Knowing When to Quit

I just finished my biography of Mr. Ben Siegel, one of Bryan County’s most interesting early merchants, and after one more scan for errors I will call it quits and print it out. I know that the ladies who will now index it will let me know if they spot any misspellings or typos.

I am never quite satisfied with a book I have “written”. I put that in quotes because a genealogy book isn’t as much written as it is “compiled”. I don’t have any allusions about this being literature…just the facts about a man and his family…hopefully arranged in a logical, readable order. And of course there is the problem of writing about someone without the benefit of input from his family, long scattered far away from his old hometown. I was forced to gather information from old books, documents, microfilm, and the internet in order to put together a somewhat limited overview of Ben Siegel’s life. So, there are gaps. There isn’t much to record for the years he lived in Durant, although I know that during the next year I will undoubtedly find more information to be added to an addendum later on. But I also know I have managed to find a LOT of information about his early years in Caddo that has been previously unknown, probably information that his own family has never seen before. I’m satisfied with that…for now.

I will take a little break for a few weeks and do some general research that I have been thinking about. Then I will proceed to the next project.

Idle hands…

Comments

[Megan]

I hope one of his descendants will find your book and relish a look inside their family tree. I cannot imagine how it would feel to find a book written entirely about my grandmother.

What are your requirements to take a task on? Did Mr. Siegel need to be deceased for a certain number of years before you felt comfortable writing it? And why him, of everybody in the world? I bet your reasons are fascinating all by themselves.