You've written your narrative, and now you're ready to choose what photos you want to go with it. But how do you choose the gems from the stacks and boxes of slides, photos, and documents? Here are a few things to consider:
Read moreFamily Mementos - Keep or Toss?
Are your mementos bringing you joy or weighing you down? (Photo by Julia Freeman-Woolpert)
Making decisions about our "family history assets" can leave even the neatest of the neatnicks among us paralyzed with fear.
What do we do with the accumulation of photos, objects, and other memorabilia that have been handed down to us or that we have collected ourselves? Keep it and burden yet another generation with boxes of stuff? Toss it and face the possibility of losing something of true sentimental or monetary value?
Read moreA "Story Genealogy" Book - By the Numbers (Part Two)
In this book we created for a client, we started with a couple about five generations back and included all their descendants to the present time. This chart shows the couple's eight children, each of whom are numbered. We used their birth order as the chapter order for the book.
In the last post we talked about creating a story book about your ancestors, starting with yourself (or your subject) as number one and going back in time.
You can also create a descendancy book: start with an ancestor a few generations back and movie into the present time, highlighting each of his/her descendants.
Read moreA "Story Genealogy" Book - By the Numbers (Part One)
Want to create a book about your ancestors, but don't have a clue where to start? Start with a simple pedigree chart.
At Rootstech last month, a woman stopped me in the hall after my presentation and told me she wanted to create a book about her ancestors, but she didn't have any idea how to organize it. How many generations to include? What if she had more information about some ancestors and very little about others? What order should she put it in?
Read moreSave the Date - UGA South Davis Family History Fair
Yes, we know it's a month away, but you won't want to miss this! A staggering number (110, if I counted right) of genealogy and personal history classes for only twenty bucks (that includes the e-syllabus!) At Woods Cross High School, April 25-26.
(Tom and I will each be teaching personal history-related classes there.) Hope to see you!
Click here for more information.
A "Thank You" Book for Mothers/Fathers Day
A tribute book can be a great way to honor your parents, grandparents, or other loved ones. You can put one together in a relatively short time.
I've been thinking about my grandmother lately, as March is the month of her birth. This amazing woman, born just after the turn of the last century, lived to celebrate her 100th birthday and passed away just a few months later in 2006.
As a birthday present for her milestone, I made a little book for her, which I brought with me when I went back East for her birthday party.
Read moreUsing Documents to Illustrate a Personal or Family History
Images of old paper - letters, passports, report cards, etc. - can add visual interest to your personal history.
Tom is currently working on a short book about his parents and their experiences during World War II. As he sorted through the stacks of paper he inherited after his father's death nine years ago, he came across some ephemera that Wendell, a Naval aviator, had kept from the war.
Read moreReluctant Subject? How to Write a "Tribute" Life Story Book
You want to write a life story book about a loved one, but he's not so hot on the idea. What to do?
You want to write a life story book about a loved one, but he's not so hot on the idea. What to do?
Read moreTips for Photographing Sentimental Objects
Using a clean, uncluttered background and natural light will show off your item to best advantage.
If you are working on or contemplating a family history or life story project, here's some food for thought: why not include photographs of special memorabilia? It might be your grandmother's favorite tea cup or your father's watch, your favorite childhood doll or even the car you drove on your first date.
Read moreAre Your Strongest Memories from Your Childhood?
"Baby's Day Out," copyright 2003 Alison Armstrong
Here's an interesting link about memory: University of New Hampshire researchers discovered that the older adults they interviewed about their life stories invariably discussed their major life transitions.
Read more
