How cousin are we?

Last weekend we got the chance to go visit Brenda, my husband's 2nd cousin twice removed, whom we found through a series of events that involved also another long lost cousin, Sarah.
We  enjoyed our time so much, getting to know her, her husband and her mom, and scanning so many family pictures!
At the same time, I realized that while we all know we are cousins, and both my husband and Brenda trust me when I tell them they are 2nd cousins twice removed, it really sounds a bit confusing!
It wasn't until my husband told me that he couldn't explain to Brenda's mom how they were related, that I realized I had to make it more visual, and I promised my self and Brenda that I would do it ASAP.
So, this morning I just had to do it.
I started gathering the pictures from each generation, for each of the three lines involving Sarah, Brenda and my husband, then I uploaded them on my publishing account, and I started a new 8.5x11 page project.

Once it was done, I wondered why didn't I think of it sooner!
Each level is a generation, so you can see siblings, then cousins, then 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins and so on. Looks like my children are the farthest in the descendancy line!My husband came home and finally said that he understood the relationship with his long lost cousin, plus I received a great feedback from both of the other cousins, and I know they will enjoy showing it to other  family members on their descendancy line.
It might be interesting to notice that for each line, the cousins that were "starters" in finding each other, are on a different level. Almost as if for each generation there was one appointed to reconnect the family...
I am going to create more version of this"cousin" chart, to include each and every distant cousin we  are so grateful to be connecting to, so that when we will see each other at our family reunion, it will be so much easier to understand and remember how exactly we are related!
I can't wait!

By the way, if there are other descendants of Martin Lorenzo Dow and Julia Judenia White out there, or if anybody in this chart seems familiar, let me know, I am always looking for long lost cousins!

If you would like to learn more about the various degrees of kinship, you can give a look at this entry on the wikipedia

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.