Family Tree Scrapbooking

When you document your family genealogy into a scrapbook, you create something that will be treasured.  Your parents will enjoy reviewing their precious memories.  Your children will appreciate the sense of history that comes from looking at old photographs, wedding certificates, and other important documents.  A scrapbook helps your family history come to life.
The basics to start are, plastic sleeves, acid free pen and a scrapbook or album.

Before You Start

Start out by gathering all the family memorabilia that you can.  Ask your parents what you can use.  If you let your relatives know what you are working on, they are more than likely to be happy to contribute.  Make sure you put them into plastic sleeves that do not have PVC, if you use the originals, but you’re best served taking your old precious documents and making copies of them.  You can purchase the plastic sleeves at any photo supply store.  If necessary, you can also store your pictures and documents in sandwich bags for safekeeping.

Write down everything you can about each picture.  The best way to do that is write everything you know about each photograph on acid-free paper and enclose that with the photograph.  You can also use a soft lead pencil to write on the back of older photographs.  For newer pictures, you might need to use acid free marking pens.  Be careful not to smudge the writing.  Make sure the ink is dry on the back of one photo before you put another photo on top of it.  The last thing you want to do is mar a precious memory by having ink smudges over the front of a photograph.

Things you want to capture about each picture is the who, what, when, where, and why.  Who is in the picture?  What were they doing?  When was the picture taken?  Where was it taken out?  Why is the picture important to you.  Document just as much as you possibly can about each picture.  Since the scrapbook is going to contain your genealogy make sure to include pictures of your parents and their parents going as far back in time as possible. 

Pictures that have complete information should be stored in acid-free boxes.  Organize pictures according to when they were taken, who they were about, or whatever method works for you.  Pictures that have incomplete information should be stored somewhere else.  With a little bit of detective work, you can fill in the blanks on those photos as well. 

See if you can determine the time period when the photograph was taken.  The style of the photograph will help you figure out the details.  Exploring the background in the photograph can also help you identify it.  Look for buildings or other landmarks.  Review the hairstyles of the people in the photo.  For example, certain hairstyles were popular in the 70s and 80s which are no longer in use.  Clothing fashions also change in time so looking at the clothes the people in the photo are wearing can provide valuable information about when the photograph was taken.  Don’t hesitate to have your relatives help you identify photographs.

A simple way to include those significant items or events of a family member like a certificate, trophy or souvenir, is to take a photocopy or photograph.

Now Be Creative

Once you have your information organized, you’re ready to begin work on the scrapbook. Transfer your photographs from their protective sheets when putting them into your scrapbook.  Transfer information from the back of the photograph to the side or under the photograph in the scrapbook.

What makes this fun for the whole family is that you can add your own flair and include drawings and doodles in your scrapbook.  You are restricted only by your imagination. You probably have enough material to create a few genealogy scrapbooks.  Each genealogy scrapbook should express the life of each person or couple. When they are finished, you have the perfect Christmas present or perfect item to pass down to your children. 

Making your family history a scrapbooking project will make the life of your parents, grandparents and other family members far more real for you and your own family. Reading about what they’ve done, how they spent their life and what moves or other twists and turns it took will help you to be far more appreciative of the family that you have.