TIPS, TRICKS & IDEAS OF THE MONTH

Creating a Family History

It’s not as difficult or costly as you might think. Part 5 of my article goes into detail about copying, printing and publication options and what the costs might be. It may be a little time consuming at first but the rewards are well worth it. You can start with some of the things I’m sure you already have in your possession. Maybe you have already been thinking about it or started making notes about events and meaningful experiences.

Your book will not only serve as a valuable piece of family history for you and your family, it will be something you will enjoy creating. Your book will be something you yourself will enjoy going back through from time to time as you grow older. It will bring back many memories you can relive in your mind over and over again. Creating a book about your family and ancestors is an important way of converting and preserving memories forever with the printed word and pictures… even video clips and voice recordings if you decided to use the book to create a PowerPoint presentation or home movie (video) or an e-book..

If you save your book on a CD, DVD, PowerPoint presentation or home movie (video) or e-book (more about this in Part 5 of this article) and pass it on to family members, hopefully, one of your relatives or more might decide to continue on and keep adding to it making this a perpetual living family album. What a wonderful legacy this would be to your family.

If you have an interest in going back in your family history, there are three excellent sites you can subscribe to: Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com and Rootsweb.com. There are other sites as well that have a wealth of information about genealogy research. You’ll find that you’ll learn a lot of very interesting historical facts.

For example I found out my GGGGGrandfather came to America from Ireland in 1790 with his father and fought in the American Revolution. I wrote to the government archives and obtained a copy of a handwritten account of his service, how he fought for two years escorting settlers to safety from of the area around Pittsburg, PA to the Philidelphia area during the Indian uprisings just before the revolution. He then reenlisted for another two years and guarded the British prisoners after the fall of Yorktown. I found that three GGrandfathers fought in the Civil War, two on the side of the Union and one in the Army of the Confederacy. Two of them almost died of Typhoid Fever and one was captured and held in a Confederate prison.  I also found a lot of historical information I never read about in school.

Historical facts and information about your own family can be shared with all of the family members, especially those who are still in school. Just think how proud your son, daughter, niece or nephew would be to tell the class that his or her GGGGrandfather fought in the American Revolution! It makes history more real, personal and perhaps even fun to study. The possibilities of what you can learn are endless. Once you get started, it’s becomes a treasure hunt. This applies to everyone no matter when or where your ancestors came to America. You may have ancestors who were in military service here or in another country, started a successful business, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Even if you don’t care to go back in your ancestry, a book about you, your parents, grandparents, your children etc. would still be something of value to you and your family now and for future generations.

If you think about writing a book about your family and ancestry in these terms you’ll have fun doing it and when it’s done, you’ll have something you’ll be proud of that you and your family will enjoy for years to come… a lasting legacy.

I’ve created a six + part article containing steps to help you:

Part 1 – Steps and procedures for gathering information to get started.

Part 2 – Contains a suggested list of pictures and documents to gather.

Part 3 – How to organize and catalog all the information you’ve gathered in preparation for writing the stories and articles.

Part 4 – Is about writing articles and contains information and ideas regarding what to write about… what to include in each article.

Part 5 - Contains information about the various ways you can save your book, copying, printing and publication options, what you need to do to get your book printed and/or published (if you decide to do this) and approximate cost of each option. I also talk about obtaining an ISBN number and Copyrighting for those who may have a novel or other books they would like formatted for publication. We are experienced in dealing with printers and on-demand self-publishers and would be glad to help you. This part also goes into creating a PowerPoint presentation, a home movie (video) or an e-book out of your book.

Part 6a, 6b, etc. – Follow-up sections with stories, examples and suggestions I receive from readers. If you would like to send them to me, I would love to hear from you. Please be sure to use fictitious last names and include your permission that will allow me to publish your story, example and/or suggestion. If I use your story, I would not use your correct name unless you wanted me to. I would use fake initials to preserve your anonymity  Send me your story or request through the Customer Feedback page in this site or by e-mail to tailoredpcdocuments@earthlink.net..

If you’re interested in creating a book about you and your family, I’ll be posting my 6+ part article, one part at a time every few days so be sure to check back. You can copy the instructions or e-mail me and I’ll send them to you FREE of charge… NO STRINGS ATTACHED. I’ll even include a template laid out in Word that you can use to get you started.

Gail White
President/Owner
Tailored PC Documents