Anybody got any experience with books published by Ancestry.co see
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WDIQY2/ref ... 40424230_1
Is this another one of those genealogy ripoffs?
Looks pretty expensive per page.
Jim
Books
Moderator: MOD_nyhetsgrupper
-
Jim Elbrecht
Re: Books
Jim Dell <James.Dell@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
No, but I've got to chuckle-- under Amazon's "People who bought this
also bought. . .." heading, I see someone also bought "Ross's in
history" - and Hershey's cocoa, and a pair of tongs.
[BTW- on the Elbrecht and Baker books this area was not listed, which
leads me to believe that someone has bought the Barlin book-- there's
a lead for you - got a Ross/Barlin connection? ]
IMO- Sorta- $30 for a 98page book that "is printed on demand and is
compiled from hundreds of millions of records from the world's largest
online resource of family history, Ancestry.com."
I've paid a lot more per page for some of my books-- but I doubt I
would find it useful, especially when I have a $100 ancestry
subscription that would allow my to do 100s of the same book,
customized to *my* family.
I'm tempted to order the Elbrecht book and see how much 'filler' it
contains in its 82pps-- Or the Baker book and see how they choose
what info to leave in on its 98pps.
A non-genealogist with an unusual name might find it interesting. As
a genealogist, it would probably just confuse your heirs who found it
on your bookshelf.
Buy an ancestry subscription. Create your own book. And have Staples
print and bind it. For $30 you could get a very nicely done book-
about *your* family.
Jim
Anybody got any experience with books published by Ancestry.co see
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WDIQY2/ref ... 40424230_1
No, but I've got to chuckle-- under Amazon's "People who bought this
also bought. . .." heading, I see someone also bought "Ross's in
history" - and Hershey's cocoa, and a pair of tongs.
[BTW- on the Elbrecht and Baker books this area was not listed, which
leads me to believe that someone has bought the Barlin book-- there's
a lead for you - got a Ross/Barlin connection? ]
Is this another one of those genealogy ripoffs?
IMO- Sorta- $30 for a 98page book that "is printed on demand and is
compiled from hundreds of millions of records from the world's largest
online resource of family history, Ancestry.com."
Looks pretty expensive per page.
I've paid a lot more per page for some of my books-- but I doubt I
would find it useful, especially when I have a $100 ancestry
subscription that would allow my to do 100s of the same book,
customized to *my* family.
I'm tempted to order the Elbrecht book and see how much 'filler' it
contains in its 82pps-- Or the Baker book and see how they choose
what info to leave in on its 98pps.
A non-genealogist with an unusual name might find it interesting. As
a genealogist, it would probably just confuse your heirs who found it
on your bookshelf.
Buy an ancestry subscription. Create your own book. And have Staples
print and bind it. For $30 you could get a very nicely done book-
about *your* family.
Jim
-
the_verminator@comcast.ne
Re: Books
On Jan 16, 7:05 am, Jim Elbrecht <elbre...@email.com> wrote:
Well, I got the Ancestry subscription and created my own book...
But Staples refuses to bind it for me!
Seems thay can't handle a book with 8022 pages and another 429 page
index!
Drat!

P.S. Those are not typos on the numbers... and the book doesn't even
include the sources and end notes yet!
Buy an ancestry subscription. Create your own book. And have Staples
print and bind it. For $30 you could get a very nicely done book-
about *your* family.
Jim
Well, I got the Ancestry subscription and created my own book...
But Staples refuses to bind it for me!
Seems thay can't handle a book with 8022 pages and another 429 page
index!
Drat!
P.S. Those are not typos on the numbers... and the book doesn't even
include the sources and end notes yet!
-
singhals
Re: Books
the_verminator@comcast.net wrote:
Welcome to reality. (g)
Cheryl
On Jan 16, 7:05 am, Jim Elbrecht <elbre...@email.com> wrote:
Buy an ancestry subscription. Create your own book. And have Staples
print and bind it. For $30 you could get a very nicely done book-
about *your* family.
Jim
Well, I got the Ancestry subscription and created my own book...
But Staples refuses to bind it for me!
Seems thay can't handle a book with 8022 pages and another 429 page
index!
Drat!
P.S. Those are not typos on the numbers... and the book doesn't even
include the sources and end notes yet!
Welcome to reality. (g)
Cheryl
-
Jim Elbrecht
Re: Books
"the_verminator@comcast.net" <the_verminator@comcast.net> wrote:
-snip-
I'll bet they'd do it for you in volumes. [not to say that would be
the way to go]
I can't imagine anyone *wanting* an 8000 page book, myself. Eighty
100 page books would have much broader appeal than one 8000 page one.
Jim
-snip-
Well, I got the Ancestry subscription and created my own book...
But Staples refuses to bind it for me!
Seems thay can't handle a book with 8022 pages and another 429 page
index!
-snip-
I'll bet they'd do it for you in volumes. [not to say that would be
the way to go]
I can't imagine anyone *wanting* an 8000 page book, myself. Eighty
100 page books would have much broader appeal than one 8000 page one.
Jim
-
Judy Arnold
Re: Books
What part of ancestry are you using to create the book?? Could you
please elborate. I have
always wanted to do a book but have never felt like I knew how to
"produce" it.
Judy
singhals wrote:
please elborate. I have
always wanted to do a book but have never felt like I knew how to
"produce" it.
Judy
singhals wrote:
the_verminator@comcast.net wrote:
On Jan 16, 7:05 am, Jim Elbrecht <elbre...@email.com> wrote:
Buy an ancestry subscription. Create your own book. And have Staples
print and bind it. For $30 you could get a very nicely done book-
about *your* family.
Jim
Well, I got the Ancestry subscription and created my own book...
But Staples refuses to bind it for me!
Seems thay can't handle a book with 8022 pages and another 429 page
index!
Drat!
P.S. Those are not typos on the numbers... and the book doesn't even
include the sources and end notes yet!
Welcome to reality. (g)
Cheryl
-------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ALT-GENEALOGY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
-
Jim Elbrecht
Re: Books
On Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:38:28 -0600, Judy Arnold <judith@omuonline.net>
wrote:
From the description on Amazon it sounds to me like the Ancestry books
are just data dumps- Pick a surname-
Chapter 1; Elbrecht's in US Censuses
Probably listed by year with no regard to time or place.
Chapter 2; Immigrant Elbrecht's;
A copy/paste of all the Elbrechts on shiplists
[and so on]
My suggestion to 'get an Ancestry subscription and make your own' may
have been misleading. The Ancestry subscription just gives you
access to all the data that is contained in the $30 book that the OP
asked about. If you wanted to do the same 'data dump' you could do
it cheaper than $30- but few of us would be interested. [and you could
get the same information for all the names in your database for the
annual fee]
The subscriber's job is to sort out what info is pertinent to their
family- and hopefully integrate a whole lot more sources to their
research. Then they enter it into their favorite genealogy program.
All the program's I've seen have 'book' [often called report] making
capabilities of some sort. The one I use most often, with Steed's
Brother's Keeper, is called an "Ancestor Ahnentafel Book". If I
use my kids as the first folks it creates an rtf file that I can edit
in Word. I can ask it to be brief and include just the basics-
B-D-M, siblings - or I can ask it to include all notes and children of
their ancestors. [just as an example I tried this this morning- the
complete listings create a 230 page book before editing- the brief
version, no notes, only ancestors & sibs, is 29 pages.]
Once created I can edit the 'book' in Word. BK makes an excellent
index of the people, but I might add some things to the index like
keywords to stories I find interesting. Since I'm probably doing
this for a particular audience, usually a group of less than 10- I can
customize it any way I want.
I use word to create chapters labeled 'Parent', 'Grand Parents', . . .
.. '13th Great Grand Parents'. I write an single page intro directed
at my mini-audience - [usually begging for corrections and additions,
and maybe drawing their attention to some new tidbit I think they'll
find interesting. I also explain how the ahnentafel numbers work so
if they are browsing through they can move back and forth by family.]
Then I take the file to Staples and ask them to print and bind them.
The bindings at my local Staples range from clear floppy pages to hard
cover, full color covers. I've gone with the cheaper bindings on
the assumption that I'm not done yet. The last one I did was 130
pages of my father's ancestors. With the floppy bindings, I got 5
books for $12.50 each- and they were ready in 3 hours.
That was *my* point- Cheryl seems to spend a lot more time playing
editor than I so she will probably have something good to add - or
disagree with.<g>
I probably shouldn't ask because I doubt I'll be interested in
learning a new Word processing program- but for the benefit of anyone
who hasn't gotten used to a program. . .
What program does anyone else do their editing in? I know some folks
like making pdf's - does anyone use Publisher [why?] - What are
Word's shortcomings?
Jim
wrote:
What part of ancestry are you using to create the book?? Could you
please elborate. I have
always wanted to do a book but have never felt like I knew how to
"produce" it.
From the description on Amazon it sounds to me like the Ancestry books
are just data dumps- Pick a surname-
Chapter 1; Elbrecht's in US Censuses
Probably listed by year with no regard to time or place.
Chapter 2; Immigrant Elbrecht's;
A copy/paste of all the Elbrechts on shiplists
[and so on]
My suggestion to 'get an Ancestry subscription and make your own' may
have been misleading. The Ancestry subscription just gives you
access to all the data that is contained in the $30 book that the OP
asked about. If you wanted to do the same 'data dump' you could do
it cheaper than $30- but few of us would be interested. [and you could
get the same information for all the names in your database for the
annual fee]
The subscriber's job is to sort out what info is pertinent to their
family- and hopefully integrate a whole lot more sources to their
research. Then they enter it into their favorite genealogy program.
All the program's I've seen have 'book' [often called report] making
capabilities of some sort. The one I use most often, with Steed's
Brother's Keeper, is called an "Ancestor Ahnentafel Book". If I
use my kids as the first folks it creates an rtf file that I can edit
in Word. I can ask it to be brief and include just the basics-
B-D-M, siblings - or I can ask it to include all notes and children of
their ancestors. [just as an example I tried this this morning- the
complete listings create a 230 page book before editing- the brief
version, no notes, only ancestors & sibs, is 29 pages.]
Once created I can edit the 'book' in Word. BK makes an excellent
index of the people, but I might add some things to the index like
keywords to stories I find interesting. Since I'm probably doing
this for a particular audience, usually a group of less than 10- I can
customize it any way I want.
I use word to create chapters labeled 'Parent', 'Grand Parents', . . .
.. '13th Great Grand Parents'. I write an single page intro directed
at my mini-audience - [usually begging for corrections and additions,
and maybe drawing their attention to some new tidbit I think they'll
find interesting. I also explain how the ahnentafel numbers work so
if they are browsing through they can move back and forth by family.]
Then I take the file to Staples and ask them to print and bind them.
The bindings at my local Staples range from clear floppy pages to hard
cover, full color covers. I've gone with the cheaper bindings on
the assumption that I'm not done yet. The last one I did was 130
pages of my father's ancestors. With the floppy bindings, I got 5
books for $12.50 each- and they were ready in 3 hours.
That was *my* point- Cheryl seems to spend a lot more time playing
editor than I so she will probably have something good to add - or
disagree with.<g>
I probably shouldn't ask because I doubt I'll be interested in
learning a new Word processing program- but for the benefit of anyone
who hasn't gotten used to a program. . .
What program does anyone else do their editing in? I know some folks
like making pdf's - does anyone use Publisher [why?] - What are
Word's shortcomings?
Jim