I am also writing a book. It is in hypertext, so it can be read using a browser, but I am deliberately keeping to a format, which I can print out easily, as not every relative has a computer.
I have structured the contents, roughly as follows:
The people are grouped into families and each family has 4 sections:
1) Family History (concerning the whole family).
- Where they came from, moved to etc.
- Census scans
- Photos
- maps
- any other interesting documents (like excerpts from my mum's diary from 1938/9)
- interesting web links i.e. to places they lived, etc.
This corresponds, I think, to Dinky's idea:
... You could also give a potted history on their occupations and what was happening in their area at that particular time. Also. if you could include pictures of their towns or villages so that they can compare the past and present.
2) Biographies, sorted in generation groups
each person has a "mug sheet" with a standard format
- born
- died
- parents
- siblings
and per Spouse
- spouse
- children
If available I include thumbnail shots of BMD certs. and photos (The thumbnails are links to the full-size images).
Then comes a box, where I add anything we know about this person. This may be empty, or just have Occupation (from the census) or run to several pages. The more we know, the easier it is to write a "story" and not, as Craggus says
"Mr xx was born on the blah blah in blah. He married blah on the blah of blah"
3) a family tree. I use an Excel spreadsheet to draw this, as I haven't found a suitable program yet. I may end up writing one myself.
4) a pedigree chart, starting with the youngest generation of each family. This is a standard output from PAF or Legacy, and probably most other gen. software.
I also have a page with family legends and stories. i.e. unsubstantiated, or not referring to a particular person. Two of these, I have already "printed" here
("Are you related to royalty":
http://www.rootschat.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3318.msg8055#msg8055, and the Hessie Story:
http://www.rootschat.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=8416.msg13644#msg13644 )
Add an introduction, and that's it.
This is an on-going project, I burn it onto CD and print it about every 6 months or so and distribute it, but I think the same thing could be done, using WORD, without the hypertext elements.
D ap D is
... hoping that I will get about a 20 % response from the family.
I have now "published" twice, and that's about the response I actually get !
A bit like Sylviaann, really:
Everyone was thrilled and promised to send me more pics. These have not materialized.
p.s.
on other threads, we are discussing web-pages and books, etc. but they are about the
media.
I think this thread is great for a discussion about the
content of web-pages, once RootsChat starts this service.