With the weather changing and the Holidays approaching many of us will start thinking about doing "something" with all the genealogy stuff we have accumulated. Some of us have written books for our families Some have done photo albums (Joan and Jerry's last postings got me thinking about this) Some have done rooms dedicated to their heritage with ethnic themes. If someone on the list has done something really special to hand down the research they have done on their families, I invite you to share what you did (without an advertising for any specific products of course) An example would be my map collection that I put together for my husband. He loves maps. So I began looking in all sorts of places, antique stores, flea markets, old text books, auction houses / sites for maps (current and actual maps from the time period) that showed the parts of the world, Missouri, and St. Louis our ancestors lived in. When the family all gathers that map album is one of the first thing someone grabs and starts looking at. Seems like someone finds something new every time. All I did was buy an oversized photo album and those acid free conservation style pages. I typed up some heading on my computer...printed them and then slipped the maps into the photo sheets where I had placed the pages with the headings. This is a relatively easy project as even antique maps from the 1800s are often available for under $20 (I got some for under $5) and they are really conversation pieces in themselves. Another example would be to take photos of the areas where your ancestors lived. (Use caution if the area has deteriorated into something that is just not safe to go to). I used disposable cameras for this project (they are light weight, come with zooms now and are very inexpensive and they took very good pictures of things like houses and streets and schools. In some cases the house no longer existed so I would shoot the area to get a more full street shot. One of the men I work with brought in a book his mother created for her children last year. He is a newly wed and this was a present to his wife. It gave family group sheets on everyone in the family (living) and also the genealogy of the family she had married into. She also gave a certificate to her daughter-in-law to provide 100 hours of research for her to start researching her side of the family. (I thought that was really cool! So now the daughter-in-law and mother-in-law have a hobby they can share and get to know each other in a better way...I have done this sort of in reverse with my mother-in-law who is recently retired and she is having a ball researching her side of the family). Diane Shaw and I have talked about getting together this fall to go visit some older churches in the area. All denominations. I have the 1863 St. Louis Directory and plan to print out the church listings. I think it will be fun to do this (plan to take along disposable cameras) and this could be fun to share. If any of you have some project that you think would be of interest to others on the list or are looking for a "research buddy" feel free to share that with the list. Just make sure to keep this within the guidelines of the rootsweb AUP (acceptable use policy..i.e.: no advertising or selling) and on topic to the Missouri / Metro St. Louis list guidelines. Laura