THE FAMILY TREE NOTEBOOKS MASTERCLASS

If you’re

• someone who has inherited a lot of family history items,
• a person who has been doing genealogy research for a long time, or
• a mix of all of the above and you’re looking to pass on what you have to the next generation while also keeping all those family photos and records safe,

you already know that family history gets chaotic quickly. 

Take a minute and recognize that by keeping those things safe or seeking out those historical records, you’re already far ahead of the curve when it comes to passing on a legacy of information about the people in your family tree! Now you just need to put all of the work you’ve done and all of the things you’ve saved into a format that those after you will understand and cherish.

By the end of this program,
you will have… 

• Organized all of your family history files
  Files on your computer, files on the Internet, files in boxes around your house…we’re tackling it all!
• Taken inventory of what you already have for each ancestor
  It can be overwhelming when things are saved all over the place, but we’re going to identify, sort, and store them efficiently so you never lose things again.
• Built a family history library of online and offline files
  We’ll give every ancestor space and put everything in its place.
• Crafted family history pages to build chapters about each ancestor
  Tell their stories in an easy-to-follow way that anyone can pick up and enjoy.
• Written a full book about seven generations of your family tree
  One book finished and the tools to keep expanding to even more generations!

What’s Inside The 2024 Family Tree Notebooks Masterclass

Week 1

Visualize what you want your book to look like when it's finished and make decisions about the style, format, and included pages. Get all of your tools lined up so you're ready to start organizing and creating pages. 

Highlights:

• Choosing the right pages to make your family tree notebook look exactly the way you want it to
• Step-by-step instructions for the PDF program of your choice so you can add text and photos to the pages
• Best practices for backing up your work so you never lose your pages or family history files

Week 2

Choosing a person to start your notebook, filling in the index, and adding additional people to the book. We'll also organize digital files and start building up a family history library for each ancestor.

Highlights:

• Using the index to organize all of your family history research, both online and offline
• Making space on your computer for each ancestor in a way that ensures you'll never lose a file again
• Taking control of all of the digital files you've collected over the years so they aren't at risk of disappearing on you

Week 3

Gather all of your family history. Take inventory of what you have in your home, digitize everything you can, and contact family members to see if they'll share their archives with you. 

Highlights:

• Scanning and digitizing instructions with a plan for avoiding chaos and overwhelm
• Tackling things that are too large, bulky, or fragile to be digitized easily so they can be included in our archives
• Moving everything into digital folders and storing real-life items to ensure that everything is safe, matched, and easy to find

Week 4

Start to build chapters by using the family history libraries you've created. Choose the pages that match your archives and start putting the stories together one page at at time. 

Highlights:

• A look at all of the different ways you can include family history information on the family tree notebooks pages
• A refresher on source citations to make sure you're leaving a research breadcrumb trail for the next generation
• Ideas on different style choices you can make inside your ancestor chapters so your book feels like you

Week 5

Building on what you've put together to flesh out the stories of your ancestors and fill in the gaps in your research. We'll look at some of the major events you should include in every ancestor chapter and how you can track down the right records to include in your book.

Highlights:

• Build an ancestor timeline to look for gaps in the story, find details you might have missed, and spot any inconsistencies that might signal a research error
• Lessons on birth, marriage, and death records, how to tell if you have the right person, and other tricks you'll need no matter what event you're researching

Week 6

How to know when your book is "finished" and how to print/share it in the best way. We'll also look at what to do once your book is finished and how to expand your book into other projects. 

Highlights:

• Have you done reasonably exhaustive research (and what exactly does that even mean)?
• Is it better to share your book digitally or to find a service that can create printed copies? What about printing copies at home?
• Ways to move beyond the seven generations included in the index and ideas for supplementing your book with other materials