Genealogy Books - The Story of a Lifetime: A Keepsake of Personal Memoirs

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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Great gift for parents or grandparents
Comment: Both my parents received one of these books for the holidays this year. Both of them loved it, but
admitted its a lot of work. This is definitly something to be done over a long period of time.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Beware of Dust Cover
Comment: I bought this edition of this book as well as the "revised edition" (blue-green cover) to give to my
baby's grandparents on the occasion of her first birthday. This ("plum") edition comes with a
dustcover that goes on and on about parents growing old, death, funerals, etc, told from the
perspective of friends and family, rather than that of the person who is to fill out the book. While
I think it is understood that a book like this is something that families will want to read after a
person dies, I thought that the cover was morbid and inappropriate to give people who are busy
living and don't want to dwell on getting old, death, and dying. If the dust jacket needed to speak
to those topics I think it would have been far more appropriate to discuss them from the perspective
of the person who is to fill out the book. It almost feels like the book is ignoring that person and
treating them as someone who is already dead. If you are giving the book to someone who is on
hospice, it's probably great. Otherwise, give the "revised" edition. Luckily you can take the dust
cover off of this one, but the book isn't very attractive without it. The "revised" edition comes
with a card that has the morbid stuff on it, easily thrown away.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Beautifully Done
Comment: I bought this book first for my father because I wanted to know the story of my family's background.
Then I bought one for myself so we could compare our stories. We enjoyed the process and it has
opened up lots of conversations we might not otherwise have had. Then I recommended it to a
co-worker whose father was falling into ill health and she wanted to capture his story before they
ran out of time. The book is clearly lovingly made with questions that really trigger your memories.
I especially liked the section where you can add your own questions in the back so you can ask your
recipient specifics or hard to ask questions.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Really Great Book
Comment: If you want to know the history of your parents or grand parents on a more personal level this is a
great book to have. It would be nice to have a CD included to type on the computer, because not
everyone has the best hand writing

Customer Rating:

Summary: Book ?'s Too Focused on Emotional Rather Than Factual Data
Comment: I bought this book for my 62-year-old mother and my 95-year-old great-aunt to fill out so that I
could keep a written document of their memories. Both separately told me the same thing - that the
book asked far too personal of questions. Neither was willing to fill it out. It asked questions
about their feelings about their childhood, feelings about marriage, etc. I had not wanted to
record their feelings, but rather more historical type of data such as the cost of bread, the local
scenery when it was all orchards, etc. If the book were full of more factually-based questions as
opposed to emotionally-based, it would be more suitable.

On the positive side, it is
a beautiful looking book that would keep well for generations.

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