Spring, 2014 – Connie’s Current Project (the reason I can’t cook, clean, or communicate): Writing a family history book geared more toward elementary age children and older.
I had always wanted to write the history of my Wilcox family in Omaha, Nebraska, from the mid-1800’s to mid-1900’s, but each time I started, I lost my courage. I questioned my abilities, my information, my research. I couldn’t even get past the first sentence in the book. When I attended RootsTech 2014 with Elizabeth, my awesome, newly-found friend who happens to be a screenwriter and a new genealogist, I was inspired to finally tackle the writing project, but in a completely new way. I wanted to end up with a book about the Newell Reuben Wilcox family that my grandchildren would want to read. But to do that would require a lot of pictures (which I didn’t have), a writing style geared more to their age, and the previously lacking courage. The answer? Why not digitally scrapbook the history and include pictures relevant to the time and place!
Thanks to barbwiredigi.com I found the inspiration and the digital scrapbooking tools. Thanks to naods.com I found awesome classes for PhotoShop Elements 11 that gave me confidence, and thanks to Elizabeth I had the courage to write.
Instead of a large book on the whole family, it will be a set of six 10 x 10 books, one for the parents and one for each son. I thought each book might be 20 pages, but I have not quite finished the first book and am at page 45 already! Of course, there will be some editing until the book is a manageable length for the grandchildren without missing any of the important information. I had no idea how fun this project would be! For a person like me who loves working on the computer, digital scrapbooking was the ideal platform. Here is a teaser – one of my favorite pages from the book:
Including historical events will give the kids a history lesson as well as help them understand the trials their ancestors went through.
Girl With a Past 
This is a goal I set many years back. I did a book so far for my father, and each of my siblings. I am working on doing one for each of my children and hope to maybe do one for the grandchildren too. I have done some family pages on my Facebook and so far have gotten great reviews from the extended families. Anything to record and make it each to get to for others is a great goal of keeping our family history work available to others now and in the future!
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You are so right, Karen. Anything to get the word out and get the kids involved. Thanks for checking out my blog. It was a long starting process for me, but I’m finally getting the hang of the wordpress language!
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I am a descendant of Newell Reuben Wilcox and your post was in the results of a Google search I did. I am wondering if I can email you.
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Absolutely, Doug. I know who you are!!! I look forward to hearing from you.
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