Have a question about our Anthology books? Check out our FAQs and see if there is an answer for you.
How much do they cost?
Our Anthology books start at $290, but you can add on more services and book sections depending on what you need. It’s an additional $100 for the infographics section. Additionally, you can have us do the research and writing for you for an additional $350. Note: Research and writing services will also increase the time we will need to complete the book by about 2 months. Note: Our research is simply looking at life stories and events, not making family connections on FamilySearch. We will not make any changes to your family tree–we are only looking at documents that will provide details to someone’s life story.
What size is it? What length is it?
The Anthology books are 8x10 size, portrait orientation. We can print up to 200 pages-–more than this and it becomes too unwieldy, which is one of the aspects of traditional family history we’re trying to avoid!
Who writes it?
That depends on your preference and availability. We prefer to have our customers write their books, as they can highlight things that are important to them and handle any sensitive history as they see fit. But if you need someone to do the research and writing for you, we do offer that service. It will take an additional 2 months for this service, and we will have all content approved by you before proceeding to the book production stage.
How do I research them?
This is a good question, but it usually boils down to FamilySearch. Many people already have their family history online, including scanned documents, stories, and photos.
How long does it take to research one?
It can take up to 8 weeks to do the research for you family history book. On average, it takes about an hour per ancestor to research, write, edit, and finalize their bio and photos. So if you have 60 ancestors to include, it will take about 60 hours to prepare their life stories.
How do I write bios?
I recommend starting with where they were born and what type of childhood they had. Cover their marriage and the children they had. Include their jobs, hobbies, talents, special events, and struggles. Finish with their death, if you feel the need. I like to throw in one or two stories to keep it interesting and not just a list of facts. Other things you might want to include, depending on your book theme: recipes they liked, homes they lived in, or any stories involving nature.
How long does it take to format one?
This is the fun part that we love to do! It takes about a month to format the entire book. This includes personalizing infographics, making all the lists and maps, any special items for the theme, family branch spotlights, pedigree chart, and each ancestor’s information.
What theme should I pick?
We recommend picking something that your family or kids enjoy. If you have a lot of home addresses or pictures of homes, you can easily run with the house construction theme. If you want to include family recipes, by all means go with the food theme! Any theme will work, but consider what your kids are interested in so that this appeals to them.
How do we calculate the infographics?
We make excel charts of the data of everyone in your family, usually going back 7 generations. With this information, we can average out marriage age, life spans, family size, and common names. We can also find the largest families, the oldest living ancestor, and nationalities. It takes a LOT of time, which is why it is an additional fee. This information, like everything else collected for your book, will not be shared, distributed, etc. It will be deleted as soon as your project is complete and paid for.
Where can I find my family history information and stories?
If you have a FamilySearch account, you can click on any ancestor. There are tabs below their name and profile picture. One of the tabs is Memories. Open it up and you’ll find any photos, documents, life stories, and memories uploaded by others. There can be a treasure trove of information here!
What if I don’t have a FamilySearch account?
You can start one! There is probably someone out there that has some of your family already set up. Otherwise, I would recommend looking for family records that are not stored online. Is there a family history buff in your family that knows the old stories and facts? Interview them! Write things down! Look through old newspapers in certain locations via Newspapers.com. And then see what you can set up and share on FamilySearch. There are other resources online, but we are most familiar with FamilySearch and Ancestry.
What if none of my family history has been done?
Like stated above, you can start setting up your tree online and see if someone else has done the work. If there really isn’t anything to build upon for your book, find a family member that is into family history. Or you can hire a researcher to get things filled in. We currently do not offer family history research services.
How do I give you access to my FamilySearch account?
There is an option to share your account access to an outside source. This is often used when people want to collaborate with other for research purposes. We will use this same option for me to look at your family tree. Like stated in other answers, we will not make any changes to your family tree, only access and use resources that are uploaded for your ancestors.
How do we make lists?
Depending on the list, we can find some of the information on FamilySearch, like pioneers, immigrants, birthdays and famous cousins. Other lists will need to be provided by you, like colleges attended and war veterans.
How do we exchange research/info/pics?
We’re gonna use Google Drive for exchanging information. It can handle the large amounts of data we’ll be sharing with one another. This link will be private, of course.
What if I don’t have pictures?
We can find some stock photos, if you need. Obviously, we would do this for some aspects of life stories, not for their actual portraits. But adding stock photos (and labeling them as such) can help bring family history to life more for kids. Examples of stock photo usage we have used include musical instruments, farm animals, European towns, cultural foods, historical or local landscapes and buildings, newspaper clippings, flags, etc.
What do you do with my family’s information?
Everything you provide to us or that we find during research will be held in the strictest confidence. We will only print what you approve. All information, bios, photos, etc. from your family will be deleted once your project is completed and paid for. You will have a link to order your book copies, but that link is not public to anyone but anyone whom you share it with.