Family tree photo ornaments?

[Holiday Joy]

I'm late for this Christmas, but I finally finished filling about 20 gold frame ornaments with copies of family pictures -- from my DK's great, great, great grandparents on down. It's sort of a family tree idea, and I'm still looking for photos of some relatives. These will go on my living room tree (though I'm thinking of displaying them year around somehow).

I want to clearly mark the back of each frame so that my DK's know who each person is and how they're related. The pictures are small, about 2in by 2.5. I'm not sure how to label them, though. Because they won't be hanging on a tree in any particular order, I'll have to rely on my labeling techniques to show who's who and where they fit in the line-up. I'm thinking of typing the info out on adhesive labels of some type. Should I say something like "Jeremiah Smith, Husband to Aldora Clark Smith, Father of John Smith, father of Lawrence Smith, Father of. . ."? Or, "Jeremiah Smith, Great Great Great grandfather to. . ."?

Does anyone have any ideas for me? I know there must be a geneological way to do this on a small space (like a label on the back of a frame). I don't want these to become just a bunch of pictures of 'dead people', I want them to have some meaning to my children and theirs.

 

[momof4]

What a great idea! I've been working on getting copies of ancestors pictures over the last couple months to put into a family tree scrapbook.

Sounds like you are going to have to put a lot of information in a small space...what about just coding the pictures and having a "key" that is printed out. A cousin on my dad's side traced our family back to the 1600's and printed all she learned into an outline form. Each generation is given a roman numeral, each child born to a person of that generation is given a number (numbered per parent). So my dad is IX10 (he's the ninth generation she cataloged, and the 10th child of his parents); I am X4 (the 10th generation, 4th child of my father). I hope this makes some sense.

Not sure if this would work for you, but I'm thinking you may not have enough room to write everything out.

 

[Ahorsesoul]

I suggest picking two colors. As an example I'll say pink and blue. Use pink for relatives on the your side of the family and blue for your husbands. That way the kids will always know on who's side of the family the ornaments relate. You can color the ornaments by using these colors for matting the photos.

I'd say use 'how they relate' to your kids since your reason for doing this is for them. So a little label saying this is Mary Smith-Jones, great grandmother, 1889-1945. If you put both the female's maiden and married last name it will be easy to keep track of whose is married to whom.

Think about making one copy for each of your kids. These could be put away for a wedding gift for them. Then they will have them for their first Christmas Tree.

 

[KimD]

I like the way Ahorsesoul explained seperating. Its great that you do have those pictures. That is one thing that we can not find alot of in our family. My oldest has brought home text books with pictures of my 4th great grandfather in it. This is the second grade she has studied something on him and teachers are amazed on the other things he did as well as seeing a picture of him and (good friend) Abe Lincoln. (which was copied and sent to me from a historian in his home town that was from her families collection that worked for my grandmothers family at the time).

 

[Holiday Joy]

Thanks for the ideas! I think I WILL make sets for each child -- wish I would have thought of that as I was making them! It would have saved lots of time. I can make each child's set with different frames to keep them apart.

I like the idea of labeling each side of the family with a different color.

Keeping the information on another sheet of paper is a good idea for extra info that I'd like to add (Grandpa Smith owned his own taxi company, etc.) but I'd be afraid it'd get separated from the frames and lost. I'd like to put as much info on the back of each picture as possible. All it takes is one generation for family history to become lost.

 

[Rackandrollgal]

What a fantastic idea! I'm working my side of the family's geneology now, and have my husband's back to the 1600's so far. It would be great to have a "family tree" tree. I'm going to steal your idea and get busy on this one for Christmas 2008. Thanks for the inspiration!!!! ink:

 

[lilelf]

Wow, I love your idea, too! I see a great gift for some of my family members for THIS Christmas!! Thanks! As an avid genealogist, your post immediately caught my eye. This would be a great way to help people put faces with names and keep family history alive for them, too. The thrill of finding "lost" ancestors and details about them and everyone else keeps me interested, but then, I have the "genealogy bug" :-D

 

[Ahorsesoul]

Oh my heart is beating fast, more people who love genealogy! It's Sunday and ancestry.com will be so slow if I try to look at census pages. But your posts have got me into the mood for what my family calls "looking for dead people". I suppose they will still be there tomorrow when it'll go a little faster.

Target had photo frames on sale this week. Some of them are like ferris wheels with several photo frames attached. I thought they would make a nice little "family tree" gift. They were priced at $2.98.