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Shaking Your Family Tree

December 17, 1998
	HOLIDAY GIFTS: BOOKS FOR GENEALOGISTS by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, C.G.
Do you have some children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews on your holiday gift lists? Instead of giving them video games, movies, and toys, consider scrapbooks. "Scrapbooking" is the hot new way of updating an old hobby. Scrapbook kits can be found in many stores. New products enable you to create elaborate books using clip art, photos, stories, material scraps, stickers, and memorabilia. However, scrapbooks can be more than fancy albums. You can and should include stories about the children to teach them that what they say and do is as important as how they look, and that they are part of the family's history. The Art of Writing Scrapbook Stories, by Janice T. Dixon, Ph.D., includes page layout ideas, archival tips, and "make-it-easy" writing tips. Numerous color illustrations show how stories, photographs, and scrapbooking products can be combined to make scrapbooks attractive and fun to read. The 25-page, 8 1/2 x 11" book (item number A0110) is available ($12.45 postpaid) from Heritage Quest, P.O. Box 329, Bountiful, UT 84011-0329; or on the Web: http://www.heritagequest.com [editor's note: Scrapbooking materials can be found at Ancestry's online store at: http://shop.ancestry.com/ancestry/jourscrap.html] STAR BREAK Going to America, by Terry Coleman, is the grim but fascinating story of the British and (mostly) Irish immigrants who came to America during the middle of the 19th century. However, it is told with wit and grace. Confronting these immigrants at every turn were inescapable horrors. Ship owners packed them into holds like slavers; brokers misrepresented and overcharged them; and the customs officials took bribes to ignore the overcrowding. When they arrived in America they were fleeced by lodging-house keepers, separated from their meager possessions, and sold fraudulent railroad or canal boat tickets. The story contains some touching portraits of both heroes and villains, and it will make you appreciate what your ancestors went through to get to, and survive in, America. Going to America, (317 pages, paperback) is a available ($23.45 postpaid) from: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1001 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, MD 21202-3897; (800) 296-6687. STAR BREAK We genealogists often get so busy chasing ancestors that we neglect to create our family and personal histories. Furthermore, writing is difficult for many people. Perhaps the reason your grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles haven't written down any stories is because they don't know how but don't want to admit it. Family Focused: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Your Autobiography and Family History, by Janice T. Dixon, Ph.D., takes you by the hand and leads you back into your own life, showing you how to put your stories on paper so that future generations will see you as a real person. The book covers: --Writing Your Personal History --Writing Your Family History of Photographs, the Images for our Words; Genealogy, the Organizer --Writing Diaries, Personal Letters, Family Newsletters --Polishing and Publishing Personal and Family History The appendix includes Memory Joggers -- one of the best compilations I've seen. Family Focused makes a great gift, so treat yourself with a copy also. This 350-page book is available ($24.45 postpaid; item number A0109) from Heritage Quest, PO Box 329, Bountiful, UT 84011-0329; (800) 760- 2455; on the Web: http://www.heritagequest.com (c) 1998, Los Angeles Times Syndicate Myra Vanderpool Gormley and Julie Case are coeditors of Missing Links, a free weekly genealogy e-zine. To subscribe, send your request to: Missing Links Newsletter Return to Myra Vanderpool Gormley Main Page Return to Columns Main Page
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