family’s lives.

Chris Stevenson cs@sgenealogy.com  www.sgenealogy.com