This one will go down in the books as the best Christmas present ever. Well, maybe not the best ever, but one of them. Last January I started making a Family History Book for my family. The whole project took 11 months, and hundreds of hours but in the end I would do it all over again if I had the choice. It was not so much a history of our ancestors as it was a history of my immediate family. Here is a list of what I included:
- The Family A Proclamation to the World
- A family history fan chart
- Information that my parents wrote about each of their grandparents (Our great grandparents)
- Information that my siblings and I wrote about our grandparents as well as a set of questions and
answers that I had each grandparent answer. Find the questions here.
- My mom's conversion story (to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)
- The story of my Mom and Dad meeting each other from each of their perspectives
- Pictures of my parents wedding and a famous family story from their honeymoon
- A section about each of us. I had each person fill out a questionnaire that I included and then pictures of them as a baby, currently, and at momentous times in their lives.
- Dad's famous stories of him getting into trouble as a kid. He always told them to us growing up.
- Stories and memories of each other. I had each person write a story or memory of each person in the family.
- Kid's Say the Darnedest Things - this section is funny things that we said as kids that mom recorded.
- Mom's journal entries about things we did when we were young
- Places we lived (pictures of the houses and pictures of each place along with some things that some people wrote about the places we lived)
- Pets - pictures of them and a few stories
- Family traditions
- Quotes (funny things we say as a family)
- Recipes (A favorite from everyone)
- Funny stories and memories
- Other famous family stories
- Family Reunions (Told about them and put in lots of pictures)
- Family Vacations - A page and a few pictures from each place
- A list of all the places we have been.
All together it ended up being 184 pages! I used the website Blurb and was so happy with the result. It is a hard bound image wrapped book, that I love!
It was so fun to see my family unwrap the books on Christmas and then to see them reading them for hours, smiling and remembering things that we have done as a family. It was definitely worth all the work and will be a treasure to each of us for years to come!
Now...how am I going to top this next year? That's the questions.
I love this idea! If I can get myself in gear I might steal it for my family next year...I better get started. THANKS for sharing this idea!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing, i read this last january and did find it an awesome project. I started as well although different as all my granarents are deceased ascare my parents, but I have tons of photo's inherited from my mom, I am curently writing overseas family who can help me put togehter some memories about aunt and uncles I never knew. I will make a book and give that to my children so they are not forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI am rambling I hope I made sense 😍
I am in the process of compiling my family tree. I plan to print my own pages. My dilemma is trying to figure out where to buy a hard (or soft) cover book so I can insert my pages and then try to either bind it myself with a binding machine or find some place that will bind my pages to a book cover. I am thinking about seeing if our local UPS store can do the binding as they may be cheaper than an actual publisher. I am also wondering if regular printer paper is OK or should I use a specific kind of paper. Any input/suggestions would be appreciated.
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