Documenting the Family Tree

 On this one I used a composition book, pulled out a lot of pages and made a family history book using ancestry.com where I've stored my family tree for several years now, a software called Family Tree Maker that keeps my records on my computer and with Ancestry up to date and mirrored. 

I also used a paper pack I bought from etsy from a designer and lightened them considerably for my use. I combined those digital papers with my scrapbooking papers (remember I'm trying to use them up) to make this book.

I had to document the five main branches of my family. I blurred out personal info, names and some pictures of the living and pictures I don't have permission to publish. 

Most of the pictures were mine so I didn't blur those out. I used the house and tree pictures to make a smaller half page background and front covers for the documented ancestry trees. I also made little pockets in the pages to hold copies of documents. And I put pictures of the houses of each family in their section.

I think people that live in houses have attachments to those houses so I used houses and trees as my theme with a brown, tan, black and gray color scheme. It looks good with b & w and color photos and gorgeous with sepia and tin type photos too.

This took me a long time to decorate and gather the info but all my family tree has been worked on now for over ten years so I didn't have to gather all that together, just print out the tree diagrams I wanted to use.

I also burned the family .ged file, dna info, all my pictures, documentation, research and all other information on to dvd to fit into the front of the book in case someone else down the line might want to expand on it. Each section has their own family tree pullout so you can match up the names with the place in the tree and see where they fit into the family.

I also backed it up on a zip strip aka thumb drive. I learned a lot being a web designer and developer all those years about backups. 

I also printed extra tabs, papers and left blank pages for someone to add their branch to the book if they should so desire in the future.

I'm not aware that anyone else in my family is even interested in being the next family historian but it's all there in case one comes along down the line. 

I never had an interest in history in school but it's different when you do something personal about your own family. When I started my family tree years ago, I never thought I would trace my maternal grandmother's side back to Denmark in the time of princesses, Queens and Kings. I traced my husband's family back to 16th century Scotland. I never thought I would discover the connection my Van Hoose ancestors had with Daniel Boone's family and how they helped to settle the Appalachian trail. And I never thought I would discover notes on death certificates that gave me insight into their lifestyles and habits, some good and some very bad.

I never thought I would locate pictures of people that looked like me through dna matches and houses still standing I could locate on census records where my grandparents lived way before I was born.

What sparked my fire years ago was when my grandmother died and my uncle found a huge box of photographs in her closet and almost all of the people in the photos were not recognized by anyone still living. Nobody knew who they were.

I thought at the time that it would have been wonderful to hear stories about all those people and know something about them and how they were connected to our family but unfortunately all that information and all those wonderful stories were lost forever. What a shame. So I decided to not let that happen again. Always label the back of your photos people! In three generations or less you will become unknown by your descendants. Who is going to tell all your wonderful life stories? Without documentation, you are just a memory to those closest to you and all your goodness and maybe a little badness will be lost.

I've digitized all my photos and named them in this book. So here's hoping my descendants will spring forth with a good detective or family historian in the future who will want to add to it. 

I never thought I would get this involved with the family history but I can honestly say after working on it all these years that I did my part to keep it alive. I published my first family tree in 2009. This book didn't happen overnight. It's up to them to keep it going.