About the Press
Last updated 31 October 2026
Orcas Island Press makes family histories deep in the woods of Orcas Island, Washington — researched in the records, written as narrative, and bound to be kept.
The work began with a single compact disc. It held the telephone directories of the United States, issued long before family history moved online. Every listing that shared the family surname was searched out, and to each one a letter went by post, on paper, carrying the same plain question: are we related?
That search was never closed. It was reopened the next year, and every year after — corrected, extended, brought up to date. As the technology advanced, the craft advanced with it. The tools changed many times over. The habit did not: find the record, check what it says, and state plainly where it runs out.
For a long time the work stayed within one family. Then came a neighbor's family, then the families of friends, and then of their friends. Their response is the reason the Press exists.
Orcas Island Press now brings the same patient practice to other families — one book at a time, made on the island, in the woods.
What every book holds to
Each book starts with what the family already knows, goes looking for the records behind it, and is written as a real story: people, places, and the choices they made. A reading draft comes to the family before anything is final, and the finished book arrives as a PDF and, if wanted, in print.
- Getting it right. Every fact in your book should trace back to something — a record, a document, a family paper. Where the record runs out, we say so.
- Telling it well. A list of dates is not a family history. We write books meant to be read.
- Respecting your family. Children who are living today never appear in our books. Living adults appear only with their consent; otherwise we describe them without a name or leave them out.
- Your voice in the book. You review the draft, and your corrections and memories shape the final version.
Begin
Every book begins with a conversation about who it is for and what the family already knows. Begin a conversation →
Or write to us first: hello@orcasislandpress.com