Book Ideas

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Get great ideas for your stories here! (Click for a storybook guide)

Grandparents story                  Vacation
Best friends                             Military
Love story                               Wedding
Pets                                       Adoption
Military                                   Life story

Additional Ideas

Scrapbook copies                   Quiet book
Digital scrapbook                    Dad's desk
Child's illustrated story            Mom's purse

Shelf decoration                      Baby gift
Gift for grandparents                Christmas photos

Preserve family history             Baby's 1st year
Wedding gift                            Father's day gift
Mother's day gift                      Coach gift
Vacation memories                  Baby shower gift certificate

Valentine gift                           Family yearbook
Sports season memories          Wedding sign-in book

Family story                            Funeral sign-in book
Tribute to loved one                  Christmas gift

Family story
LDS missionary
 

Poems and quotes can be a great addition to your story. Here are some great links to quotes, poems, poetry sites and Family History Tips

Quote Garden - Large, searchable compilation of quotations arranged by topic. Inspirational, thought-provoking, humorous, literary, and special occasion quotes

Little Sayings - There are over 4700 + sayings with 176 categories to browse through.

Quotations from Legacy Scrapbooking - quotes for scrapbooking, cardmaking, and storybooking

Sweet Rememberances - Poems organized by theme

Family History Tips - Here are some great ideas for organizing your collection of family history items for use in storybooks.

Bob Wendlinger's Memory Triggering Corner...

50 Questions for family history interviews

Some of you have probably already begun recording your family stories and you may be very organized about it. For the rest of us, here are some ideas, which might work for you.

You may want to start a file for bits of memorabilia (birth or death announcements, letters, postcards, recipes, passports, old graduation certificates, etc.), so that these can be scanned and included in the final product. Don't underestimate the importance of including culinary heritage in your book of family stories. These can provide a wealth of memories and information about life in a particular era.

Photographs: Date each photograph and identify the people in them. If your memory book is going to be produced on a computer, scan the photos or have them scanned at a drug store or copy shop. Give each one a title which will make it easy to locate. This way, they will be preserved and will be ready for incorporating into your book.

You are also going to want to keep track of your ideas. As you get further into the process of recording stories, you will probably find more and more ideas popping into your head. It is helpful for you to keep a book or journal for jotting these down in one place. Another method is to use 3 x 5 cards. You can write each story idea on a card and later sort through them and place them into categories. If you are using a computer, create a special folder and separate sub-folders or files to keep track of your notes. There are many paths to writing your family history and you will doubtless venture down all of them in one way or another.

Keep working with your notes and ideas as they flow. Don't worry too much about the order in which they appear; they can all be organized later when you are in the design process. Before you know it, you will have enough material to fill several books!

Written by Carol M. Upton
From http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-18-2005-67268.asp