Thank you to @hqstories for inviting us to #destinationhq this summer. As well as meeting some other great writers, we first met Sairish here and fortunately heard her introduce her wonderful debut. Needless to say we were hooked. Preserving Your Family Photographsby Maureen A. Taylor (Betterway Books): Organize and display your precious family photographs so that friends and loved ones can enjoy them for years to come. Amjad is a British Muslim of Pakistani heritage, living in Northern England. The story opens in 1993 when Amjad’s wife has just died in childbirth, leaving him with a 10-year old son (Saahil) and a new-born daughter (Zahra). Just as Saahil finishes University, a cataclysmic event occurs which changes all of their lives forever and it is hard to see how they can ever recover from it. The book follows the ups and downs of the family’s fortunes over a 25 year period. Family history books are great projects for sharing family history. Once you’ve got all the essentials of your photo book planned out, take your project to the next level with these ideas for how to make your photo book even more engaging. Family memoir:Photos of a parent, grandparent, or relative, along with stories from interviews, journals, newspaper clippings, maps, and postcards.

But I feel like after that it was really slow, Saahil's childhood and his friendship with Ehsan, it was lovely and heart-warming but it did drag. I was beginning to give up with it but then the accident happend. Small caps — In genealogy, it's common practice to set surnames in all caps to make scanning easy. Small caps work, too, and can be quite attractive. A story well worth putting yourself through...there is something exhilarating about confronting the past in all its ugliness and realizing that doing so has made you stronger” ( The Washington Post). The Family Tree was well written. I liked the idea of DNA testing. The organization of this story was great. Liz’s view was good but I get bored with her sometimes because she repeats a lot. I understand the need for women to discuss the same thing over and over again with multiple people like in her case with her roommate, the journalist, her mom, the FBI, the bartender, and herself about what she’s dealing with. The suspense was good as well as the reveal of the killer. The reading pace for the most part was fast. I just felt it dragged a bit where Liz was concerned repeating to readers multiple times about how she loved to dig for information. To be honest, Liz’s way of digging for information was risky when multiple people warned her to stop putting herself near the prime suspect. Then she showed up at the crime scene instead of reporting to the police was irresponsible. Besides Liz, other supporting characters were likable. Other than that, it was a good thriller and I recommend everyone to read it. Family origins: Select a family central to your research and tell the story of their life, migration and origins.Combination book:Document the ancestors and descendants of one couple (e.g. your parents or grandparents). Perfect for anniversaries, holidays, and family reunions. What Did They Mean by That? A Dictionary of Historical Terms for Genealogists by Paul Drake (Heritage Books): Includes definitions and descriptions of more than 3,000 words.

While the main characters were often sympathetic and interesting, there were several elements that were entirely unbelievable. Without giving spoilers, one of the main characters commits quite a serious crime, which several of the other main characters unhesitatingly help to cover up. While I did appreciate how the book very much doesn't offer its character an easy "happily ever after," I did find it disturbing how none of the characters seemed to regret the quite horrible things they had done... The problem for me was, there's so much being talked about that it rather overshadowed the storytelling. We start off really well with a new father who has just lost his wife in childbirth, and the first part when the kids are young is great, but the emotional connection thins out as we go along so it starts to feel more like a long synopsis of events. I don't often grumble about "telling not showing" but that was what I felt here. The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy, the Internet, and Your Genealogy Computer Program, updated edition, by Karen Clifford (Genealogical Publishing Co.): In this manual on using the latest technology to trace your ancestry, Clifford shows you how to use electronic databases, computer programs and Internet sources in your genealogy. Now that you have your information, it’s time to actually build your book! Here is exactly how to do it. 4. Make an outline

Genealogy Books for Kids (and Their Grownups)

Timeline — Create a photographic timeline — for example, using group shots from family reunions over successive years. Pair a wedding photo of a couple with a photo from their 50th anniversary.

Stories to Tell: This company isn’t a DIY online publisher in the sense of the above services. Instead, it offers assistance with editing, design and publishing decisions, especially for biographies, memoirs and family histories. Everyone is out there trying to keep their head down, but it still comes and finds you. Every day!' Overall, I think it’s great if you enjoy thrillers and if you are interested in a fast-paced read about how a DNA database could be crucial in a decades long ongoing case. Side note here: I read this book around 6 months after losing my father and I was in tears in the tube whilst reading this. The writing was so beautiful and touched on the grief of losing a parent in a very real and raw way.Unpuzzling Your Past, 4th edition, by Emily Anne Croom (Betterway Books): This best-selling guide takes you on a step-by-step journey into discovering your family’s past. The strategies for success, tips and charts provide help along the way.

Perhaps you’re short on photos, but have a lot of information to share about a family or individual. You may have already written a story. In that case, a more traditional, text-based book might suit your needs better. Narrative books allow you to tell more complex or in-depth stories. They can include a few illustrations, but the emphasis is on the writing rather than the images. The Family Tree is an intergenerational story, centred around a British Pakistani family based in Bradford. The reader is thrust straight into the grief and struggle of Amjad, whose wife dies during childbirth leaving him to raise his 10 year old son, Sahil and newborn daughter, Zahra on his own. The story moves fairly rapidly from there as we witness both Sahil and Zahra grow, and the challenges each in this small family unit experiences, finally culminating in a tragedy that threatens to rupture the family apart entirely. ⁣ First Steps in Genealogy: A Beginner’s Guide to Researching Your Family Historyby Desmond Walls Allen (Betterway Books): From interviewing family members to searching the census, determining the reliability of sources to documenting findings and more, this book is a must-have for the beginner. The Librarian’s Guide to Genealogical Research by James Swan (Highsmith Press): Written for librarians who help patrons with genealogical research, this guide also has plenty of useful information for family history hobbyists. The resources and introduction to genealogy basics make this a great beginner’s guide.Not long after Liz receives a message from an agent working for the FBI who wants to talk to her about her DNA results and a familial link to a multiple homicide case they have been working on. As thrilling as this book was my favorite part had to be the cultural representation - Liz being raised in an Italian family then learning about her Mexican roots. A main protagonist is rarely ever a Hispanic woman so it was refreshing for me to read since I am Hispanic and hardly ever see representation in a lead character from this genre. The Everything Online Genealogy Bookby Pat Richley (Adams Media Corp.): Discover how to search state, local, census, church, cemetery, court and military records online with this easy-to-follow reference. The book starts with Amjad, a single father, mourning the death of his wife, and is left with looking after his children Saahil and Zahra. The novel is a multigenerational saga covering the lives and evolution of all three characters through trials and The Family Tree is a heart warming and poignant story about family, the trials and tribulations of life.