Ancestry Magazine

Overwhelmed with your decision to produce a family newsletter? You’ll find it can be done with a bit of organization and thought.

I felt co mpelled to begin the project; I knew I had to write and distribute my family newsletter. I called it The Mispocha, which is Yiddish for “family.” I set up a mailing list on MS Word and I was in business. Or so I thought.

I was missing one thing: content. What would I put in my newsletter? I decided to create a four-page quarterly newsletter. On the front page I would include a small note and a look at an ancestral homestead with photos if I could get them. Inside, I would profile an ancestral couple and provide a research update. On the back, I’d include milestones of family members—birthdays, anniversaries, and deaths.

I paid for the newsletter out of my own funds—the biggest expense came from photocopies and postage. Without my asking, several relatives sent me checks to help defray the costs. It was a success, but I wished I had some advice to turn to when I was getting started.

If you’re thinking of starting your own family newsletter, you don’t have to be particularly creative or spend a lot of time or money. You’ll have plenty of options as you create your newsletter, but first you have to decide to begin.

Why a Newsletter?
Reaching a research milestone may prompt the beginning of your family newsletter. Family historian Alan Steinfeld of Scarsdale, New York, decided to write a newsletter after he wrote a small book about his father’s side of the family. He says, “Once this was done, I wanted a way to keep in touch with people and maintain the database so I started the newsletter.” Steinfeld maintains a mailing list of some 110 families.

Similarly, Gary Palgon of Atlanta, Georgia, began his newsletters—he currently publishes four—after he completed family history books o n each of his four major lines.

For me, a family newsletter gave me a way to share my research information—stories, photos, and documents—with the family in a way that everyone could keep it on file.

Sometimes an upcoming or recurring family reunion serves as a catalyst for the creation of a newsletter. This was the case for family historian Ron Shattil, who has been involved in two series of newsletters, each one in conjunction with the family reunion of his maternal and paternal relatives. He says, “In each case, the newsletters were tools to announce and promote the reunions. Each newsletter first appeared about a year before the respective reunion and continued monthly up to the date of the reunion, plus one follow-up edition after the reunion.”

For Shattil and his family, the newsletters were important in generating enthusiasm for attendance. Although family members were invited to submit articles, only a couple of people wrote the bulk of the content. Developing a monthly newsletter proved to be a challenge, but it was critical to build momentum for the upcoming event.

Decide now whether you want to do everything on your own or if you want to engage family members to help you. Major tasks include writing articles, gathering photographs or other illustrations, setting up an editorial calendar, soliciting news from the rest of the family, creating the newsletter, setting up a distribution list, photocopying, and mailing. Decide also on the frequency with which you want to issue your newsletter.

Develop the Content
I decided to create only one newsletter for the entire family so I had to maintain a mix of content to satisfy both my paternal and maternal sides. You may decide, as Palgon did, to create a different newsletter for each of your major lines.

A family newsletter can serve two purposes: 1) to keep the family informed of current events and 2) to keep them informed of their mutual past. You’ll probably want to have a mix of both to engage your readers.

Determine how much content you think you’ll have to work with. If you have years of research results that have never been shared, you’ve got a good head start on an editorial calendar. Think about fun ways to share the information in both features and columns. For instance, Steinfeld includes a “Mystery Photo.” He says, “This is a picture I have recently received for the family photo collection. It can be a recent one, like a newborn, or an older one that someone sent from an album. The photos I have range from the 1920s to today.” You might also consider using the newsletter as a way to share family recipes.

A research-based feature or column always makes for good content. Says Steinfeld, “There is almost always an article about the results of new research into the history of the family, for example, the first of the cousins to graduate from college, a Chicago gangster, etc.”

In my own newsletters, I’ve included features on the ships that brought our ancestors to America and my research hypotheses about the linkages between the branches. I tend to have many research-based articles, because I am the only one submitting to the newsletter.

A constant in family newsletters is the call to action: a plea for photos, documents, and anything else to further the family newsletter. Trudy Barch of Homewood, Illinois, asks direct questions such as “I’m looking for [name of person]” rather than general queries such as “I’m looking for more cousins.”

Some family historians issue their newsletters monthly, quarterly, or in some cases, annually. Many newsletters are four pages long, although I’ve certainly seen longer ones. Consider what you can commit to in terms of content and budget before making your decision.

Keep your reader in mind as you design your newsletter. You should have plenty of white space for easy reading. Be sure to include graphics, photos, and other illustrations to visually entice your reader. And for those of you who like to keep pace with technology, consider an interactive e-newsletter that you can either compose in HTML or plain text format, post to a website, or burn onto a CD. If you know, however, that many of your family members are not computer savvy, you’d be better served by creating and mailing a hard copy newsletter.

Although Palgon initially began his newsletter using a sophisticated desktop publishing program, he changed to MS Word since it is much quicker to produce. “No one really appreciates the fanciness, so I keep it simpler—just the facts,” he says. By relying on a standard word processing program, he is also able to save a lot of time.

Production and Feedback
My distribution list included about eighty addresses. Many software programs offer a mailing list function or specialize in that application. Look for one that prints labels so you can easily affix them to your newsletter.

Since my newsletter was four pages, it made economical sense to have it photocopied on one 11×17 sheet of paper. I’d then have to fold it twice into a mailing format. To accommodate postal regulations, I also had to attach a seal to close the newsletter for mailing. The folding was very time-consuming.

Ask your family for feedback on your newsletter’s content and format. Take active steps to continually improve it to keep your material fresh and your readership high.

Benefits of Newsletters
Barch is in the midst of writing he r fifth family newsletter. She says, “Many family members write to tell me how much they enjoy the newsletter and thank me for it.”  Steinfeld enjoys the creative process. “It gives me a way to continue to gather information about the family,” he says. “Every year I get a request or two from one of the younger cousins asking for help with a family tree project.”

An unanticipated benefit for me in the days before digital cameras and scanners was that I had hard copies of the newsletter when I managed to lose a whole notebook of family memorabilia after a family reunion. At least I still had images of the lost photos and documents.

Palgon has begun to use the family newsletter as a method to further his research. He says, “I typically include an article on a project that requires donations to fund.” He’s had success with this approach and has received donations for two projects and is working to raise funds for a third.

No matter what your reason to begin your own family newsletter, the time and money are well spent in sharing your history and current family events. Just think about how much easier it will be for future generations of genealogists to read your newsletters and gain access to your research findings, key dates, photos, and more.

Barbara Krasner-Khait has been researching her roots since 1989. She writes frequently for several genealogy publications and recently won third place in the 2003 International Society of Family History Writers and Editors Annual Excellence in Writing Competition for her July/August 2002 Ancestry article, “Cane River: From Oral History to Bestseller.”