Self Publishing Family History

[ThrelfallYorky]

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

[JGDavies]

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).

[ValJJJ]

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.

[David Nicoll]

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!

[Biggles50]

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.

[coombs]

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.