All because 2 people fell in love...

I am so grateful for my children, and I love them more than anything. I never cease to be amazed at how these sweet spirits that once weren't here on earth, are now here to bring joy and love in my life...
It is such a miracle!
All because one day (7 years ago) their daddy and I fell in love...
I am here because one day my mom and dad fell in love, and my husband is here because one day his mom and dad fell in love...
Same goes for his parents, grandparents and so on, as far as I know...
While I was reflecting on this simple and at the same time wonderful fact yesterday, I realized I need to make a swatch book to tell exactly how our family tree is a product of Love.
This is what came out of that little inspiration of mine:

 

And I have done the same for our parents and grandparents.

At the end I have put 2 diagrams, one starting from my husband, one starting from me, with our parents, grandparents and great grandparents.

  

And then I listed the dates of marriage of our great grandparents

  

You might have noticed that my diagram is missing  the pictures of 5 of my greatgrandparents...

This is literally killing me, and  I want to take the opportunity to ask, if ever any of the descendants of Giuseppe Bottiglieri and Genoveffa Santoriello from Salerno/Cava de' Tirreni , or the descendants of Antonio Iannone and Francesca Iannone from Mercato San Severino, or the descendants of Antonio Sannazzaro and Margherita Giliberti from Solofra will find themselves reading this blog, and have any family pictures, please, PLEASE, contact me and let me know!

This is the back of my "Family Love Tree" swatchbook:

 

I am probably going to do something like this with a 7x5 Storybook, and then use these kind of diagrams in an ongoing project of mine, a Family history storybook, which will contain much more detailed info about my family's love stories...
Another idea that came to me while creating this swatchbook was to make a huge poster with a family tree where I will then hang a swatchbook for each branch, with the story of their family...
I just can't wait to order this with all the other swatchbooks I am working on, and find it on my doorstep!
This will allow me to have my extended genealogy at hand everywhere I go, since it will be in my bag all the time!
I hope this will inspire some of you to look for the love stories in your family, and honor them by putting them together and preserving them for all the "branches of Love" that will sprout from the main tree...

A family tree worth fighting for

I have been working on this portable family tree magnetic game, and finished it just in time for the 33rd Annual Florida State Genealogical Society Conference.

The family tree mat was created with a 8.5x11 page and the family face pieces using a 5x7 invitation.

I then cropped and glued them on 1 inch wood tassels, completing them by sticking a magnet behind each piece.

As a finishing touch, I applied a shiny layer of a clear gloss medium.

I was doing this while in the hotel room the night before the conference, and could hardly keep my kids away from them while the coating dried.

When they woke up this morning, the first thing they wanted to do was playing with their family tree.

They were still in their pajamas, not even caring about breakfast. They HAD to play...

I had to establish turns, as they started fighting on who was putting this or that picture on the tree.

Little by little, they started putting the faces in the right places.

My heart melted each time they would tell me who that person was, and even more when they got to the point that they would remember and just tell me "this is Nana's mom, my great grandma", "This is nonno Oreste!" and so on.

They didn't like it when I had to take the game to display at the genealogical conference, but I promised them they would play more tonight.

I am thinking to make more copies of this game, maybe personalizing it for each of my children, so there will be no more fighting, and I will be able to just enjoy seeing them playing while impressing the faces and names of their ancestors in their mind, and hopefully their heart too.

Happy Halloween...genealogy style^_^

Well, I thought I would stop by to wish everybody a happy Halloween, and I couldn't help but create a ghost family tree:

By the way, did you know that Halloween means Hallows Eve (the eve before the Day of the Dead, on the 1st of November), and its origins are Celtic?
2,500 years ago the Celtic people from what is now the UK celebrated New Years Eve at the end of the summer, not in December, and for them this day was the 31st of October. For some reason, the Celts thought that on this day the spirits would come out of their tombs and walk the earth. To scare off the spirits, people decorated their houses with bones and other scary objects that would ward off the spirits. 
Nowadays, Halloween is most celebrated in Anglo-saxon cultures where people dress up like monsters and fantasy creatures and do Trick-or-Treating.  Most homes, as you may have noticed, put a Jack-o-lantern outside on the doorstep.
I must say that while I knew about Halloween when I was in Italy, unless you knew some Americans or English people, nobody would celebrate it. The day to put your mask on is  "Carnevale", instead, which comes 40 days before Easter, but I will talk about this when time comes.
It is indeed  incredible how things might change in just a few years though...
From what I have noticed, many people in Italy now celebrate Halloween too.
So, wherever you are, whether you celebrate it or not,

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

It's never too early ...

...or too late to help your children remember each of their family members and how much they mean to them!
I have been pretty sick this week, I still am, but I just couldn't stand not being able to work at any project, so I decided to go for something simple.
I looked in the template gallery, and I found the perfect template for a swatch book for my sweet Luca.
He is 14 months old, and I think he is ready to start learning about his closest family members, both the ones who live here in America and the Italian ones who are living in England.
The template I found  was so perfect I didn't have to change much: it took more time to decide which pictures I wanted to use than to actually create the swatch book!

There are pictures of when he was born, pictures of his mamma and daddy, his brothers, his nana and granddaddy, his great grandparents, his nonna Rita, and also his nonno Oreste, (he will never meet him in this life, but I know he met him before coming here on earth, and he will meet him after this life), and then there are pictures of cousins and aunts.

I am really proud of the final result, and I know I will enjoy countless moments going through this swatch book with my boy, and also having to ask his brothers to bring it back;)
Not to count the fact that I have been able to produce something even if I was so sick I couldn't think!

Thank goodness for templates that help me feel accomplished no matter what!

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A Heritage calendar

As a genealogist, I like to be reminded of my roots in every way, and I do my best to make sure that my family, particularly my children, have the opportunity to think of their ancestors as often as possible.

I had been thinking for quite a while about a Heritage Calendar that would feature specific members of our family tree each month, and for some reason, when I saw the new collections and the new 11x16 size calendar I felt inspired  to finally create it!

Here is my work in progress:

 

The next page will be my husband and I (the parents), then my husband's parents, then mine, and so on, until we reach the 4rth generation, and since there will be some pages left, I will probably make various collages of uncles, aunts and cousins, and the pictures I have that are from the 5th generation and going back. I am going to put some inspirational family quote on each page too.
This way each month we will be focusing on a branch of our family tree.
This will also be the input for another project that I have been procrastinating for too long: A Heritage book, where the story of each member of our family tree will be shared and preserved that we may all remember who we are and who we came from.
I will have to plan some time to start interviewing my husband's parents and grandparents, but then I really need to go back to Italy and talk with the last aunt that I have left on my dad's side, and with my mom's family, because I feel an extreme need to preserve not only the names, but the history of my whole family...
If you are blessed enough to have your family closed, I encourage you to find the time, call them, go visit them, make questions, and start your own Heritage calendar/book.

Artsy Family tree

Do you know what happens when I fall in love with a new collection that contains trees and leaves?
I can't help it but create a family tree at once!
This is exactly what happened with this new Premier collection called "Poetic Garden"
It immediately inspired me to create this Artsy family tree for one of my boys on a 12x12 page!

There are many other beautiful collections that were just added to the already amazing art collections available on the website... I can see more artistic family trees coming!

Stay tuned!^_^

Is your life is worth writing about?

 

This is exactly how I feel!

Every life is worth writing about, especially yours!

You are the only one that can tell your loved ones who you really are.

Your life experiences, your trials, your successes, your mistakes, your challenges and how you dealt with everything  will teach your children, your posterity, and they will gain a greater perspective of not only who you are, but who THEY are.

Your journey to your FAMILY HISTORY preservation starts right here, right now, with YOU.

Genealogy quotes

I have been looking for genealogy quotes lately, and I have found quotes of various kind: funny, sad, morbid, serious...
There are some that have really stuck with me, so I have decided that I will start creating a layout for the ones I like most.
This is the first one I created in a 5x7 postcard format, that can eventually be framed:

How do you like it?
I would like to invite you to send me any kind of genealogy quotes you have, I will read them all, and create layouts out of the ones that inspire me most, or make me laugh most!
Even better, if you have your own free HM publishing account, you can easily create a layout for your favorite genealogy quote and if you like you can send it to me, I will be happy to share it on my blog. It can be anything, a post card, a greeting card, a scrap page, the beginning of a storybook, a poster even a page of calendar, anything you can come up with!
Hmm...It surely would be a great gift for any genealogist if you create a calendar with the best genealogy quotes you can find and embellish it with photos of his/her ancestors!
As you can see, the ideas are endless!

Oh what can you do with a greeting card!

We all know what greeting cards are for, but when you are completely free to design them and to use all the pictures, word, embellishment you feel to use, you start to come up with various ideas, like:

A cute calendar card
You can insert it in one of those double 5x7 acrylic frames and it will be perfect on your desk!

A Timeless birthday calendar card
A favorite or secret recipes card
Perfect to share that special recipe with your dear ones.

A desktop frame card
Perfect to use with one of those acrylic frames you can find in any craft store.

A menu card
Perfect for a wedding, but also for any special occasion. You can make it as simple or as scrappy as you like.

A newsletter card
Your loved ones want to hear from you, and not all of them have emails, or facebook, so you can send a brief newsletter to let them know about your life. You can do it once a year( i.e: Christmas) once a month or any time you feel like it, and you'll see a new habit among all your relative: Greeting card collections (mostly yours!).

A genealogy tree card

A cute simple way to have your 4 generations family tree at a glance.
Even the little ones will enjoy looking at it...
You might want to make more than one copy, as this will be looked at often.

If you want to try any of these ideas and create a greeting card yourself, you are in luck! You can get a free greeting card coupon this month!!! Discover how here!

Stay tuned for more ideas, and don't forget that until September 16 you can take advantage the best deal of the year on HM greeting cards! Check it out!

Hurray for Story Maps!

Ok, so you are so excited and want to start writing a book about your mom, your grandpa, your child or even yourself, but all of a sudden you stop because you don't know where to start and what you should put in the book!
All I have to say is: Thank goodness for Story maps! All you have to do is get up and go interview the person you want to write about using the simple questions and storyline that you will find in each specific story map.
If your loved one is too far away, grab the phone, and call them, with the added bonus of making that person's day because you thought of him/her.
 Our story maps help you plan your storybook from cover to cover. Use our maps as a template and have your "hero" answer the questions provided or create your own questions. You'll find interview questions, photo suggestions, and even writing tips!

Life event stories
Life Story

Love stories
Love Story

Baby stories
Baby Story

Cornerstone
Child
Parent
Grandparent
Family Values
Aren't they awesome? What a great tool to help you in your storybooking endeavors!  
And don't forget that you can always find great ideas on my blog, and I am here to help you preserve your heritage, every step of the way!

Family history desktop calendars

Time is the reason why we have calendars, because we want to know what day it is and have an idea of the days we have ahead of us.
Our ancestors might be from another time, but they still represent TIME, so I thought it would be a nice idea to create a family history calendar. I could use the calendar format, which is great, but some times I like to do something different, so I am thinking of a set 5x7 desktop calendars.
The idea is to have on the front the picture of one of your ancestors with maybe their name and the calendar of the month, and on the back there can be a quote, info on the ancestors, fun facts, and anything that might inspire you.
This is my first attempt at this desktop calendar:













If you like the landscape format, this is a possible layout:


You can make these calendars as simple or as scrappy as you like, and once you have them printed and shipped at your house, all you need is a tabletop frame, one of those acrylic ones will just do, or you can go for something fancier, you choose.
You can also just make these calendars with your children pictures, or even their artwork.
Anything that is connected to your family is part of your family history, so go ahead, express yourself!
I hope I tickled your imagination, you are welcome to share your ideas with a comment.

Creative genealogy

My first passion has always been taking pictures. I wanted to record every moment of my life! When I discovered genealogy, a new world of possibilities opened to me, because I could now document the life of the ones that came before me. Finally I discovered the limitless creative possibilities with Heritage Makers.

Now I am able to merge my passions in what I call creative Genealogy.

I like to show off my ancestors and my actual family through the pages and posters I create, and also I love writing my family history, complementing it with pictures and beautifying it with the amazing embellishments, papers and tools in the Studio 3.0 editor.
Here is a few examples of my "creative genealogy":


Our family genealogy tree with our wedding picture in the middle, our children at the base and our parents and grandparent's pictures.

Here is a portrait genealogy tree I created armed with a lot of patience. I spent quite some time on this tree, copying and pasting a bunch of leaves to create the full tree effect, but I am pretty proud of it. Maybe I will change the trunk, but it gives you the idea.


My husband is so blessed to have many pictures of his ancestors, so I have been able to create this 5 generation page, starting from my son to his great-great grandfather. Isn't it precious?
This is the genealogy 4 generation cheat-sheet foldout I created first for my children, like the one I then perfected for my husband a couple weeks ago.

These are the last pages of a Family faces book I created for my children so that they will know all their family, the ones in USA and the ones in Europe, the ones that preceded us and the ones that are still with us.

Here I just have a composite of the Hall family pictures. can you imagine a 20x24 canvas like this for your own family pictures?

How about a cool family game where each player will have to guess who's the family member in that picture, or answer the questions on the cards? Check the whole deck of cards here.

Well, doesn't family history start from your own family? So here is our family!^_^

More projects in my mind are a calendar with family history pictures, a cookbook with the secret family recipes, a complete family game board with answers to find in a family book, and many more.
Don't worry, I will share them with you as I create them.

Have you been inspired yet? What is your idea of "Creative Genealogy"?

Find more posts about creative genealogy here.

Only a genealogist...

... can understand!
courtesy of Chris Dunham at the Genealogue

I did it!!!

Today is a great day!
I finally was able to complete my husband's 4 generations cheat sheet fold out!
I had started it months ago, but couldn't publish it because I was missing the birth places of 2 of his great grandparents.
I couldn't find the info anywhere on the internet and all the family members I asked knew even less than what I had already been able to find...
Finally I got to meet a side of the family I hadn't met before, my husband's 2nd cousins.
Sadly it was because their mom's journey on earth had come to an end, so we were at her funeral, but I am so glad I got to know them because they are such nice people and I could ask about their grandparent's info.
They couldn't answer me at once, but after a week or so I had the info on their granddad's birthplace(thanks Sue^_^).
I still needed to find their grandmother's birthplace info, and I remembered that once I did see that name on family search even if not connected with her husband. Last night I went to look again and there it was, even if the husband wasn't listed, the parents matched, and the birthday was very close so I came to the conclusion that that was indeed my husband's grandmother and I could enter the birthplace in the genealogy cheat sheet.
Now my work is complete, and I can publish it!!!My husband is going to be so happy!!!!The nice thing is that now all of his sibling have their four generations cheat sheet ready, I will just have to swap my husband's picture with each one of theirs, and change their data!
Gotta Love our online software!^_^

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Time Traveling

Who wouldn't like to go back in time?
So many movies have been filmed about this topic, but do you believe you can travel time?
I do.
I just did it.
I went through old pictures, very old ones, pictures of my children great grandparents, their parents and even their great grandparents...
I looked at their face, their clothes, trying to imagine what they were thinking, and what their life was like 100+ years ago. I need to go talk with my husband's grandma, and ask her about her family, their jobs, what they were like when they were together, and then put a book together so that my kids will be able to travel time again and again even when we won't be around anymore.
Some of them had a few words in the back, and that really made them more precious.
In the meanwhile, I scanned all those pictures, I cannot stand the idea that if something happened to them, there would be no more time travel for my kids, my grand kids, my future generations...
I made various copies to make sure that should something happen to my computer, or my laptop, or my external hard drive, the pictures will still be on another device to make more copies again. This is also going to be my Christmas gift for all the other members of the family (inexpensive but at the same time priceless!), which at the same time will raise the chances to preserve these pictures forever and for many more families to travel time through the pictures of their ancestors.

I love time travel!

I travel time when I put together my storybooks, when I create a family tree poster, when I look at my children's pictures, or my childhood pictures, when I ask questions about my dad, my grandparents to any other family members...
When I write the story behind a picture I am allowing my family and friends to travel time with me at a superior level, because they don't need to guess what that picture was about, when it was taken, what I was thinking: they will know.

Time travel: this is one other reason why I am the Heritage Maker in my home.

Are you traveling time too?

Storybooking: what is this?

Storybooking: You might be reading about it in the newspapers, finding it on the internet, hearing about it on the radio, seeing it talked about on tv, probably heard me talking about it or found it in one of my emails, but what is it and is it something you should know about?

Storybooking is the process of creating your own hardbound or softbound book. Storybooks created through storybooking contain pictures and words. They can contain stories of those who lived before your life, of those who lived during your life, or of something you wish to be in the future, or desire to inspire your children to be. Storybooking is scrapbooking for the digital age but with more options and capabilities.

"Storybooking is the unique process of combining photographs with personalized story text into one or more professionally hardbound storybooks for ages one to 101. What scrapbooking was to the last century, storybooking is to this new century." - Heritage Makers, LLC


Should I Storybook?

Do you have stories you wish you could tell your children? Or grandchildren? Would you like to publish your own children’s book? When your father died did you wish your son could understand how great of a man his grandfather really was? Wouldn’t it be great to read your son’s birth story to him at night before he goes to sleep? Do you want to show your friend the great love the children she teaches have for her?
Would you like to improve your child self esteem presenting with a book about the things he can do, or about how much you love him/her? Does your mom know that you are so grateful for all that she does and has done for you? What do you get your wife to show her how appreciative you are of her? How do you show your husband that the last 50 years have been incredible? Do you have a ton of unprinted digital photographs that may never be seen? There are many experiences you can storybook about. Your memories are so precious, it would be a pity if they were forgotten. You can really love somebody when you know their story.

How Do I Begin Storybooking?

• Think about stories associated with your pictures
• Choose the story/memory you wish to preserve
• If the story is about somebody else, ask questions.
• If you don't know what questions to ask, I can help!
• Find all pictures associated with chosen story
• Scan the pictures wanted if they are not on your computer yet.
• Begin writing story
• Rewrite story as many times as needed
• Follow instructions to have book published


Who Should I use for my Storybooking needs?

•Heritage Makers is currently the best storybooking/publishing company to use for your needs. You can get the help of a Heritage Makers Consultant to publish your works. We walk you through the steps of preparing your book.We help you from the beginning stages to publishing. It is your book so keep it personalized but use the Heritage Makers Consultants as resources as you become an author.

What Resources Are Needed To Storybook?

•A story
•Pictures/Drawings/copies of meaningful documents
•Scanner
•*Digital Camera
•*Photo editing software
•A Heritage Makers Consultant
•Access to the internet
* (Optional tools)


Storybooking Ideas

There are so many different things you can make storybooks about. Stories, experiences, etc. What can you storybook about or for? What recent events have happened in your life?

• Engagement
• Wedding
• Child's Birth Story
• Vacation
• Graduation
• Military Service
• A very special "letter" to your future generations
• Your family's genealogy
• Accomplishments
• Stories Told by Grandma
• Overcoming an Illness
• Valentines Day
• Christmas
• Birthday
• Cookbook
• Anniversary
• Life Story of Loved One
• Friendship
• Mothers Day
• Fathers Day
• Family traditions
• Silly things your kids say
• Educational book with your kids as the "hero" (ABC, colors, numbers...
• Adoption Story
• Sport

The ideas are really endless!

What are you Storybooking about?

Genealogy- my passion

I have a very special love for genealogy. I believe that we owe who we are to our predecessors and by knowing them we will be able to know ourselves more. Creating a family tree poster was just one of the projects I had planned and that finally I was able to create. And now it is even a template in the Heritage Makers website Template Gallery! Check it out!