History in the Making

 

Guest blogger Kayt Schaefer is a manager of program implementation with FedEx Office and has worked with the company for 16 years. Kayt and her husband are dedicated supporters of their local major league soccer team. In her spare time, Kayt also enjoys fly-fishing and, of course, researching her family history.


I was about seven years old when my Mom’s father passed away. As my Mom sorted through his belongings, she found boxes of family photos – many from the 1800s – and this set her on a 30-year journey to research our family history, ultimately publishing a book detailing our family history.

Each summer, I traveled with her as she conducted genealogical research. She interviewed family members and we spent endless hours together in libraries pouring over books and microfilm, in court houses rummaging through birth, marriage, census and estate records, as well as hiking through fields and up hills to transcribe cemetery data.

In a short time, Mom filled her office and basement with filing cabinets full of copies, boxes of photos and piles of rolled-up maps and land surveys (she did much of her research before computers and family history research sites were commonplace). Each time she found a new family member, another piece of the puzzle slipped into place.

 

Mom had always planned to publish a second book of genealogical research, but she sadly passed away before that could happen. She instilled in me a great love for family and history, and I’ve picked-up where she left off, preserving our piles of notes, census records, letters, photos, maps and family group sheets in a format that folks can – and will want to! – read.  

I started out by copying photographs and family group sheets and sharing those with family…but that quickly became time consuming and expensive. And then I heard that FedEx Office® had teamed up with the online book publishing company Blurb® and knew this would be an easier (and more lasting) way to capture our history.

I decided to compile all of my photos into a pictorial history of our family and give a few books out to immediate family members for Christmas. I used the online design templates, which are as easy as drag-n-drop. But for those who are more skilled with design (or who hired a graphic designer), you can upload the finished PDF file to the website, too.

 

A few other benefits over my earlier photocopy-everything approach: 

·         I could print as many or as few books (even just one) as I needed.

·         It cost less than printing it all on my inkjet printing at home (about 5 cents per page for a full color, hardback book compared to 15-20 cents per page for black and white printing on an at-home inkjet).

·         But as the author, I didn’t even have to pay for the printing – I can simply tell family members about the book, give them the hyperlink and let them buy whatever they want! 

If you want to check out the book publishing options through FedEx Office to publish your own family history book, recipe book, photo collection and more, check out fedex.com/books.

Related FedEx Office Solutions: FedEx Office® Introduces Blurb® Books

Blurb book publishing is no longer available through FedEx Office, however you can still visit your local FedEx Office to bind your book with the Document Finishing and Binding services. Blurb.com is also available for any of your book publishing needs.

Comments

A Family History in Photographs

I have seen this book and gratefully accepted a copy by Kayt Schaefer.  This is a wonderful tool for publishing family history!

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