....Paul said to pick a particular ancestral line.  To that I say 
  do that, and if you then have too much data, maybe be briefer on the 
  ancestors the further back they go, draw a line based on location of the ancestors and whether contacts are made among descendants today.  If you have lots of 
  collateral info from way back for people that never would have had any contact with your immediate family group (second or third cousins), I'd suggest forgetting 
  about them if it seems to make the project too daunting, as it would for me.  

  This is excellent advice, since - again - virtually all of us have more material than we can or will ever write about.  As but one illustration, I would venture that most of us have more information about just the military activities of our ancestors to fill a VERY big book.  Thus, as Janet says, you must pick and choose, all the while working toward whatever you have chosen as an objective or target.

  I hope I did not leave an impression that you should work on only one line; that SURELY was/is not my view.  What I meant was that you must pick some person or family unit - a favorite one - as your first discussion, and after working though that person or family, then move to the next family about which you intend to write.  

  So, stop thinking that you have too much data and materials to handle; we all do!  Decide what lines or subject matter you will now work on and save all the balance for another and later volume or supplement.

  But, as said so many times, you MUST start.  A book is written commencing with the first word of the first sentence about the first person selected as a subject of your work.  Enough then; START, and stop finding reasons for delay.  :-)  
      

      

  I actually prefer shorter pieces with more of the information that Paul has 
  below on a particular line, than skimping on details.  The further back you go, 
  the more people may be researching your line and compiling information to 
  which you can refer your cousins.

  My best, Janet

  In a message dated 7/15/2005 4:38:47 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
  [log in to unmask] writes:


  > I have found in teaching writing to adults that if a student will force 
  > himself/herself to write in 2 sentences what he/she intends as the message of 
  > the PRESENT book/effort, then he/she will be off and running.
  > 
  > So, what is it that you want your descendants to know about; what to tell 
  > them??  That will be the theme for the present effort.  Do you want them to 
  > realize that your folks were players in the great panorama of American history? 
  > Of the history of some other nation also?  Do you want to write about their 
  > stations in life and their travails?  Want to write about their pioneer spirit 
  > and willingness to move west despite what to us were tedious, if not 
  > impossible, hardships? Want to speak to the everyday lives of each passing 
  > generation?  How about writing as to their work, play and education? What about their 
  > religious affiliations and practices and the interplay of those aspects of 
  > life with their work-a-day world?  What about their education and how they 
  > achieved that and whether or not it really was necessary that they knew more than 
  > how to barely write?  What about their transportation and travels? On and 
  > on.... 




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