Family Tree Book

In regards of how I do a genealogy book,  the image below is how most family trees look.

I think that is way too confusing.
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My family group pages look like this:

Plus a bit of a background story, if there is one.

Plus a separate page showing, more clearly the information:

On this page would also be photos of the person, stories, proof of their military service, obituaries, photos of their gravestones, anything I can find on them.

Plus a separate page that I make on Excel with the pedigree.  Sometimes these Pedigrees go back 25-30 generations.  I print them out.  Cut and paste them together and have the print shop, copy them onto architect paper which is 11 x whatever length necessary.  It has to be 11" on the left side to be punched and fit in the book.  I then fold them up, inside the book, so the person can unfold them to whatever length they may be.

When I have all the information I can glean, I make a Word document, in story form.  I start with the person's father and work from his oldest ancestor DOWN.  At times the wives have an interesting lineage, so I include their pedigrees and stories of their ancestor's too.  Trying to keep all this information in a cohesive, understandable format can be challenging.

Then, I start the second section of the book with the person's mother and work my way UP through her lineage.

Most of the books end up being 100 pages or more.  I use nice sturdy matte paper ($41.00 for a box of 150 sheets) to print it out, then have it "combed" (punched) by the print shop with a nice clear cover, showing a family tree and a sturdy back cover, on a heavy duty coil for the spine.  This keeps the pages from tearing out and the pages lay flat for easy reading.

Sometimes these books take two or three months to do.  The research is what takes the longest.  There are so many places to look for whatever I can find.  I love the writing and creating the book part the most!

While I am writing the story, I am thinking of all these many ancestor's--hundred and hundreds of them.  What trials they might have gone through.  Some very wealthy, minimal trials, but perhaps died young.  Some dying on a battle field somewhere.  Crusader Knights, leaving their wives and children for years at a time.  

Some, very simple people, but with a courage I would not have had--to leave family, get on a ship and sail clear across that big ocean to start a new life here.  Many indentured servants, working for land owners and saving every penny, until they could buy land of their own and start their own family dynasty?

What about our Native Americans?  Living their own happy, contented lives, until unknown, strange looking white human beings came and kept pushing them off their own land.  Taking their land by force and not paying them a cent for it.  Killing their food supply for sport.  Pushing, pushing--ever backward into a concentrated area.  It makes me weep.

The African's that my 7th Great Grand Father's brother brought on a British ship to Virginia to be slaves.  Thankfully not my own Great Grand Father, who was a minister, but his brother.  What about them?  One time, back in the 1960's, while sitting in a motel in Virginia, I opened up the phone book and found hundreds of names with my Great Grand Father's last name.  No--I am not a direct descendant of a Virginia slave, but they carry the last name of my mother's family.  

Some ancestor's living in European, war-torn countries.  Persecuted for their religious or ethnic beliefs.  Hoping their children can escape to a new, free land.

The Irish caught up in the Potato Famine, of the religious wars.  The Saxon's of Germany.  The English and French, fighting each other.  New rulers came in and made new religious laws.  A few years later, another ruler came in, changing those religious laws back to the original laws.  The women, sailing across the ocean while pregnant.  Dying in childbirth.  

So many dying from the Black Plague or even the Influenza epidemic of 1918, here in this country.  I have 3 family members from my 3rd Great Grand Father's family, his siblings, who died on the same day.  November 2, 1918.  A brother aged 24, a baby sister aged 3 and another baby sister aged 6 months.  On the same day!  How would a mother and father go through that and keep their sanity?  They had a strong faith in God?

and yet....our direct ancestor made it!  I always wonder...if my 8th Great Grand Father had died, in the Civil War, as his son had, who would I have been born to?  Where?  What name would I have?

We carry the DNA of every single one of those direct ancestor's!  Just imagine that for a moment.  How far back?  Adam?  Noah?  It boggles my mind.

That's why I love genealogy.  I am obsessed with it!  Each person I research, each book I make is filled with time and love for the history of that family. Their names get stuck in my head, like they are my own ancestor's.  Thankful.  Experience.  Silence.  Methitable, some of the women's names.  Conradus, Casper, Evin, Bodic, some of the men's names.  

It is all just history, but it is OUR history!