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family tree - prose version

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  • family tree - prose version

    Good afternoon all,

    hope your Sunday lunch is now going down nicely!

    I've recently bought "Tracing your family tree" by Anthony Adolph. This may be blindingly obvious to many of you, but I'd never heard of a "prose account" family history.eg I quote: " John Fairfax was born in 1710, four years before the death of Queen Anne.. Growing up in rural Suffolk, he was variously described as a grocer and draper.." etc etc.

    Has anyone done their tree like this, and, if so, how? Do you dedicate a page to each person, and is yours a written narrative or kept as a word document or similar somewhere to update as and when, and how have you included photos & paper evidence if it's on the computer.

    It's made me want to go right back to myself & start all over again, if you see what I mean.

    ps Sorry if I'm being thick ( again) and everyone else has been doing this for the last 20 years!

  • #2
    I like the idea! But where to start?
    Perhaps with ones parent/s, grandparent/s, etc.....
    It would make a Family Tree book very readable - hmm, you've got me thinking now
    Bridget

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    • #3
      I wondered whether I coould get each of my living family to contribute their own page with all the obvious info re date,place of birth, education, occupations, date & place of marriage ( with personal recollections of the day)& anything interesting they would like future generations to know about them.
      eg When bowling for the university cricket team, I once took 3 wickets in one over, despite my bra snapping in half during the same over & having to take it off in the middle of the cricket pitch & hand it to the umpire for safe-keeping. I think my great-great-grandchildren should be aware of this proud achievement!

      Comment


      • #4
        I did something like this for my parents' 60th wedding anniversary and no, I didn't dedicate a page to each person. I did a section for each of my grandparents and broke down the history of the different surnames within those sections (if that makes sense). It took a long time to put together and was seventy plus pages long (would be much longer now with the additional stuff I have LOL).
        Jenny

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        • #5
          I suppose it would lend itself to a one-person or family group study, provided enough interesting things happened to them. Anything broader based could become a millstone.
          Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

          Comment


          • #6
            I know it would be a huge undertaking, but so much more worthwhile. I haven't been near my FTM disk for ages now cos all the soulless filling in of dates & sources started to feel really tedious &, if I'm honest, quite pointless.

            If your motive for doing a tree is to produce something to be passed down your family or shared with living family, something like this would surely be far more appealing to people who may not be genealogy nuts like us?

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            • #7
              I've made my whole tree into a book Karen...... 250 pages... with photographs, headstones, copies of bishop's transcripts, letters, wills and anything else I could find. I've also added genealogy reports, direct lines and a few poems.

              It's ready to go to the binders now .... I had a binder lined up but a rather strange incident made him unavailable, so I've had to find a new local binder ... luckily an acquaintance.

              It's printed both sides on 170gsm, so it's quite heavy ....... like the family bible..lol. Family that have started reading it think it's great ...so I'm really pleased. It's in a sort of story for each family.. with all the census added. I just went back to 32 families... (some take more pages than others) .... with any earlier info I've found at the beginning of each family.

              I've also added an index, copyright and information pages on reading the census, dates and some history of the times and area.

              My main problem has been ... that I keep finding more information .. but as the pages are numbered I'm having trouble adding it.... I only hope I have the correct information ... that would be awful .. so I keep checking and rechecking.... but I have to stop sometime.

              It will make a good doorstop anyway.

              Jean
              Jean....the mist is starting to clear

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              • #8
                Karen

                If you have FTM you could use it to create a book, adding images of people, places, events, census, certificates etc.

                A few of us with FTM sites posted our books online (it got quite interesting, none of the books were quite finished, often they were left at a "cliffhanger" and waiting for the next update was agony:D).

                You can see mine ( it's a bit rough......a long time since i did anything and i have a few ideas for a re-edit) at my site.

                Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: User Home Pages: Glen Jones.My birth family and roots

                Elaine...Spain also had a really nice book on her site and Rosie Knees also has a book on her site too.

                The books are created in PDF format so they can be posted online, sent as e-mail attachments and printed out too. One way or another you could share a copy with everyone in the family.

                Because it's all stored within FTM it is backed up when you close FTM and you can edit any part of the book you want at any time. If you go down the book root the best method is to use a chapter approach, it allows you to add another chapter (eg a family group, location etc) and it makes adding a new section (chapter) into the book easier too, you can even work on one chapter that you have info for (eg chapter 3) and then insert chapter 2 at a later date when you have researched it.
                http://www.flickr.com/photos/50125734@N06/

                Joseph Goulson 1701-1780
                My sledging hammer lies declined, my bellows too have lost their wind
                My fire's extinct, my forge decay'd, and in the dust my vice is laid

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                • #9
                  My tree on Tribal Pages IS a book, lol, with the full 1,000 word notes for each person.

                  I have several times tried to start a proper book, but quickly get bogged down and can't keep to the point.

                  My latest idea is to do a chapter per direct ancestor, and their siblings will appear in that chapter.

                  The Holdens will run into several thousand-page volumes!

                  OC

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Olde Crone Holden View Post

                    I have several times tried to start a proper book, but quickly get bogged down and can't keep to the point.



                    OC
                    I know that feeling, it's the price we pay for delving a little deeper than just bmd refs and census :D
                    http://www.flickr.com/photos/50125734@N06/

                    Joseph Goulson 1701-1780
                    My sledging hammer lies declined, my bellows too have lost their wind
                    My fire's extinct, my forge decay'd, and in the dust my vice is laid

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Karen....Although my family history is by no means finished, I have dedicated a page to each ancestor.
                      Starting with the earliest picture I have of the person at the head of the page, I then added the general information ie. birth, marriage, children, and death in the same format for each person.
                      Then I started to add what I call the best bits, the personal stuff (the trouble is with this is, you always want a bit more)

                      I intend to add to each one, a bit of history - what life was like - inventions of the era etc.

                      I have collected pictures of houses, gravestones, cemetarys, sewing done by my mother - anything I can think of.

                      I only have one living aunt, so lots of the memories are hers.

                      For the future I am doing a story of my children and grandchildren
                      My grandchildren have helped their own story and we have added pictures of events at school, their friends and holidays.

                      I took a picture of two of the grandchildren in a lovely peak district setting and set it in the background of their place in the ancestral line.

                      I don't want blank backgrounds and I am struggling a bit with adding bits to make it interesting.
                      I want it to look more like a book when its finished....but....I also like the look of the simple technical looking layout too which seems straight to the point, without the frills....but...to me the frills are the best bit.
                      Kathleen

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                      • #12
                        Wow! What a creative lot you are! Glen, thanks for the link to your site - it looks wonderful.

                        I feel really inspired but very daunted too. I'm not very good with computers & I think I'd get very frustrated trying to do something so clever.I don't really understand FTM which doesn't help, I don't think i really know what I'm doing. Maybe I should just attempt a little bit of my family story at a time,print it off & put it together manually, also saving everything somewhere so that one day my children, who are already much cleverer than me with computers, can show me how to put it together the high-tech way.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Karen

                          The beauty of using FTM for a book is that you can re-jig the whole thing around so easily (or delete small/large parts quickly and easily).

                          When the subject first came up both Elaine and myself used the forum to highlight our efforts and ask for comments, advice and suggestions to help improve the books we were working on, we had quite a good response and some of the ideas were really useful.

                          It's difficult to make your family history appeal to everyone in your family but by keeping some of the content more "general" (perhaps adding some local history or adding a picture of a church where rellies were married, baptised etc) then it can appeal to more family members.

                          The best thing to do is have a go, you can take as long as you need and change things as you go, if you don't try you will never know.

                          The book feature in FTM is pretty easy to use, there are some useful tips and guides on the help centre, have a look at the following link for some ideas

                          Last edited by Glen in Tinsel Knickers; 31-08-08, 22:29.
                          http://www.flickr.com/photos/50125734@N06/

                          Joseph Goulson 1701-1780
                          My sledging hammer lies declined, my bellows too have lost their wind
                          My fire's extinct, my forge decay'd, and in the dust my vice is laid

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Karen....I haven't progressed to anything outstanding yet, I do mine in Word....maybe one day!!!
                            Kathleen

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                            • #15
                              I'm really impressed as well Karen ..... because I tried to do mine on FTM but got myself in a right muddle ...... I still have part of a book on there .... but family notes kept come up where I didn't want them and other strange things. I tried to print it like a book but everything was in the wrong place, it just didn't sink in...

                              I ended up doing it in Word ... but I still use the genealogy reports and direct lines. I print them .... then scan them .... so that I can number the pages and get the margins as I want them, as I'm better at using Word. It's a bit of a fiddle ...but it worked. ...and I didn't mind fiddling.

                              Like you I'm not much good with certain things on the computer.

                              Jean
                              Jean....the mist is starting to clear

                              Comment


                              • #16
                                Karen, have you thought you could do a narrative for just one or two of your ancestors? Just pick one that's interesting and start writing, add some pictures and before you know it you'll be sumitting it to the FTF magazine.:p

                                The great thing about writing on a computer is that you can alter it all so easily. Why not just start withone and add some more later if you like doing it - I bet you will! ;)

                                Anne

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                                • #17
                                  Thanks all of you.

                                  You've certainly given me plenty to think about. Maybe I'll put all my family names in a hat & pull out one to start with....I definitely feel now that I just have a bare tree at the moment & I need to add the leaves & blossom to it...see, I'm going all poetic already!

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                                  • #18
                                    Perfect, Karen :D:D

                                    Anne

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                                    • #19
                                      Good luck Karen, once you get started you won't find it is too difficult.
                                      Start with one of the ancestors you have a sort of a 'feel' for, I've found they sort of jump off the page at you - a bit like the donkey in Shrek - you know "pick me, pick me" - you just can't help yourself then.
                                      A story adding snippets of the history of the time works wonders to make the family history that little bit more interesting for family members when they read it. Go for it Girl!!

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