Southeast Missouri Roots & Branches: Increasing reader interest in your family history

I conclude the series of articles on writing with hints on increasing interest by your readers and how to publish your writing. First, choose a snappy title. There are hundreds of “Descendants of …” titles. Consider this example: "One Wise Man: A Genealogy of Frederick Wise of Lincoln County, NC, and His Descendants". Your title might connect to the theme you have chosen for the history. Other ideas include selecting a place or migration, evoking a journey or using (heaven forbid!) a pun or idiom. If you want to evaluate a prospective title, use the headline analyzer at www.coschedule.com/headline-analyzer.

Include family stories where they fit in the outline and incorporate sources and notes later. If you find that you can talk through stories easier than you can write, record them and use an app to convert the recordings to text, then edit.

Do not focus on dry facts — this is a sure way for readers to stop reading. Rather, include details you can document, such as weather, images and items from other sources.

Vary the words you choose. Because a family history can be the same “skeleton” of details over and over, it is too easy to fall into the same writing form. Find alternative words using a thesaurus and make a conscious effort to find and change repetitive phrasing. Do not rely heavily on adjectives — strong nouns are better.

You should include items of interest, family photos being the most obvious. Photos of heirlooms and family artifacts are of great interest. Maps help with keeping up interest, as do royalty-free images from pages such as Unsplash, Pixabay, the Library of Congress or Wikimedia. One interesting detail to promote interest is incorporating family recipes — they do not have to die with you! Charts clarify relationships, break up text or promote comparisons across time and distance. A common one is a chart to trace a family through censuses.

Use divisions in the text. Because some readers read better when writing is in segments, this will promote interest. Breaks also include a table of contents, section breaks, subheadings, chapters and indexes. Always include an acknowledgments section in which you thank those who helped and a brief description of how.

You can lead readers into each chapter by starting with an epigram. An example: “There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.” – Helen Keller. One caution about quotes: Always verify the attribution is correct!

Another method to add interest is to connect your family to the larger world. What events occurred when your ancestors lived? At a minimum, consult a timeline of U.S. history online and match it with milestones in your ancestors’ lives. Land acquisition was an important part of pioneer life, so consult a list of land acts over time (www.thoughtco.com/timeline-of-us-public-land-acts-1422108). Knowing legal and social history can illuminate what your ancestors did and why they did it.

How you publish your family history depends on your goals. An uncomplicated way to distribute is to save the document in PDF format and make it available by email distribution or on a website. If you wish to distribute it to family, you can print it on your home printer or at a local copy shop or commercial printer. There are several binding options. If your goal is a hard-cover book, there are “vanity presses” you can pay to print it. Keep in mind that you will have to distribute it yourself and store extra books for up to several years. If you want to avoid the hassle, Amazon and other services print and distribute books. Such outlets often require specific formatting, and the service adds a fee to the cost for their efforts.

Finally, I recommend some additional sources that will assist with preparing your family history. The Chicago Manual of Style covers about any writing or language usage situation you encounter. Older editions (the current one is the 18th) are available at a lower price. Elizabeth Shown Mills’ book, "Evidence Explained: Citing Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace", includes citation information for about any type of source. You can also find used copies of older editions. If you wish to number the individuals in your history, "Numbering Your Genealogy", from the National Genealogical Society is an excellent source. Several general books on genealogical writing exist. One is "Guide to Genealogical Writing: How to Write and Publish Your Family History". Best of luck in writing your family history!

Bill Eddleman is an eighth-generation Cape County resident who has spent the last 30-plus years researching his family. He is currently the part-time associate director of the Cape Girardeau Research Center of The State Historical Society of Missouri, and conducts professional genealogy research and presentations.