The Stories Will Make it Great

Tell a story; don’t just get stuck in the dry facts. Anyone who reads your personal or family history will likely be interested in the facts, but what they'll enjoy most and remember are the everyday details - favorite stories and anecdotes, embarrassing moments and family traditions. Sometimes it can add interest to include varying accounts of the same event from different perspectives. Personal stories offer a great way to introduce new people and chapters, and will help keep your reader interested. If your ancestors left no personal accounts, you can still tell their story as if they had, using what you've learned about them from your research. Look at historical information at the time to see what was happening in their city. Be sure to make it clear that this
information is not from their own writing but is added to give an example of what your relative might have been doing at the time. Use a phrase like "Mary didn't say this in her record but I can just imagine her ..." The stories in your history will help to make it memorable and enjoyable for the reader and satisfying to you. The Stories will make it great.

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

Video Histories

Ever since YouTube came along, the younger generation want to see it instead of read it. Adding a video DVD in the back of you book could be the icing on the cake to cause your grandchildren and great-grandchildren to really enjoy your life history. Here are some helpful hints if this is something you are considering.

There are professional companies that can interview you with a camera rolling and video some special family events. Then they will take that film and edit it into a wonderful DVD to be enjoyed over and over again. If you want to have a more hands on approach or do it on a smaller budget, you can do it yourself for a simple but effective look. I few critical things to keep in mind when you are doing a video. Be sure that the lighting is good so that you don’t show up as a black blob on the screen. Also, do the taping where background noise isn’t a problem and where you are close enough to the camera to be heard clearly.

Here are some web pages that will be a great recourse for you:

http://storytelling.concordia.ca/oralhistory/resources/tips.html

http://www.genealogy.com/95_carmack.html

http://genealogy.about.com/od/oral_history/Oral_Histories_Interviewing_Relatives_and_Collecting_Oral_History.htm

Interviewer tips: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/resources/rohotips.html

Make your DVD fun and interesting and it will capture future audiences for years to come.

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

Email questions and I’d be happy to help.

Decide Your Page Size in the Beginning

Occasionally someone asks if I can take there letter size (8.5 x 11”) book and reduce it to 6.25 x 9.5” size. I can, but the margins will are much too large on the top and bottom so it doesn’t look very good. I would suggest that you decide in the beginning on the size that you want your finished book. Then when you are typing and placing pictures in the document, everything will fit together nicely and your book will have a more professional look.

I would also suggest that you choose a good readable font. Three common fonts that are easy to read are: Times Roman, Bookman Old Style, and Garamond. Try these out and see which font you like best and find the most readable.

Another tip is to include the chapter in the header on the same line as the page number. One caution, don’t number the pages manually, use automatic numbering. This will save you hours of time and the page numbers will stay consecutive even when you add pictures and edit your book.

Chris Stevenson cs@sgenealogy.com http://www.sgenealogy.com/

Email questions and I’d be happy to help.

Here are two examples of headers with the chapter and page number on the same line:

How Shall I Organize My Book?

That is a great question that I am asked quite frequently. There are several different ways to organize the material in your book. (Just as every person is unique, each book should be unique.) The layout and design of your book, where you put the pictures, and the way you organize the information is part of the creativity & uniqueness of your book. If you don’t know where to start, you can get ideas from looking at other printed histories from family, friends or genealogists and see which style you like best. If you find a layout that you like then use the same one, otherwise you can do it any way you would like. Don't think that you have to make your book look just like other histories, unless you like it. Go ahead and get opinions and advice from others, but most importantly, don’t be afraid to do it the way that you would like.

Here are some common ways to organize your history. For personal histories, chronological order is frequently used. For genealogical histories the two most common are: 1) Start with the oldest ancestor and work your way to today. Or 2)Start with you, then your parents, then your grandparents, etc. If your history is about multiple cousins of the same generations, the two most common ways are: 1) Alphabetical order; or 2) Put them in order by families in birth order.

Pictures and documents can be placed in groups or scattered throughout the book. I prefer to put the pictures throughout the book, close to where they are talked about in the text. If you are going to print some pictures in color, you can save some money by combining the color pictures on the same page, but other than that feel free to put the pictures and documents where you would like to have them.

Remember, make it your way.

Chris Stevenson cs@sgenealogy.com http://www.sgenealogy.com/

Email questions and I’d be happy to help.

How Important is an Index?

All books will be a much better book with an index (exceptions are novels or children’s books). You are very familiar with what is in your book and where it is, but everyone else doesn’t have this knowledge. An index will aid the reader and researcher to find exactly what they are looking for and know for sure if the information they are looking for is in your book.

There are a small number of family histories that can use automatically generated indexes. Most histories will need to be manually indexed. One of the main problems with any kind of automatic indexing is that we don’t have a person’s name listed exactly the same way each time. For example, one time we may list someone by their full name, the next instance my just list their first name, and then we may have another story that just uses their nickname. Only a manual index will be able to have all three of these listed correctly for the same person.

Most people are familiar with the index card method of indexing a book, and that way still works, but I have a little easier way to manually create an index. As you are working on the book and typing it up, make a new file called “index” and begin listing all of the names that you would like included (listed surname first). Include key place names (towns, counties), important events (world wars, accidents), as well as people in your index. For female members or instances where the family name changed significantly in spelling, consider using cross-references to maiden and married names or alternate spellings used by the same individual.

When you are finished writing, proofreading, and editing the book and it is all ready for the publisher, have your word processor alphabetize the list of names that you have typed. Now as you go through the book for the last proofreading (usually from the printer’s proof) add the page numbers for each person and your index is done. Pretty slick.

Some people judge a book by its cover. Most genealogists judge a book by its index.

If you would like to look further into using an indexing program, here are some good links for you to find more about them.

Some indexing programs you can buy are listed on this site: http://www.anindexer.com/about/sw/swindex.html

Here are two articles about the limitations and disadvantages to using an automatic indexing program: http://www.backwordsindexing.com/Comp.html

http://www.anindexer.com/about/auto/autoindex.html

Chris Stevenson cs@sgenealogy.com http://www.sgenealogy.com/

Email questions and I’d be happy to help.

Copyright, To Do or Not To Do, That is the Question.

I am asked from time to time if a client needs to copyright their book. My usual answer is that will depend on one thing; if you are going to sell your book as an income source for many years to come, then you will want to get a copyright. If not, then you won't need to bother with a copyright. Many genealogy books or family history books have limited interest to close relatives and don’t need to have a copyright. Keep in mind that obtaining a copyright isn't very expensive and doesn’t take much time, so if you are wavering on this, then go ahead and copyright it.

Here is a link to the U. S. Copyright Office web page for frequently asked questions. If you don’t find your answer here, then let me know and I’ll see what I can find out for you. http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

Chris Stevenson cs@sgenealogy.com http://www.sgenealogy.com/

Email questions and I’d be happy to help.

Deadlines

This time of year, I am reminded of the importance of deadlines as well as the lack of importance of deadlines. That my sound funny, so let me explain. First, I think that it is common knowledge that we need deadlines to push us over the top to finish projects. A couple of examples that I can think of is how many sports teams really push hard to get ahead in the last two minutes of a game. And how students study extra hard and long just before a final test. We definitely need deadlines to help us.
But I want to point out another side of deadlines when it comes to publishing a family history. Every year I have some people ask me when is the last date that they can finish writing it and have it published for Christmas. We discuss the different deadlines and then I usually say something like this, "I just want to remind you that it is wonderful to have you book completed for Christmas, but your book will be around for a hundred years and so it is more important to have it just right than to meet a deadline." This is wisdom that I learned from my father. He used deadlines to help propel him forward, but he never cut corners. Maybe that is the perfectionist in him.
Keeping deadlines in their proper perspective is so important as we do these very large projects, like writing and publishing a family history. Use Christmas, a family reunion, or other occasion as a deadline to work towards, but remember that your book will be treasured for years to come. Make it a legacy that you will be happy with not one full of regrets.
Chris Stevenson cs@sgenealogy.com www.sgenealogy.com
Email questions and I’d be happy to help.