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How I created my Family Book (see photos in previous post)

Many people ask me, especially from overseas, about if there is a LONG genealogy book they can link their family members to.  Most of the time, all they can provide is the name and sometimes the village of their grandfather, for example. 

It is actually quite difficult to do because there are about 3 million LONGs in this world, not to mention the many generations before us.  So, this is like you found a few pieces of old jigsaw puzzle under the sofa from many years ago and you are trying to complete the puzzle. 

And, tracing roots is not something that people would wake up in the morning and put down on their to-do list.  It is often some inflexion point which once it passes, he/she will not be picking up again if ever.

So, I am uploading excerpts of a Family Book which I created for my family as a case study.  I am no expert in genealogy.  In fact, I knew nothing about genealogy until I started to work on this book.  This means, you can probably do it as well. 

I left China when I was 5 years old and never went back for 50 some years.  Yet, I was able to put together this book.  In fact, I finished this book just over the internet without ever leaving my home in Singapore.  It took me less than 6 months working on the book a few hours a week and mostly waiting for photos from my family members.  Then, I created the book using PowerPoint.  When done, I exported it from PowerPoint into a PDF and emailed that to a printing company in Guangzhou.  Then, they printed a sample and overnight it to me before the do final printing for me to distribute to family members.  The photo upload in the previous post contains about half of the pages of my book so you should be able to have a good idea of what is in this book.

The inflexion point for me to put together this Family Book was my father was diagnosed with nose and throat cancer in 2013.  I went USA for a few months to drive him to the hospital for treatment every day.   It was during this time, the idea of a book to document his roots and life began.  I started to work on the book after I was back to Singapore.  A few months later, when the book was done, I thought about sending it to my father using overnight courier as I was not sure if he would be around long enough to wait for my next trip.  Luckily, his treatment was quite successful.  He is 90 some years old and still quite alert and healthy living in the USA.

When I took the completed Book to USA, my parents were quite delighted.  It is always on the coffee table and my mom would show it to any people visiting her home.  When no one is visiting, she will read it alone.  I cannot think of a better gift to an aging parent – what do you think?

I began my research by googling for the origin of the LONG surname.  Luckily, LONG is one of the better documented surnames and I had no problem in finding the write ups.  And, as part of that, I found out that many LONGs trace their roots to LONG Bai Go who was the governor of today’s Hunan area.  He is one year older than Jesus and there are tomb stones bearing his name in Hunan YongZhou and is being rebuilt into a historical site.

But, how would I know I am his descendant?  I was lucky as I happen to run into another LONG in Singapore who comes from the same village of my father!  And, he has copy of a handwritten village genealogy book going back 800 years.  Excerpts of this Village Genealogy Book is included in Section 3 of my Family Book.  Lucky also because this is a small village with about 50 houses and about 200 people today in a suburban area of Guangzhou.  Name of the village is called ZiBuLi 紫埠里 (used to be called YanZiBo 燕子㘵).  In a small village like this, each time a son is born, the name is added to the village genealogy book – and if you moved out, your descendants are typically not recorded in the book due to distance in the old days.  My father’s root never moved out of the village going back up 600 years.  And, further research showed that the village traced back to LONG Jin Tin (龙近天).  So, my father is Generation 28 and LONG Jin Tin is GEN 1. 

And LONG Jin Tin, tracing back 40 generations, is LONG Bai Go.  In other words, my father is the 68th Generation of LONG Bai Go.  You can find out more write up on this in the Executive Summary of my Family Book.

Besides the LONG surname history and tracking our roots back, I also did some internet research on the village my father and mother came from and included that into Section 1 of the Family Book also. 

As to the cover page of my book, I try to capture as much information on the cover as possible.  Therefore, on the left hand side, is the table of contents.  It also is the family tree, via indentation, of GEN 28 to GEN 31 covering 4 generations of my immediate family.  On the right hand side of the cover, I documented the 28 generations between LONG Jin Tin and my father.  I also included in bracket of how many son each generation has.  To my surprise, 12 out of the 28 had only one son recorded in the Village Book.  This means had anyone of these 12 were zero instead of one, I will not be here today!  But, more seriously, in studying the Village Genealogy Book, I found many men without son this means the lineage ends there.  Of course, the book is not a complete picture because it does not capture people moving out.

One eureka moment I learned from the Village Genealogy Book is that while scientists say it take like 2.1 children on the average to keep the population the same, reality is this 2.1 actually represents averages of say 1.1 and 3.1.  The 1.1 would represent the dead end of a tree and it happens faster than you think.  The tree branches are not balanced.

Now, let’s talk about Section 2 of the Family Book which is basically a photo book with 2-4 pages dedicated to each immediate family members.  This is actually the most fun part of the book.  With a traditional genealogy book, some people update it once every 30 years and it is hardly opened in between.  A photo book is different, it is fun and it is a good book to be left on the coffee table.  This does not mean the photo book replaces the traditional genealogy book, they are for two different purposes and for quite different time line in length.  Of course, when you cannot find the traditional genealogy book, this 4-GEN book is a good start.

I gathered the photos by emailing to my brother/sister, in-laws and uncle and aunts.  The sad truth is most men do not reply.  Luckily, enough women do – especially the older ones!  You basically try to capture the life time best photos of each family member.  And, when you do your final book edit, be sure to check that everyone who had sent you photo got their photos into the book!

In addition, I also include a couple of pages of major events.  Example would be the 60th wedding anniversary of my parents.  Another one was the 80th birthday of my mother.

To sum it up, I thought the Family Book was a very worthwhile project which does not take too much time, everyone can make it work and creates a family a legacy plus a great gift items for the old folks in the family.

我如何创建我的家谱案例（见上一篇文章中的照片）

许多人问我，特别是从海外来的，是否有一个龙氏族谱，让他们可以连接他们的家庭成员。大多数时候，他们所能提供的就是名字，有时候是他们祖父的村庄。

其实很难做到，因为这个世界上有三百万的龙氏，更别提我们前几代了。所以，这就像你在打掃时在沙发下面找到几块旧拼图，是很难找到其他几百块把拼図完成。

而寻根本并不是人们早上醒来，写下今天自己要做的事项之一。通常是一些拐点或一时之兴，一旦过了，将不知何时会再拾起。

所以，我用我为家人編作一本家谱作为案例让大家參考。我不是家谱专家。事实上，在我开始在这本书上工作之前，我根本完全不知道家谱族谱这一门。这意味着你即使是门外漢也可以这么做。

我5岁时离开中国，之后50几年没有回去过中国。然而，我能够把这本家谱书编成。事实上，我单单在互联网上完成了这本书，従没有离开我在新加坡的家门。我花了不到6个月的时间，每周工作几个小时，主要是等待家人的照片。然后，我用PowerPoint创建了这本书。完成后，我将其从PowerPoint导出为PDF，并通过电子邮件发送给广州的印刷公司。然后，他们打印一个样品，一夜之间给我快遞过来。最后印刷给我分发给家庭成员。上一篇文章中的照片上传包含我的书的大约一半页面，因此您应该能够了解本家谱的内容。

我做这本家庭书的拐点是我父亲在2013年被诊断患有鼻咽癌。我去美国几个月，开车送他去医院接受治疗。正是在这段时间，想到做一本记录他的家谱。在我回到新加坡之后，我开始了。几个月后，当这本书完成的时候，我想用快递到把它送到我父亲，因为我不知道他是否能等到我的下一次去探望他。幸运的是，他的治疗相当成功。今年他已经90岁了，仍然健康。

当我把完成的家谱带到美国时，我的父母很高兴。家谱总是在茶几上，我的妈妈会把它显示给任何访客。没有人到访的时候，她会一个人看。我想不到一个更好的礼物给年迈的父母 - 你觉得怎么样？

我开始了我的研究，通过谷歌找龙姓的起源。幸运的是，龙姓是族谱保存得比较完整的姓氏之一。我也发现龙伯高是很多龙姓人氏認同的祖宗。他是当时湖南零陵的太守。他比耶稣大一岁。在湖南永州有他的墓碑，正在重建成一个历史文物。

但是，我怎么知道我是他的后裔？我很幸运，因为碰巧来自新加坡的另一个长辈来自我父亲的同一个村庄！而且，他还有800多年的手写村谱。这本村谱的摘录包含在我的家庭书的第3节中。幸运的是，这是一个小型的村庄，今天在广州番禺还有有大约50栋房子，约有200人左右。村名叫紫埠里（以前叫燕子㘵）。在这样一个小村庄里，每一个儿子出生的时候，名字都被添加到村里的村谱里，如果你搬出去，你的后代通常不会记录在书上，因为在过去交通不便。我父亲的祖宗600多年从未迁出过。而进一步研究显示，该村追溯到龙近天。所以，我父亲是第28代，龙近天是第一代。

龙近天上追四十代，是龙伯高。换句话说，我父亲是龙伯高的第68代。你可以在我的家谱的摘要中找到更多的资料。

除了龙姓来由，我还对我父亲和母亲来到的村庄进行了一些互联网研究，并将其纳入家书的第1部分。

关于我家谱的封面，左侧是目录。它也是28代到31代的家谱，覆盖了我直系亲属的4代。在封面的右侧，我记录了龙近天和我父亲之间的二十八代。我还包括每一代有多少儿子在括号內。

令我吃惊的是，28代中有12代是独子。这意味着如果这12个人中有一个是零而不是一，今天我不会在这里的！但是，更重要的是，在仔细看村谱时，发现有不少是无子的。当然，这本村谱并不完整，因为它并没有包括搬出去的人。从来不科学家们说，平均要生2.1个孩子来保持人口，实际上这个2.1代表了例如1.1和3.1的平均值。 1.1将代表一棵树支的死胡同。树枝生长不平衡。

现在，我们来谈谈家庭书的第二部分，这部份基本上是给每个直系亲属的2-4页的相册。这其实是本书最有趣的一部分。有了一个传统的家谱，有些人每30年更新一次，中间几乎没有打开。一本照相书是不同的，很有趣。会留在茶几上。这并不意味着照片书取代了传统的家谱，它们是为了两个不同的目的，并且长度不同的时间线。当然，当你找不到传统的谱系书时，这种4代家谱是一个很好的开始。

我通过电子邮件发送给我的兄弟姐妹，叔叔和阿姨，收集了照片。但是大多数男人不回信。幸运的是，足够的女性会 - 尤其是老年人！你基本上尝试捕捉每个家庭成员的生活照片。而且，当你做最后一本书的编辑时，一定要检查一下发给你的照片的所有人都有他们的照片在家譜里！另外我还包括几页特辑。例如我父母的第60周年纪念日。另一个是我母亲的80岁生日。

总而言之，我认为家庭书是一个非常有价值的项目，不需要太多时间，每个人都可以使做到。也是创造一个家庭遗产加上一个伟大的礼物给老人家。