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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Siely on Wednesday 12 June 24 20:48 BST (UK)
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Has anyone put their family history into a book for family and friends only ? Does anybody know how much self publishing costs for a low number of copies ?
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It probably depends on where you are located so good idea to check with local printers. You might try asking a local family history group, if there is one in the area, for advise and recommendations.
One thing that can make a difference in cost (aside from selecting more expensive paper, binding methods, etc) is the number of photographs that you include. Sometimes it can be slightly less expensive if photos are grouped together on a page rather than scattered throughout but this is something to ask a printer.
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Or you can use any of the online sites.
Eg. https://www.blurb.com/ But there are many.
They can be expensive but have good discounts. Best I have seen on Blurb is 50%.
Blurb has their own software your download, you can fiddle about off line as long as you like. Make the book, then when ready, upload the book. Then sit and wait for the discount before ordering copies.
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Friends of mine use -
https://www.lulu.com/ (https://www.lulu.com/)
Regards
Chas
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Why bother? As far as I can see it's merely a "Vanity exercise" sadly.
TY
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Why bother? As far as I can see it's merely a "Vanity exercise" sadly.
TY
A very strange reply on what is essential a genealogy forum :-\
There are many, many reasons for wanting to publish research so that information, stories and photos can be preserved and passed onto other relatives or friends.
At the moment my sister and I are writing a joint obituary for both our parents (harder than writing two individual ones). Hopefully are children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren that are old enough to remember our parents will appreciate it now and even in the future.
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You can put a lot more information than a bare tree in a book.
That is what makes it interesting to a wider family audience, who knows it may become history.
I am very fortunate in that a Canadian relative carried out such a “variety project” in the 1930’s
writing down his memories of family in Canada and earlier into the 1830’s on Deeside.
It told me so much more than the records ever could.
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I'm lucky, too. Both of my paternal grandparents wrote fairly lengthy accounts. My grandmother focused on genealogy and my grandfather on farm life in Wisconsin from 1875-1900.
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And family is much less likely to throw away a bound book than file boxes of papers.
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My reaction is largely because I knew someone who went to a great deal of trouble and expense, even employing "professional" researches, and editor / designer, for what was basically in the end a fairly downmarket item largely padded out with "On this date Fred Bloggs stood for Parliament" (not relevant) etc. She was HAD, and very disappointed with the end result.
Sorry if I sounded unhelpful, but ... caveat emptor. There are some baddies out there...
TY
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Has anyone put their family history into a book for family and friends only ? Does anybody know how much self publishing costs for a low number of copies ?
I wrote up my family history research using Microsoft Word on a PC as my editor, inserting table of contents, chapters, index, references, pictures, scanned family photos, tables, pictures of old maps, and got up to about 200 sides of A4. I went to a business printer shop in my local town in 2014 and asked what they could do to print it, I think my first spring bound edition I had 10 copies done. I gave most to relatives in return for visiting them and picking their memories etc; though some then asked me to print copies for their children to pass on (at their cost).(http://FH Research Pic.jpg)
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My mother's cousin wrote about herself and family, including some geneaology research, and had 6 copies (only one photo) hardbound to give to her cousins. It is fascinating and fleshes out the BMD records and adds to the memories I have of older family members. It prompted her brother to do the same, but that was spiral bound, and then my mother (but hers was all on the back of envelopes!).
As mckha489 says, books are less likely to be thrown out. So go for it - for me it provided context, invaluable anecdotes and a snapshot of childhood days pre-war. Another world. And that original book given to my mother started me off on the family history route, intrigued that an ancestor's name was Devil. Turned out it was Deavoll :) - probably misread from badly written documents in the days when you had to visit record offices and archives and take notes. No internet, no digital cameras or phones and possibly photography was forbidden or the fee too high.
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Photography was definitely forbidden, pencil and a pad of paper only.
I am just scanning for posterity the several thousand pages of hand written notes from my parents. Just in case I have missed a crucial link!
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I simply print out the Family Tree and add the stories etc and put it in a binder.
Four ring binders embossed with “Family History” are available from the well known Genealogical Supplies Company here in the UK, I have one of their Certificate Binders for our BMD Certs and it is good quality.
Someone we know had a book self published, it was all about a specific family member and it included an ISBN number and copies were place in the British Library and the Bodlian Library and the limited run of I think six books cost the family over £6000.
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I do my own research and even have published my own book for personal use and to show family members, and have to update them at times, such as finding out my Oxford born great gran lived in Hackney for a while in a convent school. I once had a professional researcher but she often gave me irrelevant results when I asked her to search for someone with a specific first and surname 1790-1840 and she got me results from the 1600s and she said "that may be an ancestor of your lot as it is that area". Never pick a name from centuries ago and work forward, always go with what you know and work backwards. I binned this researcher in the end, if you want something done properly then do it yourself.