Summer Dreaming, Summer Exploring at Americas Footprints

My latest blog is up at Americas Footprints.  It is on activities you should try over the summer.  Below is a glimpse, but check the full article out here.

The summer travel season is upon us. Do you have plans yet? I know I made plans months ago and can't wait to get going, and doing, all the things I want to!

Whether you are planning a large trip or having a stay-cation make sure you take the time to explore your family roots too. Here are 5 ways to squeeze some family history fun into your summer time downtime.

1. Create a photo collage from summers past.

2. Take a virtual trip through your ancestral towns

3. Make ancestor trading cards for the younger (or young at heart) generations in your life

4. Take the time to write about your heirlooms so others will know where they came from

5. Document your life, since you are the absolute best person to do that

I hope you get out there and make the most of the next few months by trying a few!

Press Release: New Activity Book Series from Janet Hovorka

Zap The Grandma Gap and its companion workbook are wonderful resources for families trying to connect the generations through family history projects.  I have reviewed the book here and on the In-Depth Genealogist.  Plus a review of the workbook will be released later this month on the In-Depth Genealogist blog.  Hope you enjoy them as much as I did! 

Look out for reviews of the new books in the next few months too. This series sounds like it is going to be amazing books as well.

New Activity Book Series Brings Youthful Fun To Family History

Cedar Hills, UT – November 6^th, 2013 –

Studies have shown that greater knowledge about family history especially strengthens and empowers youth by creating self-esteem, resilience and a greater sense of control over their lives.  Learning about the family’s past also strengthens the relationships between living family members by creating a shared experience and core identity that no one else in the world can duplicate. 

To help families achieve these great benefits authors Janet Hovorka and Amy Slade have developed a new series of “Zap The Grandma Gap--My Ancestor” activity books.  The first four books, My British Ancestor, My Civil War Ancestor, My Swedish Ancestor and My German Ancestor are 52 page activity books designed for 6-14 year olds with puzzles, activities, games and recipes combined with questions and learning opportunities about specific ancestors and the culture that surrounded them.  Timelines, paper dolls, coloring pages, maps, fairy tales, music, dot to dots and crossword puzzles combine to give youth the full picture of what their ancestors’ lives were like.  When pre-ordered now, the books will arrive in time to prompt questions around the Thanksgiving table.  Or they can become the perfect Christmas gift for children and grandchildren that will create stronger bonds in modern families by encouraging the whole family to learn about their ancestors together.  Sample pages from the books can be viewed on the website and blog at ZapTheGrandmaGap.com where they join other online and print resources to help families connect to each other by connecting to their past.   

With the My British Ancestor Activity Book youth can:

•  Discover online and offline resources for finding more information about your British roots
• Compare British Schools to today’s schools
• Solve puzzles about different British homes
• Complete a crossword puzzle about British words your ancestors used
• Learn about and participate in a British holiday
• Plan a proper British family history tea party
• Play British games your ancestors may have played
• And explore many other activities

With the My German Ancestor Activity Book youth can:

•  Record how you are related to your German ancestor
• Try some German recipes
• Read a German Fairy Tale your ancestors might have known.
• Color and cut out German paper dolls to tell the stories of your ancestors
• Collect documents about your German ancestor’s life
• Make a Schultute School Bag like your ancestors may have received for school.
• Explore some of the qualities you share with your German Ancestor
• And explore many other activities

With the My Civil War Ancestor Activity Book youth can:

•  Discover online and offline resources for finding more information about your Civil War ancestors
• Follow a dot to dot about an important Civil War landmark
• Try some of the food eaten by the Civil War soldiers
• Learn some Civil War songs and bugle calls
• Create a military band with homemade instruments
• Record the battles in which your ancestors were involved
• Write a eulogy for your Civil War ancestor
• And explore many other activities

With the My Swedish Ancestor Activity Book youth can:

• Place your Swedish ancestor in the context of broader Swedish history
• Complete a crossword puzzle about Swedish words your ancestors used
• Learn about and create items for a Swedish holiday
• Color and cut out Swedish paper dolls to tell the stories of your ancestors
• Write a letter to your Swedish ancestor
• Design and color a drawing of a Dala horse such as your ancestor might have played with
• Involve your whole family in the fun of learning about your Swedish ancestors
• And explore many other activities

The “My Ancestor” activity books are designed to give kids ownership of their own family history.  “These books help young kids take the lead in learning about their family history for themselves,” says Hovorka.  “As they accomplish the activities together with the help of their parents and grandparents, they strengthen modern family bonds while they are strengthening their identity with the past.”  Parents and grandparents who teach children who they are and where they came from give youth a secure identity from which to draw courage as they encounter the challenges in their lives. 

The authors, sisters Janet Hovorka and Amy Slade grew up in a family history oriented home, but didn’t realize how much they were learning about their family history until later in life.   Throughout Janet’s 12 years as a popular genealogy speaker, co-owner of a family history company, genealogy instructor at SLCC, and as past president of the Utah Genealogical Association, she has witnessed over and over again how family history can heal the relationships in a family.  Her books Zap The Grandma Gap: Connect To Your Family By Connecting Them To Their Family History, and Zap The Grandma Gap Power Up Workbook have helped families connect with their roots through the real life examples drawn from Janet’s own experiences with her teenage children.   Over the last 8 years, Amy has traveled studying folklore, dance and food and culture around the world and recently received her Masters Degree in Folklore from George Mason University.  Together, they are living proof that exploring your family history helps strengthen relationships with living family members.

My German Ancestor (ISBN 978-09888-548-5-7), My Swedish Ancestor (ISBN 978-09888-548-4-0) My Civil War Ancestor (ISBN 978-09888548-3-3) and My British Ancestor (ISBN 978-09888-548-2-6), (Family ChartMasters Press, $9.95, 52 pages, 8.5x11, paperback) are available for pre-order at zapthegrandmagap.com.

Nearing the finish line on the cookbook

Progress on the cookbook was the name of the game last week.  There was organizing, sorting, formatting, and all those sorts those types of things.  You know all the things that are not really fun but have to be done so you have a great family heirloom. 

Image from the Library of Congress

I also learned the major drawback to creating a family cookbook.  You are always hungry and want to make all the recipes that you read.  Wow!  There are some really, really yummy sounding ones in there.  I can’t believe that a lot of them I have never heard of and they supposedly from my great grandparents.  The only thing I can think of is that my mom’s family didn’t like them for some reason so grandma didn’t make it.

However, I do wish I had more pictures for the book.  So far it is illustrated with clip art since I don’t have many pictures of the larger family group.  The plea has gone out for pictures, and I hope that they start rolling in soon.  Any day now would be great…

Oh, and stories.  Several people sent in stories about the recipes or other remembrances about their parents and grandparents.  I have learned a lot about the family from them.  Which lead me to also put out a call for more of these to give flavor to the book.  I am waiting, impatiently for those too.

My parents are coming up this week with several cookbooks.  Grandma bought them from organizations as fundraisers over the years.  Dad told me that there are several entries in the books from family.  Even though I have about 20 recipes right now, I think a few more that are not desserts or meat courses would be a good thing.  My family sure has a sweet tooth.

Deadline for completion of the cookbook is the end of the week.  Fingers crossed that I can make it.  If you are interested in creating your family cookbook I suggest you check out these links to get you started!

eHow : How to Make a Cookbook

grandparents.com : Make Your Own Heirloom Cookbook

Mixblog: 10 Ideas for Creating a Collaborative Family Cookbook 

There are also a ton of websites that will help you design, print, and publish your cookbook.  Just Google "make family cookbook" and stand back. I personally am working on mine with MS Publisher and then I am either going to take it to a copy store to print or I am thinking about using Blurb.  When I get to that point, I will let you know what I decide.

Family history sharing idea

For the last several months my boys have been asking me more and more questions about my childhood.  Those questions have now evolved into asking questions about their grandparents childhoods.  I can answer some of those questions, as they have been told to me at one time or another, but not all of them.  This has lead me to think about ways to extract these stories from my parents and in-laws.  Now how to do it in a creative, non-threatening way, and get the kids involved too?

I am going to make a fill in book for them.

The boys have some very specific questions they are interested in knowing, and I have some things  I would like answered too.  The question is:  do I give them a nice already bound book with a letter, or do I create a book for them with the questions bound inside?  I am hoping to have these put together by the end of the month.

Why the end of the month?  This is my non-traditional version of the Family History Writing Challenge for the month of February.  I don't have enough information / research on our families to write a good narative (in my oppinion) so I looked to creative ways to write something and get my feet wet in the process.  The people who are writing full chapters for books have left me in awe.

Today is day 6 of the challenge.  I have written the introduction, the Title page, and started the list of questions.  In addition to this, I am answering the questions the boys have given me too.  This way there will be a book about me as well.  Next step is to get my husband involved (hi honey!) as that is only fair.

*Image: aepoc via photopin cc

Making a Family Tree as a gift

I never dreamed that so many people would be interested in learning how I made my family tree gifts for the family.  Due to the interest it was suggested that I share how I did it with all of you. Hope you enjoy, and I would love to hear about how your projects turn out.

In preparing for this project I went out on line and looked at a lot of different how-to sites on making family trees.  I really enjoyed the ones I found at Martha Stewart.  This one is the tree I based my idea on.  If you Google "making family trees" you will see a lot of different sites that you may get inspired by too.

Below is the description of how I made my trees.  Creativity comes from within yourself, so never feel that you have to do things exactly the way someone else did them.  Make these your own, express yourself, and show your family flavor through your creation.  Most of all… have fun!

Materials:

·        Off white paper for background, I liked a textured artist’s paper I found
·        Brown textured artists paper for tree
·        Pedigree chart with the information you want to include on your tree
·        Clear glue
·        Ribbon glue
·        Ribbon, at least 1 ½” wide
·        Self-stick letters
·        Clear mailing labels
·        Place cards / card stock squares
·        Tree template/stencil
·        Decorations:  I went to several craft stores and searched the scrap book aisles for tree/nature items such as birds, leaves, flowers, animals and etc.

Directions:
·        Depending on how much information you want to include on your tree will depend on the size of mailing labels you will need to use.  Since I only used names, clear return address labels were the correct size for me.  I printed these from my computer in dark green using a cursive style font.
·        With an overhead projector I enlarged the tree stencil to the size I wanted, sketched it onto the brown paper, cut it out, and then glued it to the background paper.
·        Using the mailing labels, create your tree.  I placed the “main person” on a white place card on the trunk of the tree to set it off.  Going up the left side I put the paternal line and the going up the right side the maternal line.  Along the bottom were their children and grandchildren making up the “roots” of the tree. 
·        Each family tree was unique, and the decorations were picked to match the personalities (and house decor) of the family receiving it.  The decorations were placed on the tree around the names to help set them off, and to fill white space.  My mother-in-law’s tree was blue metallic cut outs of flowers, bees, birds, dragonflies, and leaves.  For my father-in-law I used a fall theme of rich oranges and red with maple leaves, pumpkins, squirrels, and a rake.  The last one was for my parents; I know my dad loves dogwood trees and my mom spring flowers.  Their tree was made with 3D items that were dogwood flowers, lilies of the valley (my favorite flower), and daffodils. 
·        The title ribbon was made using a brown organza ribbon that had a satin border.  Using self-stick letters I created the titles for the tree on the ribbon.  With ribbon glue (glue that when dry will not show on the ribbon like regular glue) I bent them into a banner shape and cut the ends into pretty points.  When dry it was glued onto the background.
·        Finally I signed the pictures with the date they were created.
·        The frames I used were bought at a local craft shop, but if you have the time (unlike me) to wait for custom framing you can have a mat put on as well for more pizazz. 

Family Tree Firsts Post 4

Last night my 4th post through Family Tree Firsts was published.  Wow...what a response to it.  I already mentioned in a previous post some of the items that I discovered while on vacation.  When I am recovered from being ill, and the trip, I will start cataloging what I brought back.

There will also be a follow up post on how I made the family trees.  The one time I don't take step-by-step pictures and I get asked to write a how-to article.  I think my lesson has been learned on that subject!

New Year goodies

You may have noticed the badge on the page.  This is a series that I am going to be participating in for the next year called "52 weeks of Abundant Genealogy".  The idea comes from AmyCoffin of The We Tree Genealogy Blog, and is the 4^th set of yearly blogging prompts she has done.  Way cool!

It is my hope that this will keep me going here.  At least there will be one post a week for sure for the next year!  Over the last week I have also been looking at the daily blogging prompts from Geneabloggers.  At least now I know if I run into a brick wall on what to write I can always go out there and get an idea from a creative person.

Looking up blogging prompts was only the tip of the genealogical iceberg from the holiday.  Mom and I got through 1 of the 3 Rubbermaid boxes that I packed for her from her mom’s house.  There were some mighty awesome things in there.  Including a WWII ration book with stamps still in it!  Hubby had a good time educating the boys on what rationing was.  Lots of pictures, very few labeled…kills me every time.  Also, much to the amusement of my mom, report cards from when my grandparents were in high school.  You should have heard her talk about her dad’s grades…something like “I got in trouble for better grades than that!”

In addition to that I also spent a day, yes a whole day, scanning in photos and documents.  Mostly from my mother in law, but I got quite a few of my parents images as well.  200 scanned images in total, which means I am going to be very busy for a while.  Be on the lookout for those images to come up in future posts!

=>  After I posted this I found another set of prompts...adding to the list as we speak.  This is from Olive Tree Genealogy Blog, by Lorine McGinnis Schulze.  Called "Sharing Memories" and looks very good.

*Image from the Library of Congress, What shall I write to Grandpa