Article #166 Appendix Ideas

Congratulations, hopefully by now you have written and edited your life story and are ready to publish it. Perhaps you have leftover items you’d like to add to your history: photos that you didn’t have space for or interesting details about your ancestry. An appendix at the end of your book is a useful place for this extra information.

It’s always fun to show your family tree complete with names, dates, places and photos of your ancestors if you’ve collected one. We all have sets of families that preceded us on back through the history of man. Assembling a portrait pedigree or family group sheet is a way of displaying this info. quickly. Maybe one of your relatives is a genealogist and has been researching your family tree. If not, the Internet is a handy place to make contact with others who are gathering their roots.

Family group photos if you can find them are great in an appendix. The expressions on the faces of your ancestors, the type of clothing they wore, and the fact that they could afford to take a family photo tells you much about them. Names, dates and places are important, but faces tell you so much more.

I remember seeing photos of my mom and her family. They were obviously dressed very nicely, carefully posed in a setting and told NOT to SMILE in those days. I suppose because it was difficult to hold still while smiling. So, the whole family looks quite serious. But I’ve heard other stories about how the two boys were always into wild scuffles and the oldest daughter took on the mom role after their mom was widowed with 5 children under 10 years old. The youngest daughter called her sister Mom.

Use a timeline to show where you or the subject of your family history lived during their lifetime. Credits for photos or other materials used in your history could be included. Certificates, letters, news clippings, anything you find interesting and relevant to telling your story but didn’t have room for in the main story can go in an appendix. Keep it brief. There’s a writer’s advice that says, “less is more.” Meaning you don’t want to bore your readers, but keep their interest while still making your history complete. Have a friend of family member read your whole project and give suggestions on how to improve it. Then edit out what isn’t necessary.