Creating a Family History Book with MyCanvas; San Diego Genealogical Society's August Meeting Speaker

San Diego Genealogical Society's August Meeting Speaker

The San Diego Genealogical Society's member meeting August 10th features guest speaker Mary Van Orsdol.

Mary Van Orsdol is Senior Librarian for Genealogy & Carlsbad History at Carlsbad City Library. She received her B.A. in history from the University of California, San Diego, and her M.A. in American history from the University of Minnesota. She received her M.L.S. from UCLA and has worked as a librarian for over 30 years. Mary has been the head of the Genealogy Division at Carlsbad City Library since 1997 and head of Carlsbad History Collection since 2012. She researches her own family and has a strong research background in New Netherland.
Mary's first presentation will be "Library Skills for Genealogists or How to Use the Carlsbad City Library Genealogy Collection Effectively" .  During the second hour of her presentation Mary will talk will be about "New Netherland Research".
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More Tips on Stimulating the Interest of Your Children and Grandchildren in Genealogy

Last Christmas I was pondering a family gift that I could give my daughters and their families.  I turned, once again, to the "MyCanvas" section of Ancestry.com and decided to produce a Family History Book for two of the families.  The process is very well structured and follows a very logical process starting with the selection of a cover, size and format. 

Cover--padded leather, 11" x 14"

I chose to do a combination book, showing both my daughter and her husband's sides of the family.  You could choose to only do one side of the family. 

You can then select the size, number of generations, which ancestry family tree to use as the source, the starting person for the tree and the name of your project.

Book Selections

The remainder of pages in the tree are based upon your choices made from several templates.  In most cases the data is pulled into the page from your Ancestry tree based upon your selections.

Both Sides of the Family

 Photos can be placed into the book pages either from your Ancestry tree or one of your computer files.

 You need to keep in mind matching facing pages of the book, so that they blend together in a logical manner.  You can also pull documents into the book from either your Ancestry tree or computer files.

 I tried to maintain a balance for both Linda and Doug's sides of the family.  Fortunately, I have quite a bit of information on his family line, so that was relatively easy to do.  Note the information under the profile of Franklin Wimer below.  That is created by the MyCanvas program based on information from the Ancestry tree.

The last couple pages of the book I devoted to just photos of Linda, Doug and their children.  The total book was 33 pages and cost me $75.  The cost would have been less if I had chosen a smaller (8.5" x 11") format and a regular cover. 

I think both families that received a book really appreciated it and it will be something that can be passed down to future generations.

Disclaimer:  I do not have any affiliation with Ancestry.com or MyCanvas and do not receive any type of compensation from them.  These are strictly my opinions.