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If you’ve been researching your family history you may be wondering

“well, what do I do with it now - how do I leave a record for my family, my children and grand-children?  Will they be interested in just a tree of names and dates and not much else?”

 

Possibly not !  After all, just a tree of names and dates is, or can be, a bit boring !

You may think of trying to write a booklet or some sort of narrative, but that can be daunting, and you may not have enough background information of their lives to write such a narrative.  If you do only have a tree, try doing more research, not just asking older members of the family before its too late and they’ve passed away.  Listen to those old family stories that get passed down the generations and often turn out to be untrue  - but they may just turn out to be some amazing stories!

Like our family stories of HMS Seal, the 1875 Arctic expedition,  or the story of Charles Walkerley and his brother and a sister who was a Governess in the Court of the Czar.  And even the story of an ordinary man who led a 14 yr old boy (my great uncle) to believe he was a great Welsh Rugby International!

 

You can also find out a lot from census records about their occupations and other local and social history sources.  Before too long you will piece together something interesting to pass on.  Children and grandchildren may not be that interested just yet, but as you yourself have probably realised, its often as you get older that you get more interested.

And of course its not just your ANCESTORS, but also its about YOUR life story!  

YOU’LL be an ancestor too one day!!  A sobering thought isn’t it? !

 

One way of leaving an interesting record behind is to scrapbook your family and your own life.

Not a childrens type scrapbook but in a 12 x 12 inch album (or 8 x 8) readily available in craft shops and online.

In old type albums photos and newspaper cuttings fade  over time  - they need to be in an acid free environment.

But you can also do digital scrapbooking too - create them on a computer, write them to a  CD or DVD and send them to relatives as well as keeping a copy for yourselves.

Even if you don’t feel you have many creative skills in crafts you can still make a decent job using different backgrounds & embellishments paper or digital,  and  by  “journaling”.   

 

What do I mean by journalling? Its all about writing up your stories and anecdotes, a bit like in a diary. Whether its about your ancestors lives or about events in your own life.  And not just events, it can be about your spiritual journey, a day out, a brief moment in your childs life,  a mad moment with your pet or wife or husband (!!!)  a particular photo you took on holiday - the possibilities are endless!!    

 

And the layout and designs can be endless too, there is no one way of doing a scrapbook, every page is different, every person has their own style and ideas.

 

Below is a gallery of pages from our scrapbooks,  from our ancestors to our own journey through life and our family life. We hope they inspire you to have a go, and its not a female thing either, men can be creative too!

Some of these pages have been created by my wife, others by me.   Enjoy !