Family History Books

What to include in a Family History Book

Family history books can take a great deal of time to create, and several skills.  The main elements you may want to include your in your family history book are:

• Family history data which you may have already in an online tree or on your computer in a program such as Family Tree Maker or RootsMagic for example.  Or do you require genealogical research?
• Oral History interviews, the spoken words which provide flesh to the data skeleton and add life to the story
• Photos which are organized and digitized to a reasonably high standard

Skills needed to create a Family History Book

• The ability to format the book with a design program or text formatting software
• Acquire an ISBN number from Library and Archives Canada
• Print a book from your document
• Marketing?  Most family history books are for the benefit of family and are unlikely to sell more widely.

No matter the time and effort involved, the result is a legacy for your extended family!

A sample from family

Here is the cover image of the keepsake family history book I created for my mother's family. 

You can view the first half of the book on Issuu by clicking on the image.  

The book was created from the elements above, genealogy, oral history interviews with my Aunts, Patty Flemming, Mildred Kaarsoo and my mother, Helen Waddell.  My mother was also a great help in editing the book and adding detail that didn't come out in the original interviews.

At the time of writing, Patty had moved from her longtime home and was living in Windsor Court Retirement Residence in Fredericton where she could get the extra care and attention she needed.

Patty had always wanted to write a book of stories of her life as a child.  She had been so busy writing for the newspaper and doing for others, that she never got around to it and was saddened.

She would talk to her sister Mary who then talked to my mother about what a shame it was that it hadn't been done.

Age or Health-related Limitations

Patty no longer was capable of typing and was unable to do it herself.  When I heard about the situation, I thought, "I guess I should take it on.  After all, this is my thing!"  So, I did.  And above you can see a sample of the result.  I'm very proud of the outcome and Patty was thrilled and moved to tears.  I got the book to her in the winter of 2022 and she showed it to everyone in her residence - some of the caregivers would read a little more each time they came in!  

My Aunt Patty Flemming, unfortunately, passed away 23 November 2022.  But I have the satisfaction of knowing that I gave her pleasure by putting down some of her stories in a book, along with a number of family photos.  

A Legacy

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