A family history scrapbook is a memory collection.
Family photos gather dust on the shelf; newspaper clippings slowly disintegrate in the cupboard; grandma's handwritten letters lie forgotten in a bottom drawer. It is time to get the family history organized. Creating a family history scrapbook is an effective way to plot family trees, collect memorabilia and have an heirloom to pass on to future generations so they can better understand their background. Producing a history scrapbook can become a family project that involves the youngest to oldest members helping to gather materials to put in a book.
Instructions
1. Decide on the format of the family history scrapbook. Do you want to slide the loose pages into plastic protectors in a binder or would you rather glue them? If you go for the latter, invest in archival paper that is acid- and polyvinyl-chloride-free to preserve your family treasures.
2. Make copies of important family documents--birth certificates, immigration papers, newspaper clippings--to include in your family history scrapbook. This allows you to cut and paste without worrying about ruining the original.
3. Design a cover for your family history scrapbook. You may want to highlight an extended family photo, or feature the earliest ancestors in the family tree or go for a collage of family images.
4. Show your draft cover to other family members and get their opinions. See if they can come up with any other suggestions you may not have thought of.
5. Use colored markers to record different branches of the family. Decide if you will use the traditional tree shape--think of a coniferous tree with the branches representing different sections of the family--or opt for another design. Either way, the design has to start small at the top to represent the great-great-grandparents and then get larger as subsequent generations "branch" out.
6. Make photocopies of your family history scrapbook for family members. Display the original in a prominent place--such as on your coffee table--so people will refer to it.
Tags: family history scrapbook, history scrapbook, family history, your family history, family history, family members