Are you looking for unique gift ideas for the holidays? Look no further than your family tree. With a little creativity and planning you can create gifts for all your relatives using your genealogical research.

Family Photographs
Family history is not just about our ancestors, it is also about the events that happen in our everyday lives today. There are an unlimited number of things you can do with family photographs that can be pulled together quickly, easily, and inexpensively.

For instance, purchase a simple frame with multiple openings and create a photo tree using a frame that has spaces for wallet-size photos. Use the frame to portray your family history any way you like.

Many families have multiple generation portraits, but if you don't have one you can make one using a frame and copies of your photographs. Create a photographic time line of all your direct female or male descendants or use the frame to show several images of the same person over time, such as one of your kids or a grandparent.

When framing pictures, remember to use acid and lignin free paper and cardstock to prevent damage and display in an area away from direct sunlight.

If you've got your family photographs identified, organize them into a photo album or scrapbook with captions or journaling. Focus on one topic to make it manageable. A photo album of wedding photographs can also include handwritten notes from guests who were there. Use a scrapbook to re-tell a child's life with comments from parents and grandparents about special moments from birth through graduation. If you don't have time for a whole album, put together a single page and frame it. Select materials that are acid and lignin free, inks that are waterproof, odorless and permanent, and plastics like polypropylene or mylar to ensure that your gift will last more than a few years.

Photographs can be transferred to almost any surface, including paper, ceramics, and cloth. And don't worry if you can't do it yourself; try one of the online photo sharing sites like Ofoto.com that offer gift items with photos.

Jewelry
Photographic jewelry has been popular since the 1840s, but Queen Victoria popularized it when she wore pieces adorned with Prince Albert's image after his death in 1861. Photographs appeared in everything from buttons to lockets; you can choose from several varieties even today.

Lockets let you include a photograph or two of special family or friends, but one organization, Renaissance LLC, now offers the option of bracelets with multiple images, pendants, or pins. For my parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary, I selected five photographs from their wedding album, reduced them to the appropriate size at a copy shop, and created a memento of their original wedding day in a bracelet. You can purchase creations such as these from Renaissance. Contact (860) 283–9237 for a store in your area.

Oral Histories
According to Joe Benson of Gifts of the Past, the trend toward personalization includes gifts that reflect family history. There is no better time than the present to record the history of an older member of the family. Now you won't have to remember what your relative's voice was like and recall their stories, you can record them and pass them on to other family members.

Most multimedia studios in your area can transfer home movies to either VHS or DVD. And with a little creativity, you can take recording memories a step further and put picture, music, and voice together. Contact a professional studio in your area for assistance or use one of the many software packages on the market, such as iMovie for Macintosh, to create your multimedia presentation of the family.

Handcrafted Items
Many of our female ancestors were adept at sewing quilts and crocheting doilies. Consult The Art of Knitting (1892, a facsimile reproduction of the original edition from the Butterick Publishing Co., reprinted Piper Publishing, 2003) for knitting patterns your grandmother would have used.

You could also create scrapbooks or even paint representations of family members. If you would like to re-create a historical item to give as a gift you can find reprints of nineteenth-century manuals that help you create items like your ancestors did (such as The Art of Knitting). Mary Ann Wood of Massachusetts creates beautiful pins and earrings for her customers from broken and chipped dinnerware that would otherwise have been thrown in the trash.

A book such as the Art of Family: Genealogical Artifacts in New England will get your creative juices started, or you can visit museums and libraries to find examples. Contemporary magazines like Creating Keepsakes, Legacy, and Memory Makers also have feature articles that illustrate how to assemble scrapbooks and various other heritage art. Regardless of your skill level, you can find projects that match your ability and interests.

Recipe Books and Food Stuffs
If someone in your family has a collection of favorite dishes they've developed and haven't written the recipes down in a family recipe book, consider the project for a family gift. The book could consist of the recipes of one family member or favorites from anyone in the family who wants to contribute.

Another option is to put together a gift basket of treats with recipes. Don't forget to include the background history of the food item in your family and a story about the person who created it. A gift basket could contain the ingredients for a favorite family recipe, the recipe itself, and pictures and stories about the relative who made the recipe a family favorite.

Family History
Have you thought of publishing your family history to be ready for the holidays? It may seem relatively easy to input information and images into your favorite genealogical software package and “publish” your family history, but publishing your family history is a huge project you'll want to do right. It can't be done in a few weeks. Don't give yourself additional stress this holiday season unless your manuscript is ready to publish.

For gift ideas this holiday season, introduce your relatives to their family history by presenting them with census pages, passenger lists or naturalization pages with their ancestors name on them. This might make them more enthusiastic toward your hobby and may be the perfect opportunity to ask them if they'd be willing to help you with your research load.

Locate a Family Heirloom
Visit antique shops and browse online to find old photographs, memorabilia, and items that have become “lost” over time. You never know what you might discover. One woman recovered a sampler that a relative had sold; another woman found a photograph of a family she'd been researching. You might locate postcards of an ancestral hometown or pages from a family Bible. The items you locate will be treasured by your family. (See Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's article in the May/June 2003 issue of Ancestry Returning Lost Heirlooms, to learn the best strategies for finding these family heirlooms.)

Projects Just for Kids
Family tree projects can lend themselves to all age groups. For instance, a simple branch stuck in a pot of cement can become a way to illustrate family history. Let children use photocopies of heritage photographs, or make cutouts in various shapes hang from the tree using stencils, cookie cutters, and construction paper. They can write their names and those of their family under the photos or on the paper and hang them from the branches using string or yarn. Or make a wooden template of a tree and let them decorate it in a similar fashion. Show children family art that has been created in past generations like those in The Art of Family: Genealogical Artifacts in New England by D. Brenton Simons and Peter Benes (NEHGS, 2002). Children can mimic the designs with paper and markers using genealogical data supplied by adults. Older children can cut fabric trees to make a quilted square for a pillow or wall hanging or use simple stitches to create a sampler.

Family history gifts represent the heart and soul of genealogical pursuits. Each one represents a leaf on the family tree or a whole branch. Whatever your interest or skill level, you can find a gift idea that expresses your love of family—both past and present. What better way to celebrate the holidays?

Return to the November/December 2003 Table of Contents.