La Famille Blog

It’s been too long of a time since I’ve updated my site and this blog, but I’m happy to say that its been time well-spent.  I had decided on writing a genealogy book for my brother compiling my research thus far of our paternal line (Youmans and Burnett) as a Christmas gift, a project I started working on back in late October.

It was truly laborious and much more time-consuming than I had realized until I was in the thick of it, but happily it was completed and printed in time for Christmas.  For anyone contemplating a similar project I highly recommend it, not only for the sheer reward of the finished book in hand, but also for the necessity of getting well organized with all of the information I had stored in order to even begin the project, an organization of data that I had wanted to do and kept putting off until the idea of a book gave me the needed push to get it done.

There are several online publishers that I considered for printing my book and I decided in the end to go with Blurb.com.  The ability to order just one copy of my book, or dozens if I wanted, sold me, as well as the very reasonable pricing.  Blurb offers free book template software which, though a bit quirky, was perfectly workable once I had the quirks figured out.  That and a forum filled with indispensable information on (most important to me) preparing images and graphics for print.

Though I often struck out on my own with custom-made templates for many of the pages, I was confident in the guidelines that the book software lays out very clearly.  I’m very happy with the result, thrilled actually, and although I don’t mean this as a recommendation for Blurb.com, my satisfaction working with them might be helpful for others contemplating a book of their own.

I’m now gearing up for a similar book to cover my maternal line; a little daunting as I have far greater knowledge and tons more information on my mother’s side of the family than I have on my father’s.  A project for next Chrismas gift-giving, and hopefully having a year to get it done will prove to be enough time for it!