Making an Ancestor Photo Book

One of my big projects this fall was making Bergeson ancestor photo books.  I got the idea from a young man who returned from a mission this summer.  He had served in Taiwan and the mission president had the families of the missionaries make little books for each missionary that showed a picture of their ancestors with their name, their vital statistics, and a brief story about each one.  I decided that I wanted to make one for our missionary son for Christmas.

I had lots of information for my side of the family.  My biggest challenge was finding pictures and stories about my husband's ancestors.  We had NO pictures for any of his grandparents or great-grandparents.  So we asked his parents and they shared what they had.

I made the softcover, small book for my son and mailed it off, then I put together a more permanent photo book.

The front and back covers of the book have pictures of distant ancestors on them.

The last page has our family tree.  I also labeled the pictures on the front and back covers.

I started with an introduction showing a picture of our family plus the two new daughters-in-law that we've gotten since that family picture was taken.

Then I gave a page to each ancestor in the family tree.  I started with my husband and I..., then our parents, and then our grandparents.  On each page, I put the name plus the relationship to the previous generation.  I also put the birth date, marriage date, and death date. That made 14 pages plus the intro and family tree pages.

then our parents, and then our grandparents.  On each page, I put the name plus the relationship to the previous generation.  I also put the birth date, marriage date, and death date. That made 14 pages plus the intro and family tree pages.

Scott's grandmother

This is Scott's birth grandfather.  If he had lived longer, our last name would not be Bergeson but Prentice instead.  I didn't include his adoptive grandfather because we have no pictures and very little information about him.

My maternal grandmother

Next I gave a page for each set of great-grandparents with just their date and place of marriage to give a sense of time.  For those who had left histories, I included a story of their lives.  For those who didn't, we worked with the little bit of information we had. That was 8 more pages.

My great-grandparents from Holland

My great-grandparents from Snowflake

I still had 6 more pages to use so I gave 4 pages to more distant ancestors whom we knew more about and whom we had pictures of.  I got the pictures off of FamilySearch for the most part.

With the last 2 pages, I put pictures of my children and grandchildren and wrote the caption, "What will your story be?"

I gave copies of the book to each of my children this Christmas.  It was pretty affordable using the Costco photo books.  I don't know how my children feel about it, but I'm pleased with how it turned out and I hope that they will be able to share the book with their children and even grandchildren.  My goal was to help my children feel connected to their ancestors by knowing more about them and their stories. Hopefully that will happen as they read it.