Have you used your genealogy software to produce a book?
During a visit to a county historical society, I realized I had not shared a print copy of my research with them. I promised to provide a copy and began exploring RootsMagic’s book creation feature.
To start, I decided to experiment with a smaller project rather than dive into creating a large book. I chose to focus on research I’d done for an exhibit at the Nemaha County Historical Society. This research centered on Johann Andreas Reineke, along with his wife’s brothers, Anton Miller and Joseph Miller. Since I had already created a Reineke family tree in RootsMagic to track my research and sources, turning it into a book was straightforward.
The first step was to create a title and select the default sections for the book. I initially chose both a cover page and a title page, but later realized that only the title page was necessary.
Next, I added chapters by clicking the plus sign. This action opened a window listing various options for additional chapters. I had already planned to include narrative reports for Johann Reineke, Anton Miller, and Joseph Miller, as well as a family group sheet and a scrapbook for Johann Reineke. I selected the “Narrative Report” option, which added the report without specifying the subject.
To choose the report’s subject and customize its settings, I clicked the arrow next to the narrative report option.
There were several options for the report type, and after some experimentation, I chose the Henry format, as it excluded children in a single-generation report.
I also added a Family Group sheet and a scrapbook for Johann Reineke. During this process, I discovered that if I wanted the obituary text to appear in the report, I needed to copy it from the source note into the person’s note. Additionally, I learned that attaching images to both the event and the source was necessary for creating a scrapbook.
Once I configured the book, I saved it as a Word document. In Word, I made a few adjustments:
- Edited the preparation statement and repositioned it toward the bottom of the page
- Updated the table of contents by pressing F9
- Adjusted column widths in the Family Group Sheet to prevent words like “Naturalization” from splitting into two lines
- Deleted rows in the Family Group Sheet that had no information (mainly marriage and burial facts for children)
- Inserted page breaks to avoid names appearing at the bottom of a page
- Indented the notes I included
- Edited the “Endnotes” headings to indicate the chapter
After making these edits, I saved the file as a PDF and shared in on the historical society’s archive.org page: Andrew Reineke – Henry Format,
Now, I’m ready to create a book for one of my ancestral lines!