Organization: The Second Big Step

Now that you have found out about your family’s history, you are ready to make a scrapbook. A scrapbook is a way to tell a big story about your family. You will attach photographs and documents on each page of your scrapbook that will help you tell this big story. Start sorting the materials you have collected into groups that you will put in your scrapbook. This is the process of organization, and it is the first step of “interpretation” – that is, telling a story.

  • Organization made easy!

    • Write down all you know, or fill out a family history chart

    • Connect each person to a document, photograph and/or story that you have. Write the stories down.

    • Use folders to organize the stuff you found to tell the stories.

  • Here are the five most common items in scrapbooks:

    • old photographs of ancestors

    • new photographs of family members

    • newspaper clippings

    • marriage certificates

    • awards

Can you think of other items you can place in a family history scrapbook?