Much may be said in favor of the publication of a geniology in Quarterlies. Very often it is discovered that years of labor spent in compiling the manuscript of a family history which has been laid aside unpublished because of lack of funds with which to pay the printer. A great amount of work and the expenditure of a considerable sum of money have come to nought. Valuable information has been gathered and arranged only to be lost to the use of the family of which it deals.

These manuscripts, some of them representing years of work and comprising hundreds of pages, carefully prepared and full of data that are tremendously needed, are simply awaiting some means of raising sufficient funds with which to go to press. Begun perhaps in a small way with no plan for publication, the work grew to sizable proportions until the time came when it could be printed and become a valu­able addition to genealogical knowledge, but no plan had been adopted for printing and no funds provided for it until the project had reached such proportions as to require the expenditure of a large sum of money—too large to be under­taken, with the result that the matter was dropped, to the grief of some poor worker who had high hopes to see his work in print, and unknown to the great mass of the family con­cerned.

It may be treasured by the compiler who has devoted his best years and strength to it but with all the painstaking and careful work, it is practically worthless unless it can be printed.

It may remain out of use until the death of the compiler. Then it may be handed on to some one else who will keep it as it has been kept, or it may be turned over to some historical or genealogical society where it is buried in their files and of use only to the few who have access to the particular society and its library, or, what is a calamity, it may be thrown away as a mass of old worn and soiled papers and the work of years destroyed.

It would amaze any seriously minded person to know the amount of extremely valuable historical and genealogical matter lost in these ways to the student of the subject, and how many years of painstaking labor have proved of little worth.

Publication in Quarterlies provides one outlet for this genealogical material. Many of the leading historical and genealogical societies print in this way and disseminate valu­able information. Their plan points the way for the publica­tion of any and all classes of genealogical matter. The scheme is not to be recommended where funds are available for book publication and the work of writing the geniology has been completed. If manuscript is ready for printing there is nothing else as good as the regular bound book.

Distribution of Costs

By Quarterly publication cost of printing may be dis­tributed. A geniology of a thousand pages costing to print perhaps six or seven thousand dollars in the limited edition for which sale could be found, and which would have to sell for from twenty to thirty dollars, might be printed in Quar­terly form including in each issue from eighty to one hundred pages of genealogical matter for from one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars per year, and for a genealogical project it is far easier to raise one thousand dollars than it is to secure five thousand dollars.

If the cost can be distributed in a manner to enable the sales of one year to cover the costs of a succeeding year, great progress has been made towards solving one of the vexing problems of publishing genealogies.

Distribution of Sales Price

The main object of writing and publishing a geniology is to distribute the information it contains as widely as possi­ble, especially among members of the subject family. One of the greatest problems in publication is to be able to produce the book for a price that the majority of the family can afford to pay. If, instead of delivering the entire work at one time for a price of from twenty to thirty dollars, the same record may be delivered in installments of four Quarterlies a year for a price of around four dollars per year the result would be twofold, first, a much larger sale and, second, a wider distribution.

Were there ample funds with which to print a large geneal­ogy in regular bound book form there is little object in doing it if the sale price must be so high as to preclude members of the subject family from purchasing it. It may be possible to raise a sufficient fund to print the book and sell at less than cost, but such cases are not common. If the sale price must be so high as to make purchase possible only to libraries and the wealthier members of the family the project has fallen far short of its greatest usefulness.

There are many more families who can spend four dollars a year over a period of years than can afford to spend twenty dollars at any one time. This is a strong point in favor of Quarterly publication which can be sold at a price to com­pare with any of the better grade magazines.
It may be found advisable for the same price to print and deliver at one time a yearly volume instead of the four issues of a Quarterly. There will be seen both advantages and dis­advantages to the plan. It is a matter which the genealogist may consider.

Corrections and Additions

In every published geniology there are bound to be many errors and omissions. Wrong dates, incorrect names, a child left out and other items which will develop as soon as the book is off the press and in the hands of the readers. Usually these are errors and omissions for which the genealogist is in no way to blame, but when the book is printed and bound and distributed they have become a part of the record and cannot be rectified. They must stand as printed so long as the book is used.

If, however, the geniology is printed in sections it is a perfectly easy matter to add an appendix in each volume which may be printed in the last issue of the year, and in which such errors as discovered may be corrected and matter previously omitted may be added. Thus when the sections are all printed and the geniology is complete it will be much more free from errors and omissions than would be possible under any other plan of printing.

In Quarterly publication an index should be added for each volume which should appear in the final issue of the year. Thus each year's combined issues with index will con­stitute a volume and it should be clearly marked and treated as one complete volume of a series.

Publication during Compilation

Another advantage of Quarterly form of printing is that publication may be commenced at an earlier date than would be possible were the entire geniology to be written before going to press with any part of the history. There are two advantages which may be gained by commencement of pub­lication while the work of construction is still going on:

First, It is always necessary to create an interest on the part of the family in order that they render the genealogist their co-operation and assistance in gathering data. There is no better way known than to begin to publish and distribute the history, thus keeping before them a regular reminder in the form of the Quarterly. One of the problems of gathering data from the family is the dilatoriness with which members answer queries for information of the kin. If they are brought to the realization that the work is going on the press with regularity and that if they do not do at once what is asked of them they are very likely to have information of their family either omitted entirely or put in an appendix, they will be spurred to quicker action which will prove a great advantage to the genealogist.

Secondy Any and all data the compiler has secured and com­pleted should be available for use as soon as possible. It is not uncommon for a period of ten years to elapse between the beginning and the completion of preparation of a geniology and there is no point in withholding from the public such parts of the work as have been completed. When the geneal­ogist has reached the point in his work where he is certain that he can keep ahead of the printer there is no valid reason why his completed work should not be available for use by the family and the student while the balance of the work is in progress.

Numbering

If the geniology is to be published in sections it is neces­sary that the numbering plan adopted be sufficiently flexible to enable the addition of new matter or the revision of old matter without upsetting the general scheme of the work. It will, therefore, be necessary to adopt the lettering plan used and described by Mr. Lincoln in the Lincoln and the Waldo genealogies or its variation with numbers as found in the Chapin geniology, either of which possesses this feature of elasticity. This plan has been fully explained in other places in the book and needs no further comment. By its use the entire project is kept open for additions, and publication may proceed from any point. If it is desired first to complete the history of those persons and families bearing the family sur­name, it can be done, going back at some later time to take up and print the record of the families of daughters who mar­ried and dropped the ancestral surname for those of their husbands.

There is such a degree of flexibility to the Quarterly pub­lication plan that it may be made to serve any one of a num­ber of laudable family projects and schemes.

The Quarterly

What was said in the preceding chapter entitled "The Book," regarding paper, type and workmanship apply equally to the Quarterly. The publication should be as high grade in one as in the other because the Quarterlies are to become a permanent issue. The time may arrive when it will seem advisable, after the geniology is completed, to gather up all the data contained in the Quarterly volumes and, after rearrangement bringing into proper sequence and with ap­pendix data in their proper place, all families and members of families, to publish a bound book geniology in one or more volumes. If this is undertaken, however, there will be a large proportion of the family who, having purchased the Quar­terlies and become accustomed to their arrangement, will not care to spend the money necessary to purchase the defin­itive edition in as much as they would secure nothing new other than a more continuous arrangement. Therefore the Quarterlies will constitute their permanent edition.

The Quarterlies should be uniform in size, not only for the four issues of the year, but from year to year, in order that the purchaser may have them bound in volumes if he so desires. For this reason it is preferable that they be bound with a high-grade paper cover suitable either as a permanent binding or for removal if they are assembled in volumes with a more lasting and expensive cover. The edges should not be trimmed but left rough which will leave the book a little larger than the size recommended for the bound geniology. When the volume is bound it will be trimmed to size thus producing when it is finished the same general appearance as the tight bound geniology referred to in the preceding chap­ter. The printed page size, however, should be the same in both styles of publication.

Something should be said regarding the disposition of genealogical manuscripts for which no funds can be secured for publication. It is to be regretted if a good geniology can­not be financed for publication, but if it is finally determined that such is the case, the manuscript should not be cast aside. Several of the historical and genealogical societies which have publishing facilities are constantly on the watch for worth-while genealogies which they can present serially in their magazines. While this is not an ideal method of publi­cation as viewed by a genealogist who has spent his time and money in compiling a family history, it is far better than burying the data in oblivion by hoarding them and depriving students of the subject the opportunity of gaining the infor­mation they contain.

As a last resort it is recommended that the genealogist get in communication with some good historical society which prints a magazine that has good standing and negotiate for the printing of his manuscript, realizing that any printing is better than no printing at all. In the last analysis the object to be obtained in a geniology is to gather and disseminate genealogical information and if it cannot be accomplished in the manner most desired, let it proceed in a less desirable way so long as the object is finally achieved.

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