Writing the Book, Part One

With this and subsequent posts, I plan to describe how I went about planning and writing The Descendants of Isaac Casbon in America (see “The Casbon Book” link at top menu). The stages in the book’s production were something like this:

1. The decision to write; scope of the project; format
2. Compiling the information
3. Writing
4. Editing and publishing

I’ll cover these steps in a series of posts, beginning with the decision to write.

I’ve always wanted to share my research with the extended family. That was the idea behind this blog. By the latter half of 2018, I had been writing Our Casbon Journey for about two years. During that time, I gained confidence in my writing skills and, thanks to ongoing research, my understanding of the family’s origins had increased significantly. My research had reached a point where I thought a book would be a good way to tie together everything that I had learned. The idea of leaving a written legacy was appealing as well. I didn’t want my work to be lost or forgotten. I also didn’t want someone else who was interested in researching the family’s history to have to start all over again. The idea of writing a book floated around for several months before I made a firm decision in late 2018.

Once the decision was made, I needed to answer some fundamental questions. Where and when would the book begin? Where would it end? Who and what would be included? How would the book be organized?

Those who have followed this blog know that my research has been broad-based, covering a wide range of times and places from the late 1600s to the 20th century and from England to America, Canada, and Australia. My posts have covered several branches of the family including at least one that I have not been able to connect to my own. I did not think this approach would be appropriate for a book. I wanted the book to be more focused and more closely related to my own branch of the family. I decided early on to focus on the descendants of two brothers, Thomas (my third great-grandfather) and James Casbon, who emigrated to the United States from England in the 1800s. Although their father, Isaac Casbon, never left England, he seemed to be a good starting point for the genealogy, since he was the common ancestor of Thomas and James’s descendants.

I wanted the book to be relevant and interesting to those descendants living in the present time. Therefore, I decided that the genealogy should include as many living descendants as possible. This raised the important issue of privacy, which I will discuss in a later post.

I also knew that I wanted to summarize my research into the family’s origins in Cambridgeshire and provide historical context about Isaac, Thomas, and James’s lives in England. It was also important for the book to include more than just the dry details of when and where people were born, died and married. Therefore, the book must include expanded biographies when possible, as well as illustrations.

Finally, I wanted the book to be based on sound research and able to stand up to academic scrutiny so that future researchers would be able to see my sources and not have to do the research all over again.

As to how the book should be organized, I had some general ideas, but needed to learn more. To help with this, I purchased the book Guide to Genealogical Writing: How to Write and Publish Your Family History, by Penelope Stratton and Henry Hoff (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014). From this I learned that there are two general formats for writing family history books: descendancy or ancestry style. The former starts with a single ancestor and traces the genealogy forward in time. The latter traces direct-line ancestors beginning at or near the present time and working backwards. This was an easy choice, as I had already decided that the book I had in mind should describe the descendants of Isaac, Thomas and James.

I learned that a common format for writing about the descendants of one or more individuals is known as Register style.  This format was developed by The New England Historical and Genealogical Register and has been used for more than a hundred years. It includes a standardized way of presenting genealogical information for each person, including birth, death, marriages, and children. The style is flexible enough that additional historical and biographical information can be added. It includes a standardized method if numbering to provide continuity from one generation to the next.

Finally, Register style also allows writers to document their sources with footnotes or endnotes. I decided endnotes would be a better choice so that the majority of my readers—close and distant family members—would not have to wade through multiple footnotes on every page.  However, I thought footnotes could still be used for occasional parenthetical comments.

Finally, I visited the library and viewed several published family histories to see how they were organized and to get more ideas for my book.

With the decision to write made and a pretty good idea of what I wanted the book to include and how it was to be organized, I was ready to move onto the next step: compiling the information. Stay tuned for more in the next post!