You could save it to your computer - perhaps as a WORD file, then email a copy of that file to your children, and they can save it onto USB stick or their own CD or DVD, if they wish.

My great uncle and great aunt (brother and sister) worked on our family tree for years. They were able to track it back to our first ancestors that arrived here, sometime in the 1600s, I believe. He has compiled at least two or three hefty printed and bound volumes. He did ask to be reimbursed for his printing fees-I believe about $10 per volume? He is currently working on the third or fourth volume. I have absolutely no problem reimbursing him for his fees.

I do the family history in my family and love what you are thinking of doing. Go for it! Share with your children. Thank everyone in the family who helps you retrieve information.

I have been trying to trace my deceased husband's family for over 50 years. Can't get to first base!! It is so frustrating as I have offered and offered to pay big bucks to share information. Get nothing. Right now I don't even know the exact birth and death dates of his parents nor even the exact name of the grandparents.

This is a good thing you want to do. Good luck!

If you are worried, ask him. Since he is sharing copies, I bet he would be happy for you to share it with more family members. Chances are, your kids know how to burn a copy. Call them on the phone and they can probably walk you through the easy process of copying a CD or DVD.

Check his military records. If you could find his parents on a census, that would give you a rough idea of their ages. Try to think where they lived and check out censuses for those areas first. For some areas there are even printed census indexes (which aren't 100% accurate - some people did get left out - but will give you a start). How about affiliations... was his dad a Mason or Knight of Columbus? Their ages should be on their death certificates. Keep trying, my friend, there are records out there somewhere. I have a few ancestors who I think must have sprung from the head of Zeus, full-grown, or maybe they were raised in an eagle's nest... or they carried brooms with them and covered their tracks. But keep on looking, and you will find something. And listen to thoughts that come to you late at night or in dreams. I've had some very interesting and profitable follow-ups from these.

I agree printing all the information is costly and I wouldn't do it either unless they paid for the materials to do so but to make a Cd is fairly cheap so I have no problems with that. I also have made CD's for family members as a Christmas presents, and it was way cheaper then anything else I could afford at the time. I have 13 brothers and sisters and it's hard affording things sometimes. With the CD's not only are they getting a look at where they came from, in some cases I made short videos of some of the pictures from way back when. So they were able to take some time later and see what our elders looked like and see how they lived compared to what we have today. Most of my siblings loved their CD's. Some don't care about pass family history so much but they got a kick out of the picture shows.

Ask a grandchild to do it, or, if that's not practical, ask a neighbor's kid. Works for me!

I wanted to get into family tree stuff a few years back and was astounded at the cost. It's understandable, when you think about it. You have to be ready to put in a LOT of time, too.

On the positive side, one of DH's cousins did her family tree and came up with a lot of relatives she keeps in touch with. I'd love to be able to do that!