Digitizing Family History Books: A Complete Guide

Somewhere in your family, there's probably a dusty book on a shelf—a published family history compiled decades before Ancestry.com existed. These legacy documents, often created between the 1850s and 1980s, represent years of pre-digital research that frequently proves more accurate than today's crowdsourced online trees.

Thousands of these published family histories—formally compiled genealogies printed as books—exist scattered across family members, local libraries, and genealogical societies. They're deteriorating, not searchable online, and contain information found nowhere else. This guide will show you how to digitize, verify, and share these invaluable resources.

Why Published Family Histories Are Genealogical Goldmines

Before the internet, creating a family history required extraordinary dedication. Authors spent years traveling to courthouses, corresponding with distant relatives, and interviewing elderly family members who remembered the 1800s firsthand. They accessed records that have since been lost, destroyed, or remain undigitized.

What makes these books particularly valuable:

• Pre-internet research effort: Decades of work condensed into a single volume
• Primary source access: Interviews with people born in the 19th century
• Lost details: Family stories, occupations, and migration narratives not captured in vital records
• Surprising accuracy: Well-researched histories hold up remarkably well when verified against modern records

What You'll Find in Legacy Family Histories

A typical published family history contains multi-generational narratives spanning 5-10 generations, exact birth/marriage/death dates, source citations to original documents, family photographs, migration patterns, and occupational details. Many include indexes that make finding specific ancestors straightforward.

Assessing Your Book Before Digitizing

Before investing time in digitization, evaluate what you have:

• Physical condition: Note brittle pages, binding issues, or faded text that may affect scanning
• Publication details: Check the publisher, date, and author credentials (DAR member? genealogical society affiliation?)
• Scope: Which family lines are covered? What geographic regions and time periods?
• Unique elements: Photographs, maps, or source citations that make this copy particularly valuable

Is Your Book Already Digitized?

Before starting, check whether someone has already done the work. Search FamilySearch Books, Internet Archive, Google Books, and HathiTrust. If your book is already available digitally, you can skip to verification and transcription.

Copyright note: Books published before 1928 are generally in the public domain. For books published 1928 or later, copyright may still apply—check before sharing widely.

The Digitization Process: Step-by-Step

Choose your digitization method based on the book's condition, your budget, and time available.

Method 1: Flatbed Scanner (Best Quality)

For books in good condition with photographs you want to preserve at high quality, flatbed scanning produces the best results. Scan at 300+ DPI, save as PDF or high-resolution JPEG, and use a book cradle to protect the binding. Expect 2-4 hours for a 200-page book.

Method 2: Smartphone Scanning Apps

Apps like Microsoft Lens, Adobe Scan, or Google PhotoScan offer a faster alternative. These apps automatically crop pages, correct perspective, and enhance text readability. Quality is lower than flatbed scanning, but the speed advantage is significant—you can capture a 200-page book in under 2 hours.

Method 3: Professional Digitization

For extremely fragile books or when you need high-quality OCR accuracy, consider professional services. Local copy shops or specialized genealogy digitization companies typically charge $1-3 per page. This option works best for rare or irreplaceable volumes.

Making Your Scans Searchable with OCR

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) converts scanned images into searchable, editable text. Accuracy ranges from 90%+ for clear modern print to 60-80% for older typefaces. Adobe Acrobat Pro, ABBYY FineReader, and free tools like Tesseract can add OCR to your scanned PDFs. Always proofread OCR output before using it for transcription.

Transcribing and Organizing the Content

You don't need to transcribe everything. Prioritize strategically:

1. Vital records first: Birth, marriage, and death dates and places for direct ancestors
2. Source citations: The bibliography and footnotes reveal the author's research path
3. Family narratives: Migration stories and historical context often aren't captured in databases
4. Indexes: Surname lists help you quickly find relatives you didn't know existed

Transcription Best Practices

Use genealogy software like Ancestry Member Trees, FamilySearch Family Tree, or desktop applications like RootsMagic to organize extracted information. For each fact, create a source citation that includes the book title, author, publication date, and page number. Preserve original spellings and wording in quotations—use [sic] to note obvious errors while maintaining the original text.

Create a "working document" where you note discrepancies and questions that arise during transcription. These become your research to-do list.

Fact-Checking Legacy Family Histories

Even well-researched books contain errors—copying mistakes, family legends accepted as fact, or conclusions based on limited record access. Verification strengthens your research and often reveals new leads.

Verification Strategy

Focus on key ancestors in your direct line first:

• Compare against vital records: Birth certificates, marriage records, and death certificates
• Check census data: Ages, birthplaces, and family composition should align
• Verify cited sources: Can you find the original documents the author referenced?
• Test against DNA: Do claimed relationships align with your DNA matches?

Understanding Accuracy Patterns

Books published by genealogical societies or for DAR/lineage society applications typically maintain higher accuracy standards. Local and regional histories from the 1880s-1920s often prove reliable because authors interviewed living witnesses. Exercise more caution with vanity publications or books lacking source citations—though even error-prone books contain valuable leads worth pursuing.

Sharing Your Digitized History Online

Once digitized and verified, sharing your work benefits the broader genealogy community.

Where to Share

• FamilySearch Memories: Upload PDFs and attach them to relevant profiles in the Family Tree
• Ancestry: Add as "Stories & Publications" attached to your Member Tree
• Internet Archive: For public domain books, create permanent free access for all researchers
• WikiTree: Free collaborative family tree with strong source documentation culture

Sharing Best Practices

Include complete citation information when sharing: title, author, publication date, and publisher. Add page numbers to extracted information so others can verify. Tag relevant surnames and locations to help researchers find your digitized book. Consider creating surname-specific extracts for genealogy forums and mailing lists.

Frequently Asked Questions