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  1. #1
    Summer
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    Lightbulb Christmas Pressie - any ideas on write ups?

    With Christmas rapidly approaching (OK, where did 2008 go?) I'm considering collating the research I've done thus far as a present for my Gran, but need advice from the Brains Trust at BG.

    1) What scope do you extend to?
    I have been lucky to be able to find other lines of family and not just my grandmother's paternal line, which has been my focus, but they stop abruptly around the time of the 1901 census (I haven't bought all the certs after that, although you can vaguely track marriages and deaths of know people through FreeBMD). Where do you start/stop, how do you decided who to include or not, what's the best way to tackle this in a family history??? Mentioning names and then leaving a N.B. that it will be added to in time??

    2) What about living family that you are not in touch with?
    Should they be included? Do you need permission for a personal family history?

    3) What about sensitive information?
    There was a member of our family that had some pretty awful things officially documented by the defence force on returning home, which I think is completely justifiable for a veteran (could have been PTSD or similar caused by war experiences), alongside his Military Cross award. This I know impacts directly on my grandmother (her father) so how do you deal with it in a family history??

    4) What about future discoveries?
    Is there anyone who's developed a system/proforma for a family history to be easily updated rather than reworking the whole thing and reprinting?

    Happy to hear all ideas and thoughts on these points!
    Ta!

  2. #2
    A fountain of knowledge mary elms's Avatar
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    This is how I started on family history, with my sister, putting together a book of memories for my father. I then had the task of checking the facts ... and somehow I never stopped!

    1. In my experience the scope of this kind of report depends largely on the interests of the person for who, it's being compiled. For example, for both my parents I would include information about the families of uncles and aunts by marriage that they were particularly fond of.

    2. I usually mention that I'm in touch with x's gg grandchild but no names and no further information about that line.

    3. Again it depends on the person for whom you're compiling the history. Do they want to know or would they rather not be told?

    4. I always print off my family history books onto single sheets of matt photo paper as I tend to include the photos in with the text. I then put them into one of those bound books of clear plastic pockets (either 20 pockets for a 40 page book or 40 pockets for an 80 page book). It's easy then just to change one page or to shift them around at a later date.


    Mary.

  3. #3
    A fountain of knowledge mary elms's Avatar
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    Sorry, I forgot to say re Q4 - I always 'write' the report / book in a publisher - usually PagePlus. Again this makes it easy to change the text or to move things around at a later date and is not affected by changes of data in any system I might use for collating information.

    Mary.

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Summer View Post
    With Christmas rapidly approaching (OK, where did 2008 go?) I'm considering collating the research I've done thus far as a present for my Gran, but need advice from the Brains Trust at BG.
    A lot depends on your Gran - how old is she, how conservative, etc? I had 2 Aunts - one would have roared with laughter at the antics of one or two members of the family, the other would have been horrified. If it's going to be a Christmas present for a particular person, there's no need to include stuff that would upset that person - you can keep that material for your main write-up.
    If it was my family, I'd keep it gossipy and reasonably simple - for example I'd put that X was in the RAF, that he was a wireless op, shot down over Wherever and is buried There. I wouldn't (unless writing for my Dad who was also RAF and would want to know) give the make and number of the plane, or even the mission. I'd provide lots of simple trees - I usually make them per couple and kids, then the kids & spouses with their kids. My relatives are elderly so I'd include lots of pics - not just people, but also (where I can find them) the places involved. Google Earth (or the others, depending on which gives the best resolution) pictures zoomed in to show individual houses always go down well. Even pics of things - medals, for example are good.

    Have fun with it. One year I made a family photo calender with Mum & Dad's parents in the first months, then thier marriage, kids and family pics down the years, ending with their 50th anniversary in Dec. It went down very well, so I made them for my sibs as well.

    Lesley

  5. #5
    A fountain of knowledge mary elms's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lesley Robertson View Post
    If it was my family, I'd keep it gossipy and reasonably simple -
    Yes, I'd agree with that. A storytelling style with lots of pics and trees is much more interesting for the person receiving it. I usually add an appendix with any relevant transcriptions, facts and figures at the end. This can be ignored if the reader isn't interested but is there to back up the story if they are.

    Mary.

  6. #6
    Summer
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    Great ideas - thanks Lesley and Mary for responding so quick.

    I thought about a ring binder that you could replace pages in rather than "do over" but the display one would be better and protected too - like the idea of photo paper too. I think I will have a "Gran" and a "My" version of the family history because it is quite upsetting about my great grandfather. My grandmother loves family history so I will give her as much as I've got (which is a lot of detail on a few family members) and then try to make it more interesting with photos and simple trees. I actually started doing a "summary" page on each family (spouse and children) in Word with dates and then census whereabouts/career snippets etc so I think I'll continue that. It was just getting "too much" and I was doubting whether I was on the right track or not. Maybe I'll develop this more and have a narrative style after each summary page (where I have enough info to expand upon) that is broken up with maps and ship pictures (mariners in the line) etc. Food for thought guys, thanks for your speedy response.

  7. #7
    Geoffers
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    I did somehting similar about 5 years ago. I worked on the following premise:

    1. If I could write a story, I'd be a best selling author - I'm not

    2. Narrative reports created by computer programmes are really, really b-o-r-i-n-g. They are so unintersting that they can be described as truly awful.

    3. The fun in family history is in finding things out, making discoveries; while spoil the fun?

    4. A picture (include diagrams) is worth a thousand words.

    So - I bought a big artist's portfolio and several fullscap folders.

    In each folder I put a different type of source document, arranged in date order. One has certificates, one for census, photos, service records, directories, maps, black sheep, also one showing extracted entries from the GRO indices and lists of dates of birth/baptism, marriage and also death/burial, another one had older documents.

    Lastly I created a family tree (using a spreadsheet) - or rather several trees. One showed the relatives and their immediate family - so everything is put in context. Then another tree showing family a couple of generations back, others showed siblings and their families. All these spreadsheet diagrams could be connected to show one big family tree.

    The idea was to hand over the porfolio (minus the black sheep file), open it up and for the family to 'discover' things for themselves. Only instead of all the negative searches and the hours/days/weeks/months/years of hunting that I needed to do to get to the result, every bit of information in the file was relevant. The family reading knew that a document related to them and so each was of interest.

    To use an analogy, for me books and radio are generally much more interesting than the telly. I build up pictures in my own mind as to what I read or hear. The picture in my mind is personal to me and keeps my attention. The telly adds something - someone else's interpretation and that is often disappointing.

    In presenting a folder of source documents, the family could get them all out in any order they liked and spread them over the floor/dining table and build up a picture in their own mind of how things were connected - that had the added bonus of connecting with old memories ("Oh yes, I remember - it was said that the lodger fathered her illegitimate son".........) which gave me more ideas for further research.

    Being loose-leaf and each folder having documents in date order there are no problems with inserting new information as it is found, it just involves amending the family tree spreadsheets and creating new ones as needed.

    The black sheep folder I kept back until I heard the words "What a load of goody-goodies, what a shame no one got up to anything." to which I could then get out the folder and reply, "Well, actually................."

    To go back to my first point, if you've stayed awake this long, my apologies for going on at such length.

  8. #8
    Jan1954
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    Geoffers - what an excellent idea.

    It is almost like a murder mystery weekend - you know that something is going to happen, the clues are there but you do not know what you are going to discover along the way.

    You have certainly given me some food for thought...

    Thank you.

  9. #9
    Geoffers
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jan1954
    Geoffers - what an excellent idea.
    It is almost like a murder mystery weekend - you know that something is going to happen, the clues are there but you do not know what you are going to discover along the way.
    You summarised in a few words what I was trying to put across in many - see what I mean about not being a best-selling author?

    The idea can of course be adapted anyway you like, to fit personal preferences - you could even do it as a game, give them the basics - a family tree with them and their immediate family and ask them what they want to find out next - if you're really adventurous and like that sort of thing you could even create a 'Cluedo' like board game - moving between record offices holding different bits of information?

    Keep the excitement in finding out about history

  10. #10
    Summer
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    Quote Originally Posted by Geoffers View Post
    3. The fun in family history is in finding things out, making discoveries; while spoil the fun?
    I agree to a point! The "fun" in my case involves my grandmother's father having DOD documented homocidal tendancies after returning home from WW1 and details of a plan involving the oldest child (my Gran) being given the nod from her mother, to whisk the other children away to safety, amoung other things. Probably not the best story to recount in a Christmas gift. (she's nealy 87) I think I'll stick to the Military Cross.
    Quote Originally Posted by Geoffers View Post
    All these spreadsheet diagrams could be connected to show one big family tree.
    Love this idea! Very clever!
    And I myself love the whole "putting it together yourself approach", but due to my grandmother being of advancing years, I thought I'd do the "hard work" for her in this particular case. But one to keep in the mind for next time!
    Quote Originally Posted by Geoffers View Post
    The black sheep folder I kept back until I heard the words "What a load of goody-goodies, what a shame no one got up to anything." to which I could then get out the folder and reply, "Well, actually................."
    I just know I'd say that! I'm always up for the juicy bits!

    Thanks for your responses!

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