Sharing information with the family

[KathMc]

Agha,

The CD thing is wonderful. It saves on paper, especially when you know you are going to have to continue updating the whole process (that's my optimism shining through  ).

I am so glad this topic came up. It has really motivated me. I just finished getting my taxes ready for the accountant, will mail them off, and will get back to work researching Buffalo and organizing my Heintz and Kochersberger files.

Kath

[kerryb]

The CD idea is a good one,  my aunt and uncle got a computer and had to wait some months for son in law to connect them to the internet but they were very interested to see all the work I have done on the family tree so I basically produced in Word a document to look like my website including photos.  They were bowled over by it and cleverly produced from it a pdf to send to their daughter, my cousin.

Kerry

[Mogsmum]

Many thanks to all for your interesting thoughts and suggestions.   

Broadly everyone seems to have confirmed what I thought - that it's probably better to do your own 'thing' - which is kind of comforting, since its what I've been doing.

[KathMc]

Just thought I'd update on this thread. I had said I was going to start with my mom's side, to share with her, but then I found my cousin is having a surprise 80th for my aunt (my dad's sister), so I thought, what a great present. I started today with that side, writing it up. I am trying to focus mostly on the family in America (mostly all in the mid to late 1800s), with a smattering of what I know from the "old" countries. I have more, obviously, on the English branches. My husband said most won't be interested in every branch, but the ones they know, so I am trying to focus on my parents' parents' surnames, so the narrative will have 4 main parts, with "chapters" throughout for the usually maternal lines. I had fun starting to pull it all together today, researching different aspects to add to the story, such as the potato famine, farming life in northern NY, things like that.

But I recommend it to anyone, get started.

And I came up with what I think is a fantastic name for my report. It was a favorite quote of my dad's: "How Great Thou Art." 

And I'll include this poem: http://www.appleseeds.org/irish3.htm

It was read at my uncle's funeral in 1993, the first time we heard it. We were all amazed, as it was my uncle to a T, so now it has become a very special poem in our extended family.

kath

[trish251]

Hi Kath

We MUST be distant cousins from back when - I wrote my Mum's book for her brother's 80th birthday - only had to change the final chapter on descendants    I concentrated on the family in Australia but did research where each of the branches came from - England/Scotland - & had a small amount on these areas. I like your title very much - Mine was called World's Apart   (noting the transition from the Old world to the new).

I included a printout of the family tree (pages and pages) of each branch at the end, for those who were interested in the genealogy. I think I'm probably the only person who has currently read that part    but one day someone else will be interested). I did include small diagrams throughout the text explaining the direct ancestors of  my mother/uncle.

Keep writing - you will find more and more to add and run out of time - it's good to have a deadline!

Trish

[KathMc]

Trish,

Thanks for the encouragement. It was a lot of fun to work on  it. I plan to have pretty much the same setup. I am trying to keep every little date out of the actual narrative, as they can look at the tree for that.

Kath

[JDGen]

Hi All,

I'm also trying to write up one of my lines (and finding it very difficult!).  The trouble I've got is that I have information on so many family lines who all descend from the same person (my 5xggrandfather) - it's difficult to know what to leave out.  And for the early lines (I'm moving forward from 1710) it's not easy to have more information than x begat y and they were baptised here!  So I'm filling in with photographs and world events of the time to give some perspective.

Also I find the design itself difficult - how do I group the family lines?  So I've taken the approach of each chapter referring to one of the descendants of the earliest ancestor and then take that family as far as I can with their descendants in sub chapters.

What I have found useful is to create a small one page family tree at the beginning of the chapter so that the readers can see where everyone fits in.

I've also made sure that all the facts are sourced with footnotes - I find that this takes alot of time but also helps me keep track - I've also said how I have come to a conclusion when the facts are circumstantial!

Problem is that I keep finding more information as I'm trying to write it!

Gosh this sounds complicated now I've written it down, I hope I don't put anyone off! 

Have fun,

Jean

[trish251]

Hi Jean

There seem to be two methods of writing the stories - Take one ancestor and work forwards - as you have done, or take one person and work backwards as I have done. Both have advantages and disadvantages and both cover a very different range of our ancestors.

One family of my Scottish ancestors arrived in Australia in 1833 and a distant cousin of mine has used a similar approach to yours and searched for every descendant of this couple. This was done purely through word of mouth information and hardly a date mentioned  It has been a wonderful help for my research but many many hours have been (and still are being) spent finding sources for all the people mentioned - so I would love to have had your footnotes.

Trish

[Mumsie2131]

Roots Magic will produce a Read only CD.  I produced one a couple of Chistmas's ago for my cousins.