Back in the Saddle: Heritage Album

My poor, neglected scrapbooking projects. We've been busy around here for the past few weeks/months and some things just haven't had the attention they need.

As for the scrapbooking, I vowed this year to catch up on some long-neglected projects, and I have/had been doing pretty well with that. Then I took a break to make two "non-essential" albums which were also on my list, although not as important as my family albums. I considered both of those projects "low-hanging fruit" -- in other words, easy to finish up in a short amount of time. I also knew that completing them would reduce the amount of project-specific clutter which had amassed in my craft room.

Long story short, I did finish those projects (YAY!) but didn't get back to my other projects as planned. (If you're interested in the Harry Potter album or the summer camp album, you'll find them if you scroll back through recent posts.) This past weekend, I finally carved out a day to spend getting back to my heritage album(s). I'd been away from this big project so long that it took me a bit to figure out where I needed to start!

I have a wonderful, wonderful resource in my grandma's genealogy albums, which are now in much better order. I'm making scrapbooks for myself based on the information contained in her albums. I could not do it without her books. I still can't believe how much time and effort she put into them -- and without the aid of the internet!

I had also neglected my family tree on Ancestry, so when I finally got back to it there were many new "clues" to evaluate. I can't tell you how helpful it is to have a family tree to refer to with this type of project. Eventually I'll add the tree to the albums.

 As I've organized Grandma's albums, I've sorted through tons of loose papers. I've run across really valuable information like this narrative compiled by a long-lost family member. There are lots of details in a piece like this which can bring to life an otherwise "dry" family history album.

 

So now I'm at the point with this project where I'm trying to identify the really old photos (pre-1920).

 I have stacks of pictures that haven't yet been identified, but I feel fairly certain that with enough study I can figure out many of them. Every so often, I find a photo with a name or date, and I have used that photo to identify others. I've also been able to identify context clues, such as houses or buildings, which help me connect one photo to others.

 I made quick tabs for each decade to do a rough sort of the pictures that are dated. As I identify/date new ones, they go into the box. This makes it easy to pull out a few for scrapbooking.

 Since I'm using a binder album, I can easily move pages around as needed so I don't have to have all the identification done before making pages. Over the weekend, I finished a few easy pages with portrait or event-specific photos.

 

 

 And now that I'm back into this project, I'll get out the magnifying glass and see how much progress I can make on the not-so easy photos! This is where the real fun begins! :)

It's really good to be back in the saddle again!