5-Gen Family History Photo Scrapbook Plan

We have a wide variety of photos for at least 5 generations of our family - making a scrapbook for each of our two grandkids, a boy and a girl, seems like a great plan. Follow along and see if this will work for you, as well.

We start by going through the family photo collection to find what will work to tell this story. Are your photos all organized? Mine aren't near as much as I would like. This photo is of one of the boxes from my parents - that is their 25th anniversary photo I think I can use, on top.

All photos in this lens were taken by me, of family photos in my personal collection.

Starting with the two grand-kids as generation one, their parents (our daughter and her husband) are generation two. My wife and I are generation three. My parents are generation four, and my Dad' parents would be generation five.

This scrapbook project might actually become four scrapbooks. With four grandparents, we could do a separate one for each of the grandparents with their parents and grandparents for the five generation of each.

This photo was taken of the photos available fairly readily. Notice they are of varying sources. You may want to choose similar types of photos. For example, does the "restaurant' photo of my wife and I really fit with the commercial photo of my parents? You ( or I, in this case) get to make that decision - after all, this is my scrapbook, right?

Do you really know where they are all located?? ;-)

Here are some more family photos that you might want to consider using in your scrapbook. In this case, the pair in the upper left corner of this shelf is my Dad's parents, back about the time they were married in 1904. Frankly, I'd forgotten this photo was there. I am so happy to find it. It fits right in here.

Another decision to make is how many photos of each person or group will be included in the scrapbook. Notice, just in this photo (that I took), there are two more earlier photos of my daughter (the mother of the grand-kids) along with a couple of younger photos of them. You don't want too many, but you don't want too few either. Right? Of course. You want just the right number, for you - for me! ;-)

Do you use pre-designed templates for your scrapbooks? Here are some options available.

Do you like to 'standardize' the photos you use in your scapbook?

This is a really good photo to use for an opening or centerpiece. I will want to make copies, not use the original in a scrapbook - at least that is my approach.

Do I want to include photos of the parents' wedding for example, as well, or photos from their younger years. How much do I include in the scrapbook, that is the challenge as I see it. Where do we really want the emphasis here?

Obviously, I had many photos to choose from on this generation, since this is my wife and I. I chose this one to, again, to raise the issue of what types of photos to include and which not to choose. This is a decent photo, and does represent who we are.

The other issue, at this level, is: We are one set of grandparents. There is another set of grandparents. Do we only include us? Should I include my wife's parents and her grandparents in this scrapbook, or should we split it into two scrapbooks, for four scrapbooks? The other grandparents, I am confident, do have photos of their parents and grandparents as well. Take the poll, below, to express your opinion. Thanks! ;-)

This is a real nice photo to use of my parents for this 5 generations family history photo scrapbook. Should I use more photos of them? What will that add? This is a commercial photo (actually, a cousin professional photographer in their small town). Should candid photos be included. All decisions that need to be made as I plan my scrapbook.

The inclusion of my Dad's parents completes the five generations for the scrapbook. I should also probably include my Mom's parents as well. I didn't come across a print photo of them as I was preparing this lens. I do have digital photos. That would be alright, of course, just print a photo, and include them. This is just another planning option we must consider. Do you agree?