Long-term Book Project

One of the families I'm researching has a published genealogy book, Benjamin Adamson, From England to America by Elza Hayden Adamson. This was written in 1940, then updated in 1953 by some cousins, and again updated in 1982 by my mother's cousin, Hazel Adamson Brannian.

I just found my mother's copy of the 1953 version. It is a set of mimeographed sheets, three-hole punched and put in a binder. Except for about three pages, it consists of a long list of people with birth and death dates and places, marriages, and children, plus a family page for each person or couple, giving parents, spouses and children. I was sorely disappointed.

I haven't seen the original 1940 version yet. I'm hoping my mother had a copy and that it's still in my dad's house. I also hope to find Hazel's update as well. I can at least get a copy of that from my cousins. But my expectations for what I will find are vastly diminished.

With all the research I've done, including at least two entire lines that have never been documented from the Adamson side, I was planning on writing the next update to this book. But if the original and the 1982 update are anything like the 1953 update, it needs a totally new approach. With modern options, such as desktop publishing, eBooks, and print-on-demand, this book should have stories about the various families, photos, grave sites, and more. I'm going to start over from scratch.


So the question is, do I call this Benjamin Adamson, From England to America, Fourth Edition even if the only common content will be the genealogical data, or do I simply publish a completely new book with a new title?

If anyone has any input to this question, please leave a comment.