Status of the Bost book

This past fall at the Bost reunion, my dad's first cousin, W.R. Lutz, presented the gathering with a large cardboard box containing the Bost History Book that he had recovered from a non family member.  Three of us (myself included) volunteered to be custodians of the Book and to see to getting it published so that the rest of the family can enjoy it.

The box contained a set of computer disks that contain the typed portion of the book in Microsoft WORD format.  The three of us each have a copy of it on our computers now.  The box also contains the photos, drawings, maps, etc. that will be part of the book when it is published.  (I am collecting additional photos, particularly around 1900 or before, to also include in the book - so if you have some, please contact me).

Recently I have had a few opportunities to "use" the book to help friends find out how they were related to the Bosts.  So far, I have been able to help everyone who has asked for my help.  So the book appears to be very comprehensive in its coverage of the family.

Using the book has given me some ideas about how to possibly make it better, such as by adding an index of all of the names in the book.  Even though I have the book on a computer disk, it is still difficult to find an ancestor's name.  For example, if you do a search for "Charles Bost" you may not find him if he is listed as "Charles Clyde Criddle Bost."  If you only search for Charles, you will find hundreds of people with other last names too.  I have found ways to work around these problems, but it would be simpler for most people if there were an index with surnames first, such as "Bost, Charles Clyde Criddle".

There may also some formatting tricks that could be used to make it easier to follow the family trees in the book.  This might be by indenting a little more for each subsequent generation, or by using colors to differentiate generations, or by improving the numbering system used in the outline.  This is just a thought.  The more that I "use" the book, it may be that the existing numbering system will be easier to follow.

Even if we publish the book without any of the above-mentioned enhancements, there is still quite a bit of work to get it ready to publish, such as adding page numbers, references to page numbers, page numbers where drawings will be placed, etc.  However, the vast majority of the work is already done, thanks to the monumental typing effort by cousin Jim Watkins.  Without his endless hours of work, the book would still be in its handwritten form.  Thanks a million Jim!

Butch

The upcoming Bost History book and an explanation about our German Roots

Here is an article by my cousin Jim Watkins that tells about the Bost history book that our family will be publishing.  This is in the context of an article that explains why some confusion exists about our link to Germany.

Butch Bost

Looking for old Bost photos

Another main reason that I created this blog is to see if any of you have any old Bost photos that might be included in the book.  I need to talk to my cousins who are more familiar with the book and find out if it needs pictures.  I would think that with the Internet to help us we can probably find photos that the writer of the book could not find by the old manual methods. 

So I need to figure out a way for you to send me a scan of your old Bost family or homestead photos.     

Butch

Bost History Book needs to be published.

Several years ago one of my cousins who has done extensive Bost history research since she was a teenager (and she is 70 now!) told me about a book that would soon be published about our family.  About this time last year I found out that another relative of mine got the book ready to be published by taking old computer disks and updating them to the new word processor form for a third relative of mine who edited the text along with my 70-year-old cousin.  That's the good news.  The bad news was that the disks had been given to a historical society for publication several years ago and that they were no longer at the historical society.  However, my dad's first cousin was very confident that the person with the disks was trustworthy, so I feel better about that, but I cannot believe that this precious research is on a single set of disks and there are no back-up copies. 

One of the main reasons I started this blog is to let people know about the book and to begin collecting a list of people who might be interested in buying a copy of it, if it ever gets published.  I promise you that I am doing my best to make sure that it does.

The book is years of painstaking research by another relative.  I will give more information later.  But if you see my blog before then, and you are interested in possibly buying a copy of the book when it comes out, then become a follower of my blog.  When I post updates I think that you will get an email telling you that I did.  What I get out of it is a rough idea of how many people might buy the book if me and my cousins get it published.  If I can figure out a way to do it in the next week or so, I will put something on the page to let you tell me if you are not interested in buying it, slightly interested, very interested, or definitely will buy it.

Welcome to Bost Family History!

Welcome to Bost Family History!  My name is Ralph Herman Bost, Jr. (but I go by Butch).  I had the great fortune of being raised in an area where I was surrounded by my relatives.  My dad's house sits on part of the original land grant given to pioneer William Bost.  This is located just outside of Newton, NC on Old Saint Paul's Church Road, or at least that's what it was called when I was growing up.  It has a different name now.  According to family tradition, the historic church was built by my Bost ancestors.  - Butch