Creating a Family Heritage Tribute Book- your grandparents deserve to be remembered!

Have you seen the new show on ABC "Who do you think your are?" where tv stars trace their family history. It is an amazing show where they have found ancestors dating back to the holocaust, the salem witch trials, the Civil War and slavory. It made me start thinking about my own heritage and to get back into searching the stories that make up my family.

I had the great opportunity before my grandmother passed away to sit down with her and ask her questions about her childhood, marrying my grandfather, and her kids. I discovered in that conversation that she actually went on a date with my grandfather's best friend only to discover that she liked my grandfather instead. One of her first jobs was candling eggs, and her two brothers died in their early 20's.  

I thought what better way to preserve my  heritage than to make a tribute book about my grandparents and their  history. I think it is so important for my kids to know where they came from and who their ancestors where. So in my research on Ancestry.com I continued adding names and the family tree just kept growing. I am amazed at the amount of information that is out there. I now know about my great great grandfather who fought in the Civil War and was injured and had to fight for his pension. I have traced one side of the family all the way back to the 1600's and even an ancestor that came over on the Mayflower.

With a new feature on Ancestry.com you can even check to see if you are related to anyone famous. The key is to get your family tree back to around the 1600's. Davey Crockett, John Hancock, John Wayne and Mary Todd Lincoln are a few of the famous names I have found that I am related to. How cool is that and  how cool is it going to be for me to make a tribute book for my kids and include this information with it.

So my point is if you have grandparents, great grandparents or parents and you have not ever asked them questions about their childhood, life etc. even if you don't ever do anything with it- sit them down and interview them. They say when someone dies it is like a library burning down- you will never get that information back. Heritage Makers makes it easy for you to get your book started and organized with the use of story maps. Story maps will help guide you as you write and preserve your most precious memories. It has the questions for you and an example of how to put a book together. As you combine stories and photos you’ll create a valuable treasure that can be shared for many years to come.click here for story maps

The cover of my book

To see my Heritage Tribute Album (a work in progress) you can click here to view it. Remember it is a template and I am just adding my own information and customizing it to make it my own. I can't wait to present this in July at our Family Reunion.