6 Family Heritage Photo Book Ideas to Preserve Memories for Generations

Putting together a family heritage photo book is a great way to celebrate and preserve memories that would otherwise sit in a box in the attic - but where do you start? Check out these six family heritage photo book ideas, which include tips on how to make the whole process easier.

6 Family Heritage Photo Book Tips You Can Use Right Now

The best family heritage photo book ideas revolve around design, organization, and collaboration. These six tips will help you create the perfect book - one that your descendants can enjoy for generations:

1. Collaborate with relatives and family friends.
2. Scan everything the right way.
3. Organize your photos.
4. Upload your photos.
5. Write your family's story.
6. Choose a template or get creative.

Here's a closer look at each.

#1. Collaborate to Create Your Family Heritage Photo Book

You don't have to shoulder the responsibility of pulling together your family history on your own. In fact, it's better if you don't! You most likely have relatives and old family friends who have stories to tell, photos to share and creativity to contribute. Using Mixbook's collaboration feature, everyone can contribute from anywhere in the world - and you don't have to sort through a million emails, text messages, and notes to keep everything in one place.

Related: How to collaborate on photo projects with Mixbook

#2. Scan All Your Photos and Documents Properly

Scan all your photos and documents into digital formats. If you have a scanner at home, you can do it yourself; otherwise, you can have them professionally scanned at your favorite photo lab.

#3. Organize Everything

After you have digital copies of photos and documents, it's best to rename all your files so you can keep them logically organized. Think about renaming photos and documents using:

• A date system. If you know when the photo was taken, use the date for a filename (such as "1978-02-26" or "February 1978"). That makes it easier to put your family heritage photo book in chronological order.
• Names of people involved. If you know who's in a photo, include their names so they're easy to find when you're compiling the book. Try using filenames like "Dave Johnston Draft Card - WWII" or "Cheryl B.'s Prom Photo."

Even better, you can combine dates and names (such as "1983-05-15 Tina's Birthday Party").

#4. Upload Your Photos and Documents

Upload all your photos and documents to Mixbook. They'll stay there for safekeeping as you complete your family heritage photo book - and you can sort through them to find the photos you need as you create each section of your book.

Related: Revisiting cherished memories: Completing photo books that have been on your "To-Do" list for too long

#5. Write Your Family's Story

You don't have to be a professional writer to commit your family's story to paper, but you should think about the general order of your book and what types of information you'd like to include. You might choose to focus on important events, like birthdays and holidays where everyone gathered together, and you may want to include documents like copies of census records or newspaper clippings.

For example, if you have a copy of your great-grandfather's draft card from World War II, you may choose to include a little information about his life at the time. You could caption the photo (such as "Grandpa Charlie's Draft Card") and add something like, "Grandpa Charlie enlisted in the Army three years before he married Grandma Emily. He lived at this address until he shipped out for Fort Bragg, North Carolina."

You don't have to share a lot of background information; just enough to make your family's story come to life.

Related: The ultimate guide to digital photo organization

#6. Choose a Template or Get Creative

Whether you choose a template or create your own family heritage book from scratch is up to you. You can work with photo frames, change fonts and even add stickers, backgrounds and other embellishments with just a few clicks. Take a minute to browse our collection of customizable photo books to see what's available and go from there!

What Does Your Family Heritage Photo Book Look Like?

If you've already created a family heritage photo book, we'd love to see your creativity in action. Send us a picture on Instagram (we're @Mixbook) so you can inspire others, too!