From laidlaws at hotkey.net.au Thu Jan 29 20:25:33 2009 From: laidlaws at hotkey.net.au (Doug Laidlaw) Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 20:25:33 +1100 Subject: [Boykett-announce] A start has been made. Message-ID: <200901292025.33854.laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> I have eventually put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and made an identifiable start on a Family History. I was taught that all epics start half-way through the story, and then go back to the beginning. Milton in "Paradise Lost" starts with Satan's army in Hell after being thrown out of Heaven. How they got there, including their rebellion, is told later on. Similarly, a Family History must start with Thomas Boykett. For the moment however, I am proceeding chronologically, starting with William (1750-1812.) I have written only a few paragraphs - 280 words, but they bring in about half-a-dozen reference citations. And I haven't yet got to the documents brought back from Bobbing. I may have to cut the book down in size later. And I don't want it to be as unreadable as a school history text. But if I say I have started, I am committed. The German author Goethe's motto was "Without haste, but without rest." (The German words matched better.) I want to have a proper photo gallery on the Web site, but these days, I have difficulty applying myself. There was a gallery program provided, not the one supported by the family tree program, but it is no longer there, so I have the choice. We have a new member, Amanda Williams of Bendigo, a descendant of another William Boykett, the son of Charles, who went to Young, N.S.W., married a local woman, and started a family. The other Boyketts I know of in Bendigo are from William's line, through my mother's "Uncle Bill," whose wife wrote the letter to Ethel Bruce. If you can't think of a Boykett's first name, William is a good guess. Doug. From laidlaws at hotkey.net.au Fri Jan 30 15:06:14 2009 From: laidlaws at hotkey.net.au (Doug Laidlaw) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:06:14 +1100 Subject: [Boykett-announce] A start has been made. In-Reply-To: <200901292025.33854.laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> References: <200901292025.33854.laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> Message-ID: <200901301506.14829.laidlaws@hotkey.net.au> Because of filesize limitations, I have put up on the Web site what I have written to date. It looks more like notes than a polished final edition. It can be viewed at http://www.douglaidlaw.net/boykett/boykettbook.pdf I tossed up between using a desktop publishing program (which would be good for lots of pictures) and a text-type program suitable for novels. I settled on LyX (http://www.lyx.org/) which is available for any version of Linux, and there are Windows packages as well, all open source, at no cost. It has templates for many specific document formats that I will never use. I am using the same book format that was used in an article I read, which gave no screenshots. It may be more "modern" than the basic book format. Instead of setting up title pages and chapter headings as I would with Microsoft Word, and getting their fonts right, then writing it all down for next time, I simply told the program I was writing a book. I typed in the title of the book, and the program created an elementary title page. The same thing happens with chapter headings, lists, tables, images, tables of contents, bibliographies. I hit one carriage return for a new paragraph - any more are ignored. That is what they are referring to when they call their approach "What you see is what you MEAN." I tell it what I am doing, and the program takes care of the how. The same job is done the same way every time. If I told it I was writing an article instead, the layout would change to suit. The concept takes a bit of getting used to. The indented first lines are a bit "old hat" these days, but everything can be configured. It will export to a PDF. Publishing houses seem to accept PDFs these days. If that causes problems, I can convert it to something they like. Doug. On Thursday 29 January 2009 8:25:33 pm Doug Laidlaw wrote: > I have eventually put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and made an > identifiable start on a Family History. > > I was taught that all epics start half-way through the story, and then go > back to the beginning. Milton in "Paradise Lost" starts with Satan's army > in Hell after being thrown out of Heaven. How they got there, including > their rebellion, is told later on. Similarly, a Family History must start > with Thomas Boykett. For the moment however, I am proceeding > chronologically, starting with William (1750-1812.) I have written only a > few paragraphs - 280 words, but they bring in about half-a-dozen reference > citations. And I haven't yet got to the documents brought back from > Bobbing. I may have to cut the book down in size later. And I don't want > it to be as unreadable as a school history text. But if I say I have > started, I am committed. The German author Goethe's motto was "Without > haste, but without rest." (The German words matched better.) > > I want to have a proper photo gallery on the Web site, but these days, I > have difficulty applying myself. There was a gallery program provided, not > the one supported by the family tree program, but it is no longer there, so > I have the choice. > > We have a new member, Amanda Williams of Bendigo, a descendant of another > William Boykett, the son of Charles, who went to Young, N.S.W., married a > local woman, and started a family. The other Boyketts I know of in Bendigo > are from William's line, through my mother's "Uncle Bill," whose wife wrote > the letter to Ethel Bruce. If you can't think of a Boykett's first name, > William is a good guess. > > Doug. > > _______________________________________________ > boykett-announce mailing list > boykett-announce at douglaidlaw.net > http://douglaidlaw.net/mailman/listinfo/boykett-announce_douglaidlaw.net