NYRENSSE-L Archives

From: "JAH" <>
Subject: [NYRENSSE] Keeping your research alive after you're gone
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2007 05:40:44 -0600
In-Reply-To: AAAAAK0LohJHRDNHq/3oDIuGk2cEbSsA

Hi Listers,

Another idea, is to do what most of us have always threatened to do anyway.
Write a book!

I did one of my lines in '06, and have been working on another for a few
years. It's time consuming, but it allows you to preserve photo and
document images, along with the genealogy and story of your family/line.

The book I published in '06 was in part as a gift for attendees at a family
reunion. I did have it copyrighted, which was fairly inexpensive, and sent
a copy to the copyright office (which you must do, to receive copyright), to
the local library where the family story started in Ireland and to the LDS
for their digitization project at BYU. Thus, there are a few copies of the
book available that will most likely be available for a long time to come.

I was very hesitant about doing anything more than a printing job and
putting the book in binder form, due to the cost I've seen for
self-publishing. I did find a company in Canada, Art Bookbindery, that did
an excellent job (leather-bound hardcover) at a fraction of the price that
others charge. (I'm not connected to these people in any way, and normally
wouldn't plug anyone, but they did such a terrific job - under promised and
over delivered - that I want people to know what a good value their service
is.)

Granted, you don't preserve every last detail in book form the way you do in
genealogy software, but you do leave it in a form that is more useable for
non-genealogists, and by citing your sources in an index, without cluttering
up the chapters for non-genealogists, you also leave the pointers to the
proof of your research.

By the way - the dozens of family members that each received a copy of the
book were thrilled, and these were people with no particular interest in
family research. They now each have the culmination of 30+ years of
research on my part, and 20+ years on the part of one of my cousins.

Best Wishes,
Judy Herbert

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