Ensure a Lasting Legacy with a Family History Book or Research
Want to create a family history book, but you want more than just names and dates? I can help flesh out the regional, social, and political history of your ancestors’ lives to create a professionally written family history book or chapter. Don’t know enough about family to write the book? Let me help with your research.
A book with just names and dates can be a great start to your family history book. But by adding information about everyday life, social conditions, current events, politics, and historic images, you’ll create a compelling story for generations to come.
Compare, for example,the bare-bones statement: “My family was included in the Putnam County, Missouri, 1860 federal census“ with this information-rich, “history alive” passage:
In the fall of 1860, an Assistant U.S. Marshal traveled the rolling green hills of Putnam County, Missouri, questioning the people in every household. He asked their names and ages, occupation and birth place. As an agent of the Secretary of the Interior, he was charged with the responsibility of taking the Eighth U.S. Federal Census. He was called the enumerator.
As he traveled the county, he probably got an earful of local politics—after all, the presidential election was only weeks away and with the South’s threat to leave the Union should Lincoln be elected, secession talk had to be in the wind. That, and the institution that James Russell Lowell called “the relic of a bygone world”—slavery.
In this census year, a separate enumeration called a Slave Schedule, was also taken. This would be the last time in the country’s history that slaves would be counted.
What a difference it makes to turn facts into a true story!
Want to breathe life into your family history, click below to learn more about how I can help.
Nancy
p.s. I can help, even if you don’t want me to write the whole book. Let’s discuss how I can add fascinating details to the lives of selected individuals, including information on where they lived, the social history of the times, or their daily lives.