Cedar City Family History Center
Writing & Publishing Family History

The crowning sacraments of Latter-day Saint temples are the sealing ceremonies that unite men, women and children in eternal family relationships. Consequently, genealogical research or family history is, in Latter-day Saint belief, the essential forerunner for temple work for the dead.

Modern tools and techniques have made researching and publishing family history easier than ever before. Every family has a story. Learn how to write and publish yours during this 10-week class taught at the Cedar City Regional Family History Center located at 95 North 2125 West in Cedar City Utah.

A part of each class period will be devoted to writing and preparing your family history for publication. However, most of the writing will necessarily need to be done outside of class. Students who attend each class and complete homework assignments will leave with a finished document ready to publish.

Not for professional writers or English professors, this class is for the rest of us who want to share our family history with friends and family. Only conversational English is required. A basic knowledge of computers is helpful but not required.

 Topics include:

• Getting to know your ancestors
• Writing Tips & Techniques
• Copyright for Genealogists
• Journal Writing as Personal History
• Writing Ancestor Biographies
• Preserving and Safeguarding Documents
• Backing up Digital Data
• Finding a Publisher
• Self Publishing
• Internet Publishing Techniques

There is no charge for this class but space is limited so please contact instructor Jonathan Carter or The Cedar City Regional Family History Center at 435-586-0432 for more information or to enroll.

This class is intended as an introduction to writing and publishing ancestor biographies and family history in general. It is not designed for professional writers. It is designed for the average person with an interest in sharing their family history with friends and relatives who has thought this too expensive or beyond their technical ability. I assume only that students can speak, read and write English and that they are able to use a computer word processor like Microsoft Word or equivalent. The Family History Center computers are available for student use. However, any students who have access to a laptop computer are encouraged to bring it to class. Students without a laptop computer will need a USB flash drive with minimum 2 GB capacity. A larger flash drive may be required if publishing of a large number of photographs, documents, audio and/or video clips is desired.

The objective of this class is the writing and publishing of some aspect of each student’s family history. To achieve this goal, students will need to spend time outside class on homework assignments. Some class time will be devoted to techniques for researching biographical information but this class is primarily concerned with writing and publishing. I assume students have already conducted basic genealogical research on their family, have a several generation pedigree, have identified an ancestor or family group of interest and have begun gathering relevant biographical information.

Any student who attends all the classes and completes the homework assignments will be able to write and prepare an ancestor biography or family group history for publishing by the end of the class. Students who elect to self publish on CD or on the Internet will be able to complete the publishing process by the end of the class.

Writing and publishing family histories is an exciting and rewarding aspect of family history work. It provides an understanding of an ancestor to both writer and reader not possible in any other way. Unfortunately, my experience has shown that many family history hobbyists assume publishing the result of their work is exorbitantly expensive or that only professional writers can produce acceptable results. These assumptions are not true, publishing needn’t be expensive nor are professional writers required to tell a good story. This class will cover ways to publish at relatively low cost. And it will introduce basic writing techniques that if followed will enable anyone with basic communication skills to write an engaging, interesting and informative family history document they can be pleased with and that readers will enjoy and appreciate.

 Jonathan Carter
Garden Park Ward Family History Specialist
Executive Editor of ForFamilies.com