presentation of data in a book

[hanna grossman]

This question is not directly about Reunion but about the presentation of data in a book..

I am writing a book covering the 8 generations from my oldest known ancestor thru me.
I have detailed information on the direct line, and varying amounts of information on
the descendants of siblings. I has been my plan to cover in text and partial charts those branches on which there is information and to deal with the remainder in one large chart.

I had expected to print such a chart 8 generations, almost 1000 persons, and fold it into the back of the book. That turns out not to be physically possible.

I am looking for suggestions for other ways of orienting the reader about the place of the branch under discussion in the whole. Preferably without using an overall standard numbering system and applying it to every paragraph, since, among other things, that would require totally rewriting and redoing all the charts.

I probably should have done that in the first place, but I hope I don’t have to redo everying.

Suggestions, references, examples would be much appreciated.

[joeswann]

Here are two resources you might find helpful. The free one first.

Edgar Dohmann, a fellow Reunion user, has written a book. He has sample chapters on his site. Good ideas there.

http://www.dohmann.com/history/sandebeck.html

Then there's "Producing a Quality Family History" by Patricia Law Hatcher. It's a slight bit dated on the technology she talks about, but the principles still hold.

http://www.amazon.com/Producing-Quality-History-Patricia-Hatcher/dp/0916489647/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269827898&sr=8-1