I have decided to make a photo album for each of my adult children, with the main aim being to show their ancestry. Has anyone on the list done this? I would appreciate thoughts and ideas on what to include and what to omit. For instance, should I include brothers & sisters, aunts and uncles, great aunts and great uncles etc or just do the direct line? How about including photos of parents etc at various ages eg baby, child, marriage, middle age, old age. Regards Lena

Dear Lena, It depends on what you want to include. Only photographs? Any text? Any reference as to how these people are related to each other? What kind of album do you intend to use? Do you want to enter the original photographs? Or one copy for each of your children? You should try to make a plan of action, before you start as changing midway can be disappointing. Now a question, if you make a loose page system can you find a good bookbinder? In this case I like to tell what I did. I wanted knowledge and photographs and did a lot of work before I started thinking of the end product. Basically I made a family encyclopeadia. I think preserving family photographs is important but as important is knowledge. I used a whole page for an event-----one page far each person involved, even if it was only one sentence.. I had a description for a funeral, including the names of those who attended. I would make a page for each family member : On that and that day he/she attended the funeral of xyz. Then I placed these pages in alphabetical order, then they attended a wedding, then one person won a prize, anything, but anything. One person ended up with over 29 pages, and as these pages were in time order, I had small biographies. As each person has their alphabetical place, you can put in uncles, aunts, first cousins, even people who are not related but who are important to the family. Then when I thought (I was wrong) I had all that there was to be found, only then did I start with making proper pages. I took a person (in alphabetical order) and started to make pages, on the top the name of the person, with when and where born, and - importantly - who were the parents of this person. Then I would type the information and so the many pages became considerably less, at the same tyme I plotted open spaces for photographs for _that_ person. Then I printed that page ones only, with photo corners I placed the photographs on the appropriate place. Only then did I photocopy that page 10 times (this was in the 1980s).. If you work with computers and scanners, you can have colour portraits as well. Making an encyclopeadia gives a wider choice of whom you can include. If you start with one ancestor, then his/her children, then grandchildren you deny yourself the chance of including in-laws, or even parents of in-laws. I hope I made sense. I can only wish you much success and I am glad to hear you want to preserve those photographs----but think also of the stories :-) With best wishes Leo van de Pas Canberra, Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: <tellig@ozemail.com.au> To: <GENANZ-L@rootsweb.com> Cc: <AUSTRALIA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 5:46 PM Subject: [AUS] Making A Family History Photo Album >I have decided to make a photo album for each of my adult children, with >the > main aim being to show their ancestry. Has anyone on the list done this? I > would appreciate thoughts and ideas on what to include and what to omit. > For > instance, should I include brothers & sisters, aunts and uncles, great > aunts > and great uncles etc or just do the direct line? How about including > photos > of parents etc at various ages eg baby, child, marriage, middle age, old > age. > Regards > Lena > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUSTRALIA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Thank you Leo, I had a feeling that if I rushed into it I would hit a few problems later. I have my FTM records which include photos and some stories. I also have a password protected web site which I use as a backup for my FH but that also includes stories and photos. I have found that the kids don't seem to have the interest &/or the patience to plough through it all. Hopefully that will change later. Now for myself I would love to have an encyclopaedia. I am nowhere near the end of my search so I think that I need to have something a little simpler for the album. I would like to pass on the photos-just copies for now. I will keep the originals. I thought to set up the album with the first page being the child then next pages for the parents then grandparents etc As I get further back and don't have photos I would put in names and dates and perhaps a picture of the village or village church or whatever I can find. Sometimes the photo of the gravestone. I was toying with the idea of putting in copies of certificates. I was also thinking of a simplified family tree. Just the direct line and their siblings. Perhaps it may spark their interest if they don't have to plough through a few thousand names. How does that sound? Regards Lena Subject: Re Making A Family History Photo Album > Dear Lena, > > It depends on what you want to include. Only photographs? Any text? Any > reference as to how these people are related to each other? > > What kind of album do you intend to use? Do you want to enter the original > photographs? Or one copy for each of your children? > > You should try to make a plan of action, before you start as changing midway > can be disappointing. > > Now a question, if you make a loose page system can you find a good > bookbinder? In this case I like to tell what I did. > > I wanted knowledge and photographs and did a lot of work before I started > thinking of the end product. > Basically I made a family encyclopeadia. I think preserving family > photographs is important but as important is knowledge. > > I used a whole page for an event-----one page far each person involved, even > if it was only one sentence.. I had a description for a funeral, including > the names of those who attended. I would make a page for each family member > : On that and that day he/she attended the funeral of xyz. Then I placed > these pages in alphabetical order, then they attended a wedding, then one > person won a prize, anything, but anything. One person ended up with over 29 > pages, and as these pages were in time order, I had small biographies. > > As each person has their alphabetical place, you can put in uncles, aunts, > first cousins, even people who are not related but who are important to the > family. > > Then when I thought (I was wrong) I had all that there was to be found, only > then did I start with making proper pages. I took a person (in alphabetical > order) and started to make pages, on the top the name of the person, with > when and where born, and - importantly - who were the parents of this > person. Then I would type the information and so the many pages became > considerably less, at the same tyme I plotted open spaces for photographs > for _that_ person. Then I printed that page ones only, with photo corners I > placed the photographs on the appropriate place. Only then did I photocopy > that page 10 times (this was in the 1980s).. If you work with computers and > scanners, you can have colour portraits as well. > > Making an encyclopeadia gives a wider choice of whom you can include. If you > start with one ancestor, then his/her children, then grandchildren you deny > yourself the chance of including in-laws, or even parents of in-laws. > > I hope I made sense. I can only wish you much success and I am glad to hear > you want to preserve those photographs----but think also of the stories :-) > > With best wishes > Leo van de Pas > Canberra, Australia