Scrapping Your Heritage

[Susan - s3js]

I think we all have a common goal in scrapbooking and that is chronicling our families' daily lives, yes? I love doing that. But have you ever thought about what happens with all our scrapbooks, albums and Digital files when we're all long gone? Hopefully, someone picks them up and discovers a relative they never knew and gets to know one of us through our work. Each time we scrap about our daily lives, we create a heritage page for the future, just as we create a heritage page every time we scrap all those old photos we find in shoe boxes and envelopes in the darkest recesses of closets, basements, and attics.

I haven't printed my pages yet. I have well over 1000 so the cost is quite high. I HAVE made a couple of 20-page Shutterfly books as gifts that have mysteriously disappeared. I have the original files, though, and I have organized ALL my digital files into appropriate files. My boys love them, so I know they will share them with their children.

But you know what? I run out of ideas and inspiration and I hit brick walls in my research. How to fix that? For inspiration, I love to look at the pages that are posted in our Scrapbook Genealogy forum. Eva @tanteva has amazing stories that go WAAYY back in time of her family's history. Kay @BrightEyes gives us incredible, often minimalist, pages that show her love of family past and present. Horror of horrors, I sometimes find I've worked hard on a really large family in my genealogy program that turns out to not be mine! Or I'm looking for a better way to do things. We can discuss those kinds of things there. It's a great place for a beginner to start, too, and maybe sharing our experiences will help save the heartache of losing hours and days of research because someone just didn't know about the pitfalls.

Are there any of you that have looked into the Scrapbook Genealogy forum and not found what you were looking for? I'd love to know that and what you've found lacking. Sometimes we just need a nudge to get us going or to be pointed in the right direction. Come join us.

 

[tanteva]

I love the fact that I live in Sweden, and have most of my heritage here. Our public records started back in the 1600s (and if you're lucky you can go even further back. e.g. if you have priest or noble men in your lineage). All records are open and free (if they are older than 70 year) and are kept in archives that are free to visit. We pay to get access to them on-line via a company that photographs the books, but much of it can be viewed on a free page (but with micro film - hate those, so hard read). If there's no major hiccups (like unknown fathers, or people move around a lot or fires), every Swede could easily go back and track their ancestors to early 1700s.

Depending on the clergy (some where less meticulous than others), books where kept on a monthly basis, of each and everyone. Records where kept on new babies arriving, deaths, marriages, people moving, how good people were on visiting the church and knowledge of the faith, and everything you can think of. And on top of this, all legal documentations are basically all available too.

 

[Susan - s3js]

I love the fact that I live in Sweden, and have most of my heritage here. Our public records started back in the 1600s (and if you're lucky you can go even further back. e.g. if you have priest or noble men in your lineage). All records are open and free (if they are older than 70 year) and are kept in archives that are free to visit. We pay to get access to them on-line via a company that photographs the books, but much of it can be viewed on a free page (but with micro film - hate those, so hard read). If there's no major hiccups (like unknown fathers, or people move around a lot or fires), every Swede could easily go back and track their ancestors to early 1700s.

Depending on the clergy (some where less meticulous than others), books where kept on a monthly basis, of each and everyone. Records where kept on new babies arriving, deaths, marriages, people moving, how good people were on visiting the church and knowledge of the faith, and everything you can think of. And on top of this, all legal documentations are basically all available too.

I am so envious, Eva! We have decent records here but much damage by fire - and it can be a trip of thousands of miles to visit an archive. Sadly, not all are free but you can often get around that. I love Family Search for this! Some of the records go back as far as the 1600s but that is where our history really begins except for those that are Native American and that is mostly oral until the 1800s. Still, it's lots of fun to play with my ancestors!

 

[Buddy the O' Elf]

How do I scrap my heritage when the elves don't have any historical books!! It must be so fun to learn about your ancestors!! All I know is that they all came from the North Pole.

 

[Susan - s3js]

How do I scrap my heritage when the elves don't have any historical books!! It must be so fun to learn about your ancestors!! All I know is that they all came from the North Pole.

Oh, I think you have a VERY long history and many books. Seems to me there was that elf named Bernard....