AncestorNews: Starting Your Own Family Newsletter

I wrote an article for the August 2000 Family Tree Magazine on electronic family newsletters (see highlights at www.familytreemagazine.com/articles/aug00/enewsideas.html). Since then, I’ve gotten interested in newsletters that are actually printed and sent via snail mail. I’ve poked around lots of Web sites and am tempted to get into the family publishing game. I’ve published two print newsletters in the past and am itching to do another!

Wouldn’t it be fun to design a beautiful newsletter, using family pictures or clip art, and then report on family events, as well as genealogy findings? I became even more inspired after reading the book Creating Family Newsletters by Elaine Floyd (EF Communications, $19.99).

Floyd’s book is filled with great ideas and packed to the hilt with full-color illustrations and photos. If you’re not sure that writing a newsletter is for you, I bet this book will convince you. She even has a chapter called “The Idea Gallery,” in case you can’t think of what to write.

I’ve found several wonderful Web sites on creating family newsletters, too. Check these out:

• A Holiday Suggestion: Family Newsletters
www.familytreemagazine.com/newsarchive/viewarticle.asp?id=2007&ref=samples

• Family Newsletters: How to Get Started
pa.essortment.com/familynewslette_rbbw.htm

• Family Associations and Newsletters
familyhistory.flash.net/newsletters.html

• Family Newsletter News
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bruce/FamNewsNews.htm

• Newsletter Clip Art
www.oldfashionedclipart.com

• Why Family Newsletters
www.greatfamilynewsletters.homestead.com/whyfamilynewsletters.html