Make a Family History Album

by 6amcrisis

Taking time to make a family history album is a fun family activity. It’s a great way to connect with your family as you learn about how you became who you are. Technology gives you some interesting options for making a family history album. For example, you can use a scanner to scan pictures for your book. You could also use your computer to make a DVD version of the album.

Making a family history album is a great way to start conversations about your families past, present and future. This activity stimulates the younger generations’ curiosity about your ancestors’ accomplishments, and personalities. It also leads to fun discussions about vacations you’ve shared or want to take in the future. This leads to plans for future shared times that you could use to add to your family history album.

Try using a photo album that allows you to add pages to it. A photo album with a plastic insert on the front gives you a way to customize the front of your album. Put a cut and paste collage or a scanned picture in the front of the plastic insert on the front of the book to personalize your album. Try using the photo albums with the plastic covered sheets that you peel the plastic back to place your pictures under.

Scour your house to find pictures for your album. Go ahead, take those pictures off of your digital camera for the album. Be creative. Use pictures from vacations, year books, your drivers’ license, family reunions, birthdays, holidays, graduations, births and any other place you can think of.

Try borrowing pictures from family and friends to include in your family history album. Include some written history in your album. Write the stories that have been passed down from generation to generation to add to the album. You could print these stories on themed print paper from a local print shop. Add copies of newspaper articles, birth certificates, marriage licenses, diplomas, military service records and relevant letters from family history. You can probably think of many other places to get this type of family history from.

Put the videos from your video camera and in your cell phone on a DVD and put the DVD inside the family history album. Think about putting the entire family history album on DVD. This way you can share it with friends and family far and near.

One last idea is for you to ask each member of the family for one item that they would like to be remembered for to include in the album. Ask if they would like to write something to explain the item they chose to share. You may learn something about one another. These are just a few ideas to get you started. How would you make a family history album?