Archive for the ‘genealogy’ Tag
It’s in the telling.
Family heirlooms are valuable because the family thinks they are valuable. The value is generally not measured in dollars and cents … the value is measured in feelings. In remembering. In hearing the story, and telling the story, and then hearing it again.
The family is a part of the story, you see, so the sense of belonging, of support, of family is created, enhanced, and increased through the story.
Most families do not have earthly riches, but all families can have family heirlooms that grow in value over the generations as the story is told. And re-told.
Here’s the story of our rocking chair.
Edna Mildred Lee Boring was born March 14, 1895 near Maitland, MO. She was the daughter of Norman Ernest Boring and Frances Emaline Miles Boring, and, importantly, the first granddaughter of Alban and Elizabeth Piles Boring. Six more grandchildren followed: Cecil (1897), an infant that died unnamed (1899), my Grandmother, Juanita (1900), Joe (1902), Lena (1907) and Lucy (1913).
Alban Boring holding his son Norman Ernest Boring. Circa 1878.
Elizabeth Piles Boring, circa 1920.
Norman Ernest Boring & Frances Emaline Miles, in their wedding photo. 1893.
Norman Ernest Boring
Cecil Alban Boring and Edna Mildred Lee Boring. Circa 1899. This is not the chair, and I have no idea what they are wearing!.
Edna Mildred Lee Boring and Cecil Alban Boring, circa 1899. Still not the chair!
Juanita Elizabeth Boring, my grandmother, would have been the third Boring grandchild to have used the rocking chair. And, no, this is not the chair. 1901.
Upon the occasion of their first Grandchild’s first Christmas (1895), Alban and Elizabeth Piles Boring bought a child’s rocking chair. That chair stayed in the grandparents’ home, and was used by all seven of their Grandchildren, including my Grandmother, Juanita Elizabeth Boring Mowry. Eight Great Grandchildren would have also used that chair. When Grandma Boring (my Great Great Grandmother) died in 1955, the family decided to sell her possessions to the family members in a private auction to pay her funeral expenses. It was a family affair, taking care of family business.
My father wanted to buy that child’s rocking chair – perhaps because he had a 3-year old daughter that would have been a perfect size for it. He paid what was to him a large sum of $10 to bring that chair home. It remained a part of our family home, used by both my sister and I, and was a continuing favorite of visiting pre-schoolers, as the rocking chair was just right for them.
When Velda and I moved to California and started our family, the chair soon followed. We took the chair to a photographer with our firstborn, Christopher, and captured this image in 1986:
Christopher Andrew Mowry, sitting in the chair. 1986.
This week, we took Christopher’s firstborn, the delightful Miss P, and captured her sitting in the chair, just as she does when she visits Grandma & Papa’s house.
The chair is now 121 years old. I’m sure it’s worth a dollar or two … probably more than the $10 that it cost in 1955. However, the value of the chair cannot be expressed in dollars and cents.
Still, it’s the most valuable piece of furniture I’ve ever owned.
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Your Family’s Stuff
Digitizing Family Photos
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Here are pictures of my mother and each of my grandmothers … to the extent of the archive. Click on the photos to read the captions where I identify the relationship with each.
Here you see my mother, my two grandmothers, my four great grandmothers and one great step grandmother, seven of my great great grandmothers, and two of my great great great grandmothers.
Letha Marie Shull Mowry, my mother. 1987.
Ruth Mary Decker Shull (1906 – 1977), my mother’s mother. My Grandmother.
Juanita Boring Mowry (1900 – 1987), my father’s mother. My Grandmother.
Cora Samantha Baugher Shull (1882 – 1976), my mother’s father’s mother. My Great Grandmother.
Matilda Rebecca “Tillie” Swartz Decker (1880 – 1946), my mother’s mother’s mother. My Great Grandmother.
Mary Effie Barrett Mowry (1880 – 1936). My father’s father’s mother. My Great Grandmother.
Mary Elizabeth Haynes Mowry (1902 – 1970). My father’s father’s father’s second wife. My Great Step Grandmother.
Frances Emaline Miles Boring (1875 – 1955). My father’s mother’s mother. My Great Grandmother.
Martha Ellen Mast Shull (1856 – 1915). My mother’s father’s father’s mother. My Great Great Grandmother.
Samantha Cook Baugher (1853 – 1931), my mother’s father’s mother. My Great Great Grandmother.
Ruth Alice Morgan Decker (1841 – 1900). My mother’s mother’s father’s mother. My Great Great Grandmother.
Mary Ann Skaggs Swartz (1851 – 1927). My mother’s mother’s mother’s mother. My Great Great Grandmother.
Irena Norman Mowry (1848 – 1937). My father’s farther’s father’s mother. My Great Great Grandmother.
Elizabeth Hannah Milla Keith Barrett (1853 – 1940). My father’s father’s mother’s mother. My Great Great Grandmother.
Elizabeth Piles Boring (1826 – 1928). My father’s mother’s father’s mother. My Great Great Grandmother.
Mary Cyphers Cook (1832 – 1901. My mother’s father’s mother’s mother’s mother. My Great Great Great Grandmother.
Elizabeth McDonald Morgan (1796 – 1866). My mother’s mother’s father’s father’s mother. My Great Great Great Grandmother.
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My Father And My Grandfathers
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Here, I believe, are pictures of my father and each of my grandfathers … to the extent of the archive. Click on the photos to read the captions where I identify the relationship with each.
Here you see my father, my two Grandfathers, my four Great Grandfathers, seven of my Great Great Grandfathers, and five of my Great Great Great Grandfathers.
My father, Robert Eugene Mowry (1927 – 1985).
Wilbur Henry Mowry (1899 – 1970), is my paternal Grandfather, and namesake.
Lee Edison Shull (1908 – 1987) is my maternal Grandfather, and namesake.
Oscar Mowry (1869 – 1958) is my father’s father’s father. He’s my Great Grandfather.
Norman Ernest Boring (1873-1953) is my father’s mother’s father. He’s my Great Grandfather.
Artemus Clyde Shull (1879 – 1944), on right, is my mother’s father’s father. He’s my Great Grandfather. Here he’s shown with his family, from left, Cora Baugher Shull, Gordon Shull and Lee Shull (my Grandfather, with the open mouth).
James Woods Decker (1877 – 1948) is my mother’s mother’s father. He’s my Great Grandfather.
William Henry Mowry (1842 – 1916) is my father’s father’s father’s father. He’s my Great Great Grandfather.
Henry Barrett (1850 – 1934), the father of my Grandfather Mowry’s mother. He is my Great Great Grandfather.
Alban Boring (1840 – 1915) holding Norman Ernest Boring (1873-1953). My father’s mother was a Boring. Alban is my Great Great Grandfather, and Norman Ernest is my Great Grandfather.
Phillip Patterson “PP” Shull (1842 – 1930) is my mother’s father’s father’s father. He’s my Great Great Grandfather.
Jacob Albert Baugher (1842 – 1913), the father of my mother’s father’s mother. He’s my Great Great Grandfather.
James Benjamin Decker (1838 – 1883) is the father of my mother’s mother’s father. He’s my Great Great Grandfather.
Carodan Leroy Swartz (1851 – 1907). Picture taken in 1894. He is my mother’s mother’s mother’s father. He’s my Great Great Grandfather.
Abraham Mowry (1814 – 1892) is the father of my father’s father’s father’s father. He is my Great Great Great Grandfather. Parenthetically, this photo is only believed to be him … it was found unlabeled in my Great Grandfather Oscar’s house following his death. The photo print is very large, 16×20, and it is known that Abraham served in the Union Army (under his son, my Great Great Grandfather William Henry Mowry, who was a Lieutenant).
John Wesley Norman (1825 – 1904) is my father’s father’s father’s mother’s father. He’s my Great Great Great Grandfather.
Noah Mast (1812 – 1897) is the father of my mother’s father’s mother’s father. He’s my Great Great Great Grandfather.
Fayette Cook (1829 – 1900) is the father of my mother’s father’s mother’s mother. He’s my Great Great Great Grandfather.
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Sun protection is important … keep a spare hat on your knee. This fun pic is of brothers-in-law; my Great Grandfather Artemus Shull is on the right and Guy Sewell is on the left. Circa 1905.
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A database of Missouri’s original land purchasers is now available online. Land purchases are shown from 1831 – 1969. This land was originally donated to the state by the federal government, with the proviso that it be sold to settlers for $1.25 per acre. Profits from the sales went to the state.
Noah Mast, my Great Great Great Grand Uncle (!) was one of those purchasers … in 1850 he bought 195 acres in Nodaway County for the princely sum of $244. This easy to use database is available here. You can order a copy of any land patents for a dollar and a self-addressed envelope with each request.
This picture of Noah is one of the oldest in our family collection; it’s from a tintype. Tintypes were commonly used circa 1860-1880.
Noah Mast, 1812 – 1897, gentleman farmer and owner of a comb later in life.
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My Great Great Grandfather Baugher wore a chain on his vest, with his retractable brass toothpick attached. It’s a scary looking thing. The toothpick, I mean.
Old stuff.
This painting was done by my Great Great Aunt Alma Shull Parsons, and was given to my Mother and Father as a wedding present. It’ll never hang in a museum, but what a treasure!
The last time I visited Mom, we agreed that my next visit would include a session where we identified family heirlooms. Mom would tell the story. Sis would write the description. I’d take a picture, and then I’d combine those elements into one document. That way, we would always know what’s what, and what belonged to whom.
Simple, yes? Not really. You’ve got to find the time. I live 1,800 miles away. Sis is 200 miles away. Not. Simple.
At long last, the planets had aligned and we were ready. Mom proceeded to trot out a diverse lot of, uh, stuff. Let me be clear that we’re not talking about items with a high dollar value. We are talking about stuff that had been handed down from previous generations … like a brass toothpick owned by my Great Great Grandfather. Things that no one outside of my family would ever care about! But, oh my, what stuff Mom has!
I was amazed at how much I learned. You see, I’ve sat around Mom’s dinner table and talked about our ancestors. She’s got books and books and 3-ring notebooks of pictures and written records and birth certificates and service records and … STUFF … that we have discussed for hours.
We’ve got the family pictures and family tree documentation pretty well in hand (I hope).
Now, however, we’re learning about physical objects that rarely see the light of day … and now our entire family gets to know their story!
Pictures of my two favorite items are below. As you can see, it’s not about the monetary value, it’s about the family stories. The only way for you to capture those — the ONLY way — is to talk to your family members about what they know while you still have access to them. You never know when you’ll move away, or they’ll move away, or tragedy will strike and communication just won’t be possible anymore.
Find the opportunity to talk to your family members about what they know. You’ll find that the old stuff that’s lying around just might take on a whole new meaning for you when you know the history of each item!
Pocket watch? Not from my family!
This collapsible pocket shot glass was handed down, but we don’t know who owned it originally. Alas … but it sure does illuminate a fun heritage!
This graphic of a guardian angel (sorry for the poor photograph!) hung in the home of my Great Grandparents, James Woods and Matilda Rebecca Swartz Decker. It now hangs in Mom’s home.
Knowing Velda’s love of angels, Mom made this counted cross stitch of a Guardian Angel for Velda years ago, and it’s hung in our home since. I didn’t understand it was the same image as the one that hung in my Great Grandparents’ home until Mom told me last week!
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It was a year of completion. It was a year of beginnings. And, thankfully, a year of celebration. Here was the Mowry’s 2012:
UCLA’s Dinner with 12 Strangers
The first domestic crisis of the year happened on January 1. Velda’s breadmaker jumped off the kitchen counter, ending its service to the Mowry home. Pizza lovers and homemade bread lovers everywhere were saddened … but here we are now in December, the sourdough starter is once again growing, and wonderful bread is again coming out of the oven. Still no new breadmaker, though!
In February, Velda hosted Dinner for 12 Strangers. It’s a wonderful event that UCLA coordinates worldwide. You sign up, specify what kind of strangers you want to invite to dinner (Velda asked for students in the health services field), and then UCLA sent them to us! We had a pizza night, and a good time was had. We ended the evening with Velda receiving some great swag: an apron from UCLA! We all did the 8-clap (UCLA’s signature cheer), and the students took away some of the best homemade pizza – and Mowry Cookbooks! – to remember us by.
Another project we started in February was the clean up of our north slope. Several years ago we had planted a California pepper tree there … and that was a mistake. These trees are good SoCal trees, but they have many surface roots, and we planted the tree on the slope, within a couple of feet of the ornamental block wall we share with our uphill neighbor. Years later, the roots broke the wall … which meant the wall had to be rebuilt, and the tree had to go. I then took the slope back to bare dirt, and then tried to make it pretty with new bushes. It worked! Here are the before and after pictures.
March 5 was when preparation for the newest Mowry shifted into high gear. It was Payton’s baby shower! We hosted lots of family & friends at our favorite neighborhood restaurant, Bella Cucina, Alley’s sister Lyndsey made a surprise appearance with her two kids. A good time was had by all! My contribution to our new granddaughter was a cradle. Velda created a quilt & bumper set. You might say we were a bit excited to welcome Payton to the family!
We have a wind chime on our front step that hummingbirds like to build nests on top of. It’s happened two years in a row, so it must be some kind of special wind chime. March 12 was the day of the first flight for the two new birds. Here are a couple of pix from that day.
Two fledglings, almost ready to leave the nest.
That first step….
The first flight
Payton Elizabeth Mowry joined our family early on April 14. Words can’t express how our hearts have swelled because of that young lady. I could post a few hundred photos, right?
And the celebration part of this year got going immediately!
May 12 was the official conclusion of our 2012 plan. This plan started in 1997 when Velda returned to college to get her Bachelor’s. Fifteen years later, Velda, Christopher, Michael and Lauren all had their degrees:
- Velda got her BS in Nursing at Cal State Northridge, and then her MS in Nursing from UCLA
- Christopher got his BA in Psychology from Cal State LA
- Michael got his BS in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA. He’s almost finished with his MS in Engineering from USC
- Lauren got her BA in Psychology from Sonoma State
And the celebration continued! After attending Lauren’s graduation, Velda and I stayed in Napa to celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary. Then we pulled a U-Haul south to move Lauren out of her apartment and back home to SoCal. We are empty nesters no more!
After marking the conclusion of the 2012 plan, it was time for a new beginning. This blog launched on June 22. We quickly explored how to make a Perfect Margarita. I still don’t think I’m done with that project, but the family sure has enjoyed the process (well, except for Lauren, who decided tequila was not for her).
The blog grew in several directions, including my sharing lots of photography. Now, almost 6 months later, MowryJournal.com has generated over 6,000 views and attracted over 100 followers. Thank you all for reading the thoughts of both MrsMowry and myself, and for sharing your thoughts and comments as well. I can’t wait to see where the blog goes next!
Velda and I had a great summer vacation, meeting my sister and brother-in-law in Aspen for a long weekend. We survived the heat spell, took a train ride in Leadville, and had a wonderful time with family. From Denver, we began a driving vacation, visiting Velda’s first cousin, Evelyn Hepler. The cousins had never met, and we were able to spend a wonderful afternoon scanning pictures and getting to know Evelyn and her family! We then spent several days driving across Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois. We visited family, enjoying our time that proved to be much too short. Isn’t that always the case?
This rainy, cloudy day didn’t have a lot of great pictures, but when the gray cleared, I did get this one of the Colorado sky!
In August, we did a family getaway to San Diego. We stayed at a waterfront hotel and visited SeaWorld for the first time in many years. We had a great dinner in Old Town, found a wonderful tequila store and had fun with the family, celebrating the conclusion of the 2012 plan. All had sacrificed to help family members achieve our big goal, and it was time for Velda & I to say thanks.
And the celebration continued!
Velda and I continue in our same jobs: she’s with Kaiser Continuing Care, as she has been for several years. I continue to work from home for Smarts Broadcast Services, which is a radio software company based in Emmetsburg, IA. I’ve been their Director of Marketing since 2011. Life is good!
Each of our kids found more challenge in their professional lives this year. Here’s a quick summary:
Christopher still works for LA County as a Recreation Supervisor, though he’s just transferred from supervising the 12 natural areas in the northern part of the county, including Devil’s Punch Bowl, back to a park he’s worked at before: Placerita Canyon Park.
Alley continues to work for the city of Palmdale. They work a 4-day workweek, which helps with the childcare juggling that she and Christopher are doing.
Michael changed jobs this year, and now works for Crane Aerospace & Electronics in Burbank. He’s currently involved in the design of fuel pump parts for aircraft engines.
Brianna has finished her teaching certificate, and is currently substitute teaching. She hopes to find a permanent position next fall teaching junior high music & English.
Eric continues to grow his company, finding both new customers and expanding the business from his current aerospace industry clients. He and his brother Bobby are doing a great job managing the family business.
Lauren has smoothly transitioned back to Santa Clarita, and is now working for Sunshine Daycare, which is affiliated with many of the elementary schools here in Santa Clarita. After starting with a group of second graders, she’s now taken charge of the third graders. She’s loving the challenge!
The end of the year was filled with my push towards completing the Hepler family photo scrapbook, which I’ve written about a few times (and will again!). This book chronicles the family of Harry Baptiste Hepler and Marguerite Clark, and their 25 grandchildren. The book has grown to 207 pages, and I am both pleased as punch that it is done, and anxious to get it printed and in the mail – which should be done by New Year’s Eve! This book marks the end of a 5-year project (you see, this is a year of completion). The project began with the Mowry family in 2007, then continued with the Shull family, also 2007, the Chucalo family in 2011 and now the Hepler family. I now have many family tree loose ends to tie up, but I’m very happy that our genealogical photo collection is digitally stored, backed up … and 220 gigs of data. That’s been a journey, let me assure you.
Christmas promises to be very special this year, with a new member of the family to spoil, and cousins from Missouri and Illinois coming out to enjoy a few days of SoCal sunshine. A highlight event will be the whole gaggle of us going to see the Missouri Tigers men’s basketball team take on the UCLA Bruins at the new Pauley Pavillion. I went to Missouri (class of 1978), but my money definitely went to UCLA … so I’m a little conflicted about which team to root for.
Only a little. Go Tigers!
So, just as the title suggested, 2012 has been — and still is! — a wonderful year. Happy Holidays to all, and here’s to an even more exciting 2013!
The family had a November photo shoot at Vasquez Rocks, and the Southern California weather was not its normal sunny self. We had great fun doing the shoot, and came out only slightly moist.
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I just checked: my genealogy folder has 13,831 files in it. Most of these are photo scans, but some are also document scans, the page layouts and .pdf files for the family photo scrapbooks that I’ve compiled and even audio files. By the time I’m done with the Hepler book later this month, I’ll have 14,000 genealogy files.
And those match the 33,624 names in my family tree file. Well, some of them, anyway.
Label your photos — with a proper pen that has ink that will dry on photo paper — or your backup band may never be identified.
And then there are the 35,415 photographic files that are everything from work photos to vacation snaps to family shots to … well, my photographic life. My photographic files go back to 2004, when we said good bye to film. And don’t get me started on the 3-ring binders of prints & even slides that need scanning. Velda already has that on my worklist.
So you see the problem, right? Thousands and thousands of files, and you need to know where they all are. And this is the story of how I failed.
I was working on the Chucalo family photo scrapbook. Velda and I had flown back to St Louis several times, visiting cousins and scanning photos with multiple families. On a good day, I was gathering 100+ files. Do that for several days in a row … and you don’t know which file is which if you aren’t careful. We had files that were named, files that were unnamed, file folders crammed with original photographs, photo prints, obituaries, random notes, plane tickets and rental car agreements. It was chaos.
If photos have names written on the back, you can scan that photo back directly to both save the best record of the photo, and move on quickly to other scans. Just make sure you name the photo back scan the same as the photo front!
And we work for a living. Velda and I were doing these trips on vacations. We would fly back home — tired from our vacation — and go right back to work. Work being what it is, I was behind, and couldn’t devote much time to the photo processing for some time … when I would have to decipher all of those cryptic handwritten notes.
Which I always did perfectly, of course.
After I had processed the photographs, composed the scrapbook pages and updated the family tree files, I created rough draft .pdfs that I then sent back to the relatives for approval. This was essential; it was my proofing double check. But come to find out, this only works when you know which file you’re sending.
I was paranoid about losing data, so I was constantly making backups. I had the work files on my laptop’s desktop. I would then copy them every few hours to the “real” folder location on the c:/ drive, and then duplicate them onto a portable hard drive at that same time. And that worked great, until I didn’t copy the right file to the right back-up.
I had gotten an edit to the page for one of my favorite cousin’s pages. I had gotten his name wrong: Robert Eugene instead of Robert Gene. It was an understandable mistake, perhaps: Robert Eugene is my father’s name. In any event, I had it wrong, got the correction, fixed the page, then copied the wrong file into the backup, and never caught the mistake. I published the book with the wrong name for my cousin. The wrong name. How do you fix that?
Seriously, how?
Learn from my mistake:
1. Have one location for work files.
2. Have one location for backups. (And ALWAYS keep a backup.)
3. Don’t mix them up.
4. Have a method for checking important edits. Keep a file of requested edits, and then check them to make sure they’re done. And then check them again.
It’s only when your pictures are properly labeled that your descendants can be sure which picture is of you.
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Marguerite Clark Hepler
Harry Baptiste Hepler, AKA Shorty. 1978.
This is the story of my wife’s maternal Grandfather. The picture of him, left, was taken at our wedding.
Harry Baptiste Hepler, AKA Shorty, had a tough life. He buried two wives. He had to split his family during the Great Depression, go to a new state to find work, and then finally reunited his family years later.
Harry was born in 1901, the youngest child of Abraham and Harriet “Hattie” Hepler. He married Marguerite Clark on March 4, 1920: he was 18, and she was 22. Their eldest child, Frances Elaine, was born on July 22, 1921. More children followed: Robert Carlyle in 1923, Harry Paul in 1924, Lyle De Forest in 1926, and then the twins, Anna Marie and Mary Marguerite followed on March 4, 1930.
Tragedy struck. Marguerite did not recover from the rigors of childbirth, and died one week later, on March 11, 1930.
Harry had worked as a mine foreman in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, which has many bituminous coal mines spread throughout the county. With the Depression taking hold across the country, however, he found himself 28 years old, widowed, with 6 kids under the age of 10 and needing to find work.
The 1930 US Census was taken on April 1, 1930, and found Harry and his 6 kids living with his mother, Harriet “Hattie” Girard Hepler Johnson and her new husband, Swedish immigrant Augustaurus “Gus” Johnson. Harry made the difficult decision to relocate his family to St Louis, MO – but Grandmother Hepler insisted that he leave the babies with her.
Mary and Anna Hepler lived with their Grandmother until they were 12, and then moved to St Louis to live with their father, step-mother, and 3 older brothers that they had only met once, 6 years earlier.
Harry gathered up his 4 oldest children, ages 4 – 9, and took the train to St Louis. He did find construction work, and he found his second wife, Ruby Uncapher. Tragedy struck again, however, and Ruby died in 1934 of cervical cancer.
In 1936, Grandmother Hattie gathered the twins and traveled to St Louis to introduce them for the first time to their father. Mary remembers the train ride, and remembers meeting her father, oldest sister and 3 brothers, who were all living with Harry’s future third wife, Lucille O’Day and her daughter, Carmen Werre. Anna, Mary and Harriet returned to Pennsylvania. (Side note: in their elementary school classroom in Corry, PA, Anna and Mary were 1 of 3 sets of twins!)
Harry Paul, Lyle DeForest and Robert Carlyle Hepler.
The 1940 US Census has Lucille and Carmen living in St Louis, with Harry listed as their boarder. Frances Elaine Hepler had married Henry Eller, Jr in 1939, and they were living with their firstborn Donald Gene at the time of the 1940 census.
Interestingly, Harry’s 3 sons, ages 13-17 at the time of the census, are not shown as living with a family member. Harry Paul’s descendants heard legends that their father lived in an orphanage for a time. I found a 13-year old Lyle “Heppler” living as a lodger in St Louis with Christian and Agatha Goechri. This Lyle was born in Pennsylvania, so he might be our Lyle DeForest Hepler. I have not yet found Robert Carlyle in the 1940 census.
Grandmother Hattie fell ill in 1942, so she sent the 12-year-old twins west to live with the family that they had only met once 6 years earlier.
With his family reunited, Harry finally found a good job with the St Louis Water Department in 1943. He continued to work there 22 years, until his retirement.
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I’m nearing the end. I started working on the Hepler family photo scrapbook in March 2011, and it will be finished in the next few weeks. The book has grown to just over 200 pages of photos, history and genealogy information. This book is focused on the family of Harry Baptiste Hepler: his 6 children, his 25 grandchildren, and their descendants.
I enjoy putting together the covers of the book. For this family history (and it’s the 4th that I’ve compiled), I assembled 2 covers. The first one is focused on the first couple of generations, and the 2nd cover is focused on the younger generations.
In the case of this branch of the family, no one member will know everyone pictured. Reacting to that fact became one of my goals: to illustrate the breadth of the family immediately. An essential third page is a key to the photographs, so that the family can begin to associate names with faces!
More:
Creating a Family Photo Scrapbook
Digitizing Family Photos
Treasuring Family Photos
Your Family Tree
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