2012 Heritage Calendar

October is Family History month, and I am always looking for ways to help others(and myself) remember to put down their memories and/or find the stories about their family.
I talked about my idea for a Heritage calendar long time ago, but since I am creating a new one for 2012, I wanted to share this version with you.
The cover was inspired by my very colorful Family Tree:

The idea of the calendar is to inspire me to focus on collecting information about a specific couple or generation each month, so that by the end of the year there should be enough material to put together a 4 generations Family History Book.
On January I have all my children, which, by the way, on the cover are in the watering can as a symbol of their ability to give new life to the Family tree.

 February is for me and my husband (perfect, right?;).

 March is for their paternal grandparents.

 April for their  maternal grandparents.

May for their paternal great grandparents on their granddaddy's side.
June for their paternal great grandparents on their Nana's side.
July is for their maternal great grandparents on their nonno's side.
August is for their maternal great grandparents on their nonna's side.
The remaining months can be used to either display the 2nd great grandparents( 4 for each month), or to focus on uncle aunts and cousins (i.e.: September for uncle and aunts on dads side, October for uncle and aunts on mom's side, November for cousins on dad's side, December for cousins on mom's side.).

Once 2012 will be gone by, this calendar can be recycled by framing the picture part of each month  and hanging them on a special Heritage wall in your home. I would put the family tree(trim the bottom, where it has the title of the calendar)

in the center, the pages about the kids on the bottom with their parents on the side, maybe uncles and aunts and cousins further down and grand parents and great grandparents on the top, in a family tree manner. If you like you can purchase one of those cute vinyl wall family trees that you can find online, or if you feel up to it, you can paint your very own.

So, start creating this calendar, and even if you don't have all the pictures, that shouldn't stop you, it just means that this is a incentive for you to actually look for those pictures during 2012!

This calendar could be another way to entice your family members, whether their are immediate or long lost cousins, to share the info and picture that they have with you.
Who wouldn't want to be part of such a cute calendar and of a possibly even cuter Family History book?
It would also be a beautiful Christmas gift, especially for family members that don't really use the internet, to share your passion with them, and why not, plant the "genealogy seed" in their heart!

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