Many of us look to scrapbooking as a way to preserve treasured family moments for future generations to enjoy and learn a little about who we are.
How to start creating your own Heritage Album though? What are some of the things you need to create interesting and memorable scrap pages to hand down to your children and grandchildren?
Hopefully these tips will lead you in the right direction and get you started.
Photos – We’re living in the best time for memory keeping and archiving treasured photos that have been passed on through the generations. If you have photos that are scarred, slightly torn or faded you are able to scan them into your computer and use photo editing tools to bring your images back to new. We’re also able to transfer 8mm film and original negatives into digital images giving us greater access to vision that may otherwise be lost to the ages. And having a digital copy on file is also nice. 🙂
Start raiding all the boxes, photo albums and slide albums you can lay your hands on; ask relatives for copies of photos they have available to build up a more comprehensive collection of images to work with. Once you’ve gathered as many photos as you can, you’ll want to start organising them into some order. Some ideas for this by year, family weddings, christenings, funerals (yes, we’ve got some photos from funerals in our Clan), school photos, name, places/locations and homes. It’s really what works best for you. This will also give you an idea on some of the themes you may choose for different pages.
Family Memorabilia – Having access to letters, Service Records, Marriage and Birth Certificates, School Reports, Newspaper Clippings, hair clippings all adds to the interest and historical information within your Album. Ensure any records are either scanned and printed on Acid Free Paper or store in Acid Free Pockets to ensure no further damage is done to either your memorabilia or photos.
Look through local libraries for historical documents that you can copy if you’re unsure if there are any family documents you can access. There’s a great site (Trove) in Australia for looking up online historical newspapers from across the country dating back to the 1800’s in some cases. Have a look at what else is available at Trove and other online genealogy research sites. You never know what you may find.
Interview Family Members – How many times have you wondered what your Mum or Dad was like as a child? Or what was the family favourite recipe that Gran could make like no other and won awards at the local shows for? Adding these little touches to your Album in the form of journals enriches your Album to no end. If you’re like me and blessed with a number of family members to ask and interview, go for it! If not, this is another great reason to search local archives and newspapers for any snippets on your family. Who knows what you may find!
Once you’ve done these, you can start planning the creation of your Album.
I’ll give some suggestions on how to do this in Part 2. 🙂
Are there family stories you’d love to record in your own Album? Or, have you done a Heritage Album previously? If you have, what tips do you suggest?
Till Part 2…xxx
CraftyCAN 