January Project~Organize Your Family

January is the month I've always liked to work on family history. 
I've been working on my family tree, off and on, since the late 1990s, and most of my research is pretty much finished, but I still like to look through old photos and letters, remembering each of my family members.

photo source


Organizing your family history is a good cold weather, stay in the house, project. And, it can be great fun for the kids. There are even free Disney family tree templates for them to fill in with information they've collected.
Family tree charts make nice free gifts for kids to give to aunts, uncles or grandparents, too.
I'll list some sources for templates and research tips, at the end of this post. 

A good place to start your project is by talking to parents, grandparents, or great grandparents. They can be a wealth of family information and stories...I like the stories best.

If you don't have the time for a lot of research, a little project is to get out the family photos, and write on the back, the names of the people in the photo, and the date, or occasion it was taken...if you know it.  
Let's see...who is the couple in the photo above, and what were they doing? If it's your mom and dad on their wedding day, write their names, not "Mom and Dad" and the date of the wedding, if you know it. 

If the photo is original or a tin type, you might like to make copies of it, and write the names on the copies. 
Of course, this family history project can be as simple as sorting through and labeling photos, or a full genealogy search. 

If you haven't "organized" you family, I hope you'll have fun looking at old photos and talking to loved ones.

Yes, and all the photos are of our family, and have the names and dates on the back. :)

Here are just a few sources:
Family tree templates

Disney family tree templates for kids

Cyndi's List~ free printable charts and forms

Getting Started...great tips 

Twenty Five Best Genealogy Websites for Beginners
Some of these are free ,and some require a fee to use their search program.

Happy organizing,
xo Babs

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