Genealogy Chat

Im looking for ideas for a birthday present for my nan in law, who is going to be 90.
I'd like to give her some sort of family tree or gift but need ideas :-)

Did something similar for my sis in law's 70th.

Printed the tree off in sections, behind each section did a timeline for the ancestors along with copies of census, certificates, photos where available, some pages of notes with memories from other relatives and put it all in a nice binder.

She found it easy to follow and loved it.

You can get some on-line companies that print your stuff off into book form but they're expensive and it's not as personal.

You can get some really good pre-printed tree charts that you can fill in yourself and then have framed which would make a nice gift.

There are some here:-

http://www.genealogyprinters.com/

Kath. x

I did something like this for Christmas for my parents last year and they were thrilled to bits with them, I did one for each of them, with my dad, or my mum, the root.

I bought two Family Tree Spring Binders, one blue, one red, and printed out a tree on several pages, each page says go to page 2, page 3 etc., (printed out from Family Tree Maker).

I put in a descendant report and an ancestor report, copies of certficates, any relevant information regarding the ancestors of mum or dad, a family fact sheet for each family and photographs of as many people as I can and things associated with them. It was OH`s idea but I am pleased he came up with it, the books looked brilliant when finished and gave them both an idea of the work which went into the family tree and something interesting to read.

The spring binders were bought from My History for about £16 each and they look like a real book, you just bend it right back and slip all your sheets in, then it just snaps forward again and grips all the papers. You can get them with Family History printed on the front and spine in gold or the plain ones are cheaper.

It is worth the money and effort if you are stuck for something different to buy for Christmas.

Hope this gives you some idea, it does take quite a lot of time and effort as I say but worth it in the end.

Marilyn :-)

How about a newspaper for the day she was born or the day she got married?
Not cheap, but easily available & really interesting.

A photograph album of a selection of family photos in date order.

Or a collage of similar photos to above in an 'old' picture frame something around 12inch or more square. Get a 2nd hand frame from a junk shop or boot fair, clean up and paint or polish. This would cost almost next to nothing.

With copying & printing facilities we have now, you can copy all old photos to make either an album or collage