Good manifests

[SimoneTessitore]

I'm kind of stuck right now, waiting for film to come in from Utah, so I'm going over some of the documentation I already have. My problem is that I don't know of a good way to print these ship manifests. They're horrible. Too light, too small, too fuzzy. I tried saving as a .jpg file but can't manipulate it enough there. Does anybody know any tricks to making these things legible? Other than paying $25 per image.

Also... when I feel finished with this project what kind of format do you guys recommend for passing this information other interested family members? I have Family Tree Maker so I have some options. Just a straight report of who had whom? I want to make it nice, but not expensive.

Thanks

[wldspirit]

The ship manifest have always presented a problem for me, finally I just burned them onto a cd until I need them, same with census sheets.

I would document sources when presenting this, that way if some person in a future generation wants to take up the hobby, they have verified info on what has been found to date.

Also, are you doing both paternal and maternal sides or just paternal??
I stay within the context of the actual line, although I do present the children and who they married, but do not branch off into their children.
Otherwise this would be never ending!!!

I am presenting it to family in a printed report, as well as on cd. It is going to be one of their stocking stuffers......
wldspirit

[Graffeo]

I'm kind of stuck right now, waiting for film to come in from Utah, so I'm going over some of the documentation I already have. ..... I have Family Tree Maker so I have some options. Just a straight report of who had whom? I want to make it nice, but not expensive.

Thanks

I had to do the same thing. Copy everything to a CD because the manifests are too big to print. And they are kind of ugly too.

I am writing a narrative style report of the information I found so far on my family because it makes it more like a story. Those charts are too technical.

I would say start a kind of "Once upon a time" story. For example "Our great grandfater, Giovanni, came to America on a ship called the Bolivia out of the Port of Palermo. His final destination was New York City. It was the day after Christmas 1889 and he had $10.00 in his pocket. The ship's manifest says he was 5 feet 5 inches tall, with ..... In the spring of the next year the 1900 Census reports that was married to Lucia Ferraro and his occupation was a tailor. " You might also want to anchor the ancestor in history by adding facts such as, "Our great grandmother was born during the Victorian Age...."

Also you can print it out on really pretty toned paper, mine looks like parchement. Use a dressy font style and find some clip art that looks old world or nostalgic to add to the margins or to separate paragraphs. You can type the first letter of the word in each paragrah in a fancy first letter. Dress up your typing..that won't cost anything.

You can also do rubber stamping or use the nice decorative papers that scrapbookers use. Then put it all in a nice looking folder that you dress up a little bit with cut outs, stickers or rubber stamping. Or put it all in a scrapbook. You can buy a nice scrapook for about 12.00. Find an picture on line of your ancestors home town in the Old Country and include that as well.

Anyway that's what I am doing...

[SimoneTessitore]

Thanks for the tips. I'm doing a scrapbook for myself but not going too fancy for the whole family.

[nuccia]

Graffeo,

You have some very nice ideas...I have been photocopying birth acts for now and so far the quality on most have been wonderful..only because Peter at our Center in Scarborough is so good at adjusting the colour, and size. He always has a couple of lenses which he takes off and puts on accordingly. I got some excellent copies of my grandfathers birth act and a few others. Mind you, the ones I tried to print myself came out horribly but at 25 cents a copy they served their purpose. Next time, I will use my cd....then at least I can correct the image from my computer.