But I prefer scanning the originals and using the digitized images in my book for several reasons. Traditional scrappers may prefer using the originals and placing them in clear, acid-free memorabilia pockets. Why not just use the originals and make a scrapbook album? That’s a good question. If this is just not affordable or practical for you, take pictures of the photos and ephemera with your camera.Īll this seems like a lot of work. You will be busy enough creating your book. Trust me, it’s much easier to outsource this part so you don’t get bogged down in minutia. Then they’ll send you your digital images on DVD. I like using Scan Digital because they’ll clean them, and hand-correct them using Photoshop to fix fading, minor scratches and those odd blue, red, or yellow color casts old photos can get. You can either scan them at home or outsource to a photo service.

When you have gathered all your photos, clippings, letters, etc. Sort them by family or person, theme or time period, depending on how you plan to make your book. Identify the imagesĪs you begin gathering material, using a photo-safe pen to gently write names, dates and other important details on the back of the images. If your dad or grandfather has a war medal, you could take a photo of it as well. I can take a picture of one of them to include in my book. For instance, my dad’s mother made beautiful quilts. If you have family heirlooms you want to include, you could take photos of the item. For instance, if you have old letters from your grandfather or great grandfather that they wrote home during WWII, you could scan them and include excerpts. Newspaper clippings, family recipes, marriage certificates, school report cards, diplomas, your mom’s kindergarten finger painting, and old letters would all make great additions to your book. Don’t forget pictures of the house your dad grew up in, your grandparents’ wedding photo, family reunion pictures and other important life events. Start by gathering as many old photos and slides as you canĪsk family members to help by contributing their own photos. Here are my suggestions, based on what I learned as I went through the process. Putting together an ancestry book is no easy task, though, and you may feel paralyzed about where to begin. It tells the story of your family in words and pictures, going back as many generations as you wish. Pretty soon there may not be many elders around to explain just who is who in certain photos and reminisce about “the old days.” So I started thinking about making a genealogy photo book, sort of a family tree book.Īlso known as a heritage album, this is essentially a history book of your family. This got me thinking…all these photos just sitting in a box, with family members getting older, memories fading. As I went through them they brought back fond memories of my childhood, and a small amount of horror as I saw a few of my hideous hairdos through the years – pixies and perms? Ugh! I also ran across old wedding photos of my aunt and uncle, pictures of my dad as a kid, others of my grandparents and great aunts and uncles, as well as pics of the many cousins in my large family. With the passing of a beloved aunt a few months ago, I acquired a box of old family photos that she had stashed away.

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