If you're thinking of publishing your family history on CD or the Internet, carefully consider a few key questions:

• What do I want to publish (genealogical data only, detailed family history with background and historical flavor, or…)?
• Who do I want to include in my publication (one ancestral line, one family group, the descendants of one couple, all of one surname, the inhabitants of a village, or …)?
• Who do I want to see my publication (close family only, family organization members, any relative, anyone interested, everyone)?
• What exposure do I want my genealogy to get (local, state-, nation-, or worldwide)?
• Do I include notes and sources (verbatim as in my program, portion of either or both, linked or embedded, include reasoning, levels of confidence)?
• What forms of information do I want to include (photographs, pedigree charts, group records, descendant charts, dropline charts, source documents, )?
• What format do I want to use (modified register, text narrative, charts only, …)?
• Do I want to self-publish or hire someone else to do it (CD-burner, low cost local company, or high-cost professional – on the web, follow simple directions, or hire someone else to make it more professional)
• Which medium should I use (paper, CD-ROM, downloadable, or viewable)?

MY OPINION: electronic-viewable is better (reaches more people, allows interactivity, is easier to publish, is easily corrected, has worldwide access, can be easily included in indexes, and saves both you and the reader money). Virtually everyone in North America has access to the Internet.

Electronic publishing requires the same preparation as book publication. Seek to verify information, document sources, explain your reasoning, and communicate clearly. An advantage is that you can can continue to refine even after publication. My advice is to publish on the web—and don’t wait until it’s perfect and complete, just publish as you complete each family group or ancestral line. Make corrections as needed.

If you choose to publish electronically, consider the format. On the web, simple programs can be viewed by anyone with a web browser, while more sophisticated presentations require special software or browser plug-ins (java charts, etc.). When publishing on CD, decide if you're going to include the software to view the data. If you prepare your work in a word processor, people wanting to see it will need to have a word processor. You may want to consider working with a company that will allow you to include the necessary software to view the data right on the CD.

When someone writes something, it is copyrighted even if no copyright symbol appears on the page. Posting it on the web for free does not change or relinquish the copyright. You can’t copy text or even links from a web page without permission.

Photographs are copyrighted and the rights belong to the person who took the picture (even if the photo is of you). You should not scan or copy photographs that you didn’t take without permission.

Everyone alive is entitled to privacy. Publishing any personal information about them without their permission is usually a violation of their rights to privacy. While there are some exceptions for news reporting and similar situations, family histories should avoid any unauthorized personal information about a living person, even their name. Therefore, if your vision includes publishing the names and relationships of living people, you should obtain their permission (in writing). You may choose to publish information about living people, assuming their permission because they provided you with the data you are publishing, but this is risky.

• most important and most often neglected step
• deciding what to include is much harder than doing it
• who do you want to reach
• what you want to convey
• how can you make it clear, concise, and appealing.

• decide how much you’re going to say and divide it into single screen-sized pieces
• interconnect multiple pages logically, summarized & linked from one home page
• Plan on saving each screen or page as a separate file
• diagram the arrangement of concepts and navigation between pages
• Make a set of standards for the look and feel to be consistent from page to page

Step 3. Author the information you decided to present in the first two steps.

There are five different major approaches to writing web pages:

• select File, Save As from the pull-down menu
• select htm or html as file type (In Internet Explorer, select Web Page Complete)
• Save the file (note where it will be saved and what it will be named)
• Reopen the file in an editor program and change the words what you want
• Replace the graphics with ones you want to use (or get permission to use the ones shown on the page you copied)
• Write what you want to say into an HTML editor, which allows you to write normally and the editor converts to HTML.

They are not designed for genealogy, and don’t work well for lineage-linked info

5. Use a genealogy program (see other part of this syllabus); two different types

• Software packages that convert their own format to HTML
• Software utilities that convert GEDCOM format to HTML

There are extensive reference works that explain how to do HTML. The best include:

Writing HTML sounds intimidating, but it’s easier than planning & design. Once written, you upload the HTML file(s) to your service provider and your homepage is a reality.

Step 4. Verify & Test your HTML coding (see if you did it right)

Send your URL (homepage address) to

Step 5. Promote your homepage.

If nobody knows about your contribution to the web, nobody will visit it.

free way to promote your homepage is to notify the various search services

send the search engines your URL and tell them what category it belongs in—especially SiteFinder, Cyndi’sList, FamilySearch, and GenDex.

several services will notify various search engines for you (some for a fee, some free upon certain conditions, such as using their free home page service).

participate in Internet Link Exchange, which advertises your site on other members’ sites in return for your advertising theirs on your homepage. It’s a free service.

Step 6. Innovate to improve your page by

learning new web techniques, obtaining software, and adding it to your page.

Adding a visit counter (how many people looked at your homepage)

designing your own graphics.

Being creative! For example, record a welcoming message or scan a picture

Step 7. Refine, Update, and Improve your pages.

Get comments and suggestions for improving from visitors by adding a mailback link