In some regions of the expanding USA about 150 years ago, a printed record of families in an area was sometimes printed and bound as a formal book. Part of the publishing model for some of those books was to solicit money from a person or family. For a larger price you could have a longer and more prominent description. Naturally some publishers had no trouble making flattering or "puffed up" entries, for a price. The simple entries in a book like that often were a listing of facts like names, birthdates, occupation or death date, and not much else.