30/12/2016
Step One:
To start your family book look for images that are part of your families history. Because you have internet you will be able to go anywhere in the world and find these. Also Ancestry, Family search, or find a grave are great resources Such as; Maps, images of the area, photos of homes, graves and other digital artifacts. Take photos with your cell phones and start collecting. I will be giving examples throughout the tutorials!
Step Two: Start collecting all the family images from the time period you are creating, such as: 1800-1850. Make sure you have names and dates on the photos if not ask family members that will remember when and where they were taken. Collect backgrounds you like such as photos you have taken of sunsets, flowers, grass, leaves or images around town. Look though old images and collect them in zip lock baggies with names of families.
Step Three: As you start to gather images for backgrounds.. look for ones that will enhance your page. Remember choose your layout. If you are going with 5x7 8x10, 10x8, 10x10, 11x12 or whatever you are printing out on. Here is a example of what you can do.
Step four: Start with just one person or family at a time.
You can scan in images and put them in file folders according to which family member they go with. Remember name them right away. My idea is 01_Bob baby. 02_Bob 2, 03_Bob 6 and so on. It gets very confusing. I started with 13 family files with sorting all images that went into each one. Then started with names and ages or years.
Go slow. This is a great undertaking. If you need help or suggestions along the way don't hesitate to post your challenges.
It may take weeks or months to collect them into zip lock baggies or files. Don't stress just do a little every day.
Remember it is just fun to see old photos and reminisce. You will want a paper and pencil or post it notes handy, write down stories that the photo reminds you of, these will go into your pages. Label on the back of the photos names and years.
Stories will come and you will forget if you don't type or write them down right then. Then work on dates and names. If it is too much. Put it away and come back later.
Collect into files or zip lock baggies, images background, photos, stories, cards, death cert., birth cert., birth announcements, and anything that pertains to the family. Let me know when you are ready for more information
