Planting Your Family Tree Online: How to Create Your Own Family History Web Site
By Cyndi Howells. National Genealogical Society, 2003. 259 pages, softcover, $19.99. Order at www.ngsgenealogy.org.

From the creator of Cyndi's List comes Planting Your Family Tree Online: How to Create Your Own Family History Web Site, a book designed to take you step-by-step through the process of creating your own genealogy website.

The chapters are organized to lead you logically through the entire site creation process. Readers will learn why family historians need websites, and find tips on choosing hosting services, planning, evaluating, testing, and publicizing their website.

Besides its usefulness as a how-to manual, the book can be used as a reference guide. Howells also offers her own tips on what not to do when creating your site and gives a glossary of terms for individuals who are not as Internet savvy as others.

Scrapbooking Your Family History
By Maureen Taylor. Betterway Books, 2003. 141 pages, softcover, $24.99. Order at www.familytreemagazine.com/store.

Scrapbooking Your Family History starts out with a brief history of scrapbooking and the difference between a scrapbook and other types of memory books such as friendship books, commonplace books, and Granger books.

After instructions on long-term care for scrapbook components, the book gives tips on how to properly gather and process photographs, documents, memorabilia, autographs, and heirlooms for a family history scrapbook. It also suggests creative ways to illustrate
the activities of ancestors with a sensitive and accurate treatment of their lives. Methods for picking themes for scrapbooks are also suggested. The end matter of the book offers information resources as well as a list of Internet resources to help readers find material suppliers.

Ancestors in German Archives: A Guide to Family History Sources
By Raymond S. Wright III. Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. 1,189 pages, hardcover, $85. Order at www.genealogical.com.

Ancestors in German Archives: A Guide to Family History Sources is a reference guide for researchers of German records. The guide begins with an explanation of how to locate records in German archives and then provides a list of federal archives in Germany. The bulk of the book is comprised of a geographic breakdown and explanation of archives in the various regions, cities, and city-states of Germany.

Eighteen maps are included throughout the book, featuring such places as Berlin, Bremen, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Hessen, and Saarland. There are also maps of Germany's current political boundaries as well as the former German Empire (1871 to 1918). The book has an archives index and a locality index.

Grandma's Memory Book
Ancestry, 2003. 119 pages, softcover, $6.95. Order at Ancestry.com.

If you are a mother or grandmother who would like to share the stories of your life with those you love, but the idea of writing your entire personal history overwhelms you, Grandma's Memory Book may be just what you need. Two pages of the book allow you to fill in a few generations of vital information, and the rest of the pages are dedicated to such categories as Friends and Family, School Days, Married Life, and More About Me.

Each category includes more than twenty open-ended questions that may trigger other thoughts and memories that you'd like to share with your family. Following each question is ample space on the page for you to record your memories and stories of the past.

As you look back on your life and describe everyday experiences, you may realize how much times have changed since the days of your youth. For example, how do your memories of elementary school differ from the experiences of your school-age grandchildren? How are they the same? With age and experience come wisdom, and you may find that you have enough information to compile your personal history after all!

My Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather…Was a Warrior!
By Riccardo Francaviglia and Margherita Sgarlata, Lobster Press, 2002. 32 pages, hardcover, $15.95. Order at www.lobsterpress.com.

One morning, as Mark is brushing his teeth before school, he sees a huge warrior behind him in the mirror. Mark's fear is soon dissipated when he discovers that this man is his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather! Mark and his warrior ancestor play, eat, and go to school together that day. Throughout their adventures, Mark realizes that he and the warrior are not as different as he first suspected.

Easy-to-read text and full-color pictures make the book a great way to introduce young children to the topic of family history. It provides a fun way for children to see their own ancestors as real people—people that they can emulate.

In 2001, Warrior won second prize for Best Picture Book for ages 3–8 in Italy's “On the Wings of the Butterfly” competition. Sicilian authors Riccardo Francaviglia and Margherita Sgarlata have won several awards for their work. Warrior is published by Lobster Press, which is based in Montreal.

Return to May/June 2004 issue of Ancestry Magazine.