Memory Journal

Hi friends,

I'm in need of inspiration - and where better to turn.

I want to make a grandparents memory journal - using question prompts I have downloaded from the net. I have made the cover and have plenty of pages inside ready for me to start answering questions I pick at random.

What I am looking for are some ideas of how to "jazz it up" a bit - rather than just lines of questions and answers. And also what to put at the front to "explain" what the journal is.

I've found plenty of questions to use - what I need are images of pages/books done by others to give me some tips and ideas on layouts and embellishments etc.

Can anyone tell me what to search for?

Thanking you in advance.
Tracey :)

You could do worse than look at the galleries of members who have produced some excellent family history related LOs. tigerlady and eClaire spring to mind.

Have you got many old photos either of them or places they lived, family etc? You could do a layout on one page then opposite it ask questions to prompt them?
EG A photo of a each as a child then opposite - where were you born, what was your school like, did you enjoy school, favourite subject, best friend, favourite toy.
What you want to find out is not the stuff they tell in regular stories but the things that make you go "Wow" I would never have guessed." I found out about Mum's evacuation a few months before she died and managed to find pictures of the house she was evacuated to and the 1939 census record for that family. Mum was amazed and it gave me an insight into her wartime experiences.

For her 90th birthday I made a "This is Your Life" type of book compiled of layouts and stories throughout her life. I am very fortunate that my family have been keen photographers since 1865 so have plenty of material!

Hi Tracey - I do a lot of heritage LOs (G61 - thanks for thinking of me) and a lot of these are using words from a book that my parents wrote for my children where they wrote down their memories of growing up in the war. This has made the journaling very personal for my girls and there are so many stories they remember even now that they are grown up. I have also done LOs about special objects in their home, that I and my girls remember, here are some examples:

When the bombs came - https://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photop...00_x_198_1.jpg WW2 National Service https://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photop...200_x_200_.jpg

More WW2 memories
https://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photop...200_x_201_.jpg A page using a real buckle from a wedding dress https://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photop...200_x_199_.jpg https://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photop...200_x_199_.jpg

and some pretty ones with less journaling https://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photop...250_x_248_.jpg https://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/photop...200_x_197_.jpg

Lots more examples throughout my and other galleries in UKS - The book is a lovely idea, I hope you can get started