Heritage Scrapbook Albums

[cdgreg]

I am looking for ideas on what to include in a Heritage Scrapbook Album. In the past 7 years I have lost my Grandmother, Grandfather, Father, & Step mom. I want to do a Scrapbook honoring them. But I am at a loss as to how to start. I am not new to scrapbooking as I have done a lot of them for my daughter. But I would really appreciate any and all suggestions to help me began this process. Thanks so much.

[Captain013]

Do you have your pictures printed out and gathered? Thats the hardest part for me.

Maybe sort them out by person to start, and see if there are any reoccurring themes. Are there any stories in particular you want to tell about the person? Is there a photo that goes along with that story, or memorabilia? I would group a few pictures and story ideas together and post it the story to the pictures. Then pick one set and scrap around that single picture or picture series.

[cdgreg]

Yes, I have several pictures already collected and you were right it was not easy. Thank you so much for your ideas I am making a list as the suggestions come in. Thanks again for your help.

[quickstuff]

I have done two albums honoring my family. One I started with pics of my fathers family as far back as I could find which was six generations. I wrote what information I could find about person and how they tied to the next person; did same for my mothers family than tied together with my parents and siblings. I did one for each of my siblings and I have had cousins requesting it also.

I did another one of just my mothers family and her 33 yr marriage to my father up to his death. Had a great response on that one also.

[cdgreg]

Quickstuff that is a great idea. Originally I planned on combining the two. How did you all decorate your scrapbook pages. I have several things in mind for instance I thought about using drown tones with creams to give it an aged look, lacy looking ribbon, etc. How does that sound?

[vdoyle8]

I did a heritage album for my mom and dad. They grew up during the Depression - neither of them had a ton of childhood photos, or even wedding photos for that matter. But I gathered what photos I could find and scrapped them chronologically. Each of them had a section alone until they married - then I scrapped their wedding photos & our baby photos. There were so few photos, I was able to do it in one scrapbook. My parents loved it and, now that my Dad and Brother are gone and my mom has Alzheimers, I am thrilled I have it done.

Good luck to you -- I hope you find comfort in the process.

[mobrien207]

I'm going to do something similar, but I'm trying to write down information that I can get from my remaining elderly relatives. Things like how the couples met, what weddings and holidays were like. Remembrances from their schooldays, etc. I'm also collecting and scanning (if I have an original) favorite family recipes. Some are on scraps of paper written in long hand with the grocery list. i want to keep all of it. I also have birthday cards that my mom kept from my early years, report cards, and lots of old stuff.

I'm going to stick to a neutral base, probably black, white, cream and kraft with just pops of color as most of the photos are black and white, or old, faded color photos/polaroids.

good luck,
mob

[clairehobby]

Oh~ Sorry for hear the bad news happened in the past years, the idea is really great to have a Heritage Scrapbook Album for them.
I have ever made one for my grandparents, and have photos, writings and stories related with them concluded in the album as well, thought it is of fun, but ideas taken on here is obviously of more ingenious.

[flash&rusty]

Just after my mom passed away (going on 18 years now), I made my first ever scrapbook to chronicle her life. Like the person whose parents grew up in the depression, I too had very few photos, but that was because my mother was an immigrant from a formerly communist country and they fled to Canada with nothing. One other problem - because my mother was an only child, and there were no living relatives in Canada, nor was there any way to communicate with the relatives from her home country (language barrier, iron curtain at the time, no idea where they lived), some of the pictures had unknown people in it, from unknown places.

I started the book by making a computer generated family tree, and completed it the best I could. I was able to go back as far as my mother's grandmother and grandfather.

Then, I tried to organize them the best I could and match names to faces. Some of the pictures had Czechoslovakian writing on the back, so I contacted my local historical society to hook me up with someone who could translate.
I also became ruthless - if the picture was of someone I didn't know, had no identifying information about it, and had no reference to my mother or grandparents, I tossed the picture. I know it sounds heartless, but what use is it to put a picture into the album when the only thing I could say about it was "This is some unknown person"? The bulk of the album is journalling about the stories that my mom told me about her parents' life in Czechoslovakia, their life here, and her childhood memories. And you know what - I love it!

After I finished my mother's book, I thought I had better do my father's book (who died 9 years prior to my mom). His was much, much easier, because my dad was a historian and his family was already chronicled back to the 1600's! But it was great to be able to add all of the funny stories that I remember about his childhood. I actually found making these two books to be very comforting - it helped me remember who they were, and the experiences that shaped their lives!

(Funny story, but just two months ago, we had to dig out these two scrapbooks because my son had a major history project about his family during the last 2 centuries. One of the sections was to identify one of the most interesting facts that were uncovered during the research. We discovered that my great-great-great-great grandfather played an instrumental part in the War of 1812, and defeated Gen. Zachary Taylor, who would later go on to become President of the United States, while my relative died in obscurity. With all of the documentation that he was able to provide, he got 100% on this project!!)

[happigirlcorgi]

I am reading this thread with interest, as my birth grandmother just passed away yesterday. I have volunteered to put together a scrapbook for her funeral on Saturday, and I spent today scanning old photos and uploading newer ones. It's a little hard to do this for a family I did not grow up with, and have only been reunited with in the past decade.
Thanks for the idea of putting a familty tree in - I was thinking of doing this, along with events that happened the year she was born (1917). I would love to add remembrances from friends and family, but not sure I can get that done in the time frame. I have been copying the Facebook tributes onto MSWord and will add those in as well.

Any other suggestions that I can do in three days would be appreciated!