Judy, You are absolutely right..I had no idea. But for what its worth, I treasure each volume, and I have them all.. For years I have read the emails of very dear folk from all over looking for info on their family. And most everthing they were looking for was in the Maries County Books. I have had my volumes for years and am still finding pictures and family histories related to me. Folks I recommend these books ,they're cheaper than Ancestry.com and have pictures of your family. ----- Original Message ----- From: "W & J Germann" <wgermann@flinthills.com> To: <MOMARIES-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2001 11:20 AM Subject: [MOMARIES] Printing books > Thought I would put my two cents worth in about book publishing by the > Society. > > Having worked on the committee to publish all three of the books the Society > put out during the 1990s, I can tell you of at least two main reasons why > the Society doesn't jump on those projects. > > First, the cost of printing has skyrocketed in the last few years. By the > time we printed Volume 3, the basic cost of each book from the printer had > nearly tripled from the cost of Volume 1. When the Society ran its recent > specials on the books, the Volume 3s were selling at or near cost, meaning > no profit to the Society. The Research Room in Vienna has boxes of books > which have not been sold. Many of the other projects they have printed > have been slow to sell. In addition to the cost of printing, is the > problem of where to store the unsold volumes. > > Secondly, unless you have worked on such a project you have no idea how much > time and effort are involved. It is difficult to get volunteers to donate > that volume of time. I stepped in to be a co-leader with Kathryn Geisler on > volume 3 when Carol Miller had to bow out. I spent a mininum of 6 hours a > day, 5-6 days a week for a year getting that ready. Kathryn and the other > volunteers spent equal amounts of time. We typed copy for people without > typewriters or who were unable to handwrite their stories, visited people > to encourage them to submit, researched different aspects of the county > history to add those stories to the family stories, went door to door for > photos, in addition to working with the printer on the day to day steps that > accompany this type of project. Folks, those books are a labor of love by > the Society. Having done 3 books in 10 years, I think that the Society felt > it had done a great deal to preserve the history of Maries County. > > We all wish that the time and resources were available to print more, but it > just isn't always feasible. I personally would like to see many of the old > volumes of Wills, estates, etc put on line, but again, time is the culprit. > > Judy > > > ==== MOMARIES Mailing List ==== > > > > ============================== > Visit Ancestry's Library - The best collection of family history > learning and how-to articles on the Internet. > http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library >