After my fiance treated me to an Ancestry membership last Christmas, I began sharing family photos and discoveries with close relatives on Facebook. The experience has been enthralling: we uncovered family stories, unexpected connections, and long-lost relatives who share the same passion for family history.
Creating a family tree scrapbook has turned out to be one of the most rewarding projects I’ve worked on. It combines old photographs, census entries, military records, and official birth, marriage and death details into a visual narrative that keeps family memories alive.
This scrapbook is a present for my mum’s 60th birthday, and I’ve been putting it together for weeks. She’s notoriously difficult to buy for and loves poring over photographs and family stories, so a bespoke family history album felt like the perfect gift.
The project cost very little in monetary terms—mainly paper, glue and a few stationery supplies—and a lot of time and attention. If you’re hesitating about subscribing to a genealogy site, consider that the documents you can download—such as census pages, service records and official certificates—make beautiful framed keepsakes and provide solid material for storytelling.
A huge help has been the distant relatives I connected with through shared ancestry. They sent photographs, newspaper clippings and family memories that filled gaps and confirmed identities. Working together, we assembled a fuller, more accurate picture of our family’s past.
Collecting material for a family tree scrapbook is both investigative and creative. You’ll gather documents and photos, verify names and dates, and then design pages that tell a story. Include captions, short biographies, and context for records so that future family members will understand who appears in each image and why they mattered.
If you want to try a similar project, here are several proven resources and tools that helped me; they are described so you can search and evaluate them yourself:
- FreeBMD – a free database for searching births, marriages and deaths in the UK.
- GRO (General Register Office) – useful for checking details like maiden names before ordering certificates; birth certificates often include addresses and parents’ occupations.
- Ancestry – subscription genealogy service with many downloadable records and the ability to build and share family trees.
- FindMyPast – another genealogy site that holds certain exclusive records; consider staggering free trials between sites to extend your research period.
- Facebook genealogy groups – community groups can help identify photos or suggest search strategies; be polite and specific when asking for help.
- Google – search names, dates and news archives; newspapers and local history sites often reveal surprising details.
- Google Maps and historical map archives – great for locating old addresses and understanding where ancestors lived.
I can’t wait to see my mum’s reaction when I give her the scrapbook this weekend. Beyond the gift itself, the research journey has been deeply rewarding. Every record and photograph adds context and connects people across generations.
Tips for building your scrapbook:
- Start with a simple family chart to map relationships before you design pages.
- Scan photos at high resolution and label them immediately with names, places and dates.
- Print key records—census pages, service documents, certificates—and pair them with personal stories or recollections.
- Use consistent fonts and captions so the book reads like a coherent family narrative.
- Ask relatives for copies of letters, postcards and newspaper clippings to enrich the story.
Things I Used
- A quality scrapbook or album
- Good heavyweight paper and photo-quality paper for prints
- Ink for printing photographs and documents
- Pritt stick or archival-quality adhesive
- A guillotine or precision paper cutter for clean edges
CAN’T MAKE IT NOW? WHY NOT PIN IT FOR LATER?
More Gift Ideas You Might Like
- DIY personalised mugs — simple, thoughtful and custom-made keepsakes that work for many occasions.
- Collecting autographs on a special item makes a memorable present for fans and family alike.
- Personalised chocolate slab gift — a fun, edible present that can be customised with flavours and decorations.