Genealogies

From Cumbria and Barbados to NZ

This book was researched and written by a descendant of the family. It is of more general interest however because this family were early settlers in Hawkes Bay from the 1850s with large families. The usual problems beset this book with photographs that were mostly not up to commercial printing standard. It seemed best to lay the book out landscape with large margins and 2-3 columns on each page. The family trees were technically complex having been compiled from 3-4 different programs and formats and having to be patched together. The end result: a fine book and family heirloom retrieved from a dense block of unformatted text and inadequate photos.

From Scotland to Otago, NZ

A tour-de-force by the author and a book that ultimately took BriarsBooks 4 years. A 328-page genealogy, with 160 photos, genealogical charts and maps, 3 appendices, bibliography and index. 400 copies. A family member took responsibility for the manuscript and was meticulous in her research and checking. Every chart and family tree was provided hand-drawn and had to be recreated digitally. Old maps needed rescuing or redrawing. All photos needed editing and tonal adjustments. The cover pulled together a black and white photo of the old family home, a coloured photo of a Scottish landscape and a strip of the clan tartan. This book hit problems half way through with software incompatibilities - very trying for both client and designer. There were so many additions and corrections to this book it was a challenge keeping track of them all. It was an expensive book to print, but demand was significant within the clan internationally and interest was shown from libraries. The book had 3 reprints.

Another branch of the tree

This author - a retired psychiatrist - lives on the East Coast of the USA. He was impressed by work done by Briar's Books on a large genealogy for relatives living in New Zealand - Four Sons of Skye, see above - and wanted BriarsBooks to design and produce his (much smaller) effort. Tolme Tales is 128 pages of text, with photos - all provided far too small and needing rescuing to work in print. The cover shows 7 generations of his family line. Though the book was produced and printed in NZ, at only 50 copies including postage, he was satisfied that costs were comparable to getting the job done on the U.S. East Coast. He has another book in the works.