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Heritage scrapbooks that focus on one person are the easiest to create. Focal Person albums feature the person, two generations of ancestors, and two generations of descendants. To keep the size of the project manageable, I recommend creating a one-page layout of the subject’s mother and one about their father.
I have a few stories and some documents about my grandmother. My photo collection shows her as a young child and into her adult life. It was hard to remind myself that I needed to keep the focus of my father’s album firmly in mind. The collection of photos will be used, only in other projects. Knowing this made creating the page for Grandma Helen Zumstein Geiszler a cinch.
The newlywed photo of Grandpa Bob and Grandma Helen is just amazing. Most relatives have shared how very much in love the couple was throughout their life. This photo shows that love. I selected a second photo that shows Helen as an older woman. At the time, it was the best of my photos from her later years.
The journaling highlights the basic facts of her life with some additional comments. For instance, I provided her birth date and parent information. Then I included that she was the first of her siblings born in the United States. A little detail that isn’t available on a pedigree chart or birth certificate.
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The journaling was a brief biographical sketch of Helen. I will have to write more about her on this blog and in a manuscript that I’m always working on. Knowing this fact allows me to keep the journaling brief on the scrapbook page.
You’ll notice I added more embellishments on her page than my father’s baby page. The upper right corner could have held another photo. However, I created an embellishment block. The block has a tag with the title “My Mother.”
A few flowers and additional elements, complete the look. I liked having the embellishments contained in this block. With the elements contained, they worked together to enhance the overall layout rather than compete for attention with the photos and written information on the page.
Now you can see the purpose of a Mother’s Page in a focal person album. The layout is a single page. The journaling is a brief biographical sketch. You’ll want to include one or two photos to show her over time. And you can have fun with embellishments. I look forward to seeing scrapbook pages that you create about the mothers in your family tree.