Mapping your Family History



I have blogged before about how you can use maps when scrapbooking your family history. I love the idea of documenting places, and events on a map instead of just listing where something took place. Recently, I came across this tutorial on how to make a map out of scrapbooking supplies for your scrapbooking layouts. Genius right? I just love her use of the fun bright colors, and little circle pictures to mark a trip, or event on her map. It gave me some ideas of how you can incorporate a project like this with family history as well.

First, consider doing a map like this for documenting a year in your own family’s life right now. Just like she has done, you can document places you visited on the map. This may work only if you’ve had a particularly busy travel year, but it still might be a fun way to document your travels for future generations to see.

Another idea, would be to document family members and where they live in the country. I know that my family is very spread out. Just in my immediate family, my 3 siblings and I live in 3 different states, while my parents live in another. This doesn’t even include grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles that are also all spread out across the country. I suspect that our family is not alone in being scattered far and wide. It seems to be the way life is these days. So, if you have a family spread out all over, consider making a map of where your family is currently. Some of your circles could be pictures of these family members, and you could also make smaller circles including facts like what city they live in, how many kids a family member might have, or other important things about their location.

The possibilities of using these kinds of maps in your heritage scrapbooking are endless. Especially when you consider family history! Consider yet a third option of scrapbooking a map of the country that your ancestors originate from. You could include cities that various relatives lived in, and if possible, include their vital record information on circles along with photos of your ancestors, if possible. This could also be a great way to show your children on a map where their ancestors lived and teach them a little geography at the same time!

I can’t wait to make one of these maps myself. It is just deciding what I want to put on that map that is the hard part!

Meredith Ethington is the author of this blog. To learn more about Meredith, and her history with Scrapbooking and Genealogy, go here.

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