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Photo book cover of "Terry Boorman's Family", created Aug 2015 After spending the past year writing about ancestors and other deceased relatives, I would like to focus this last story of the year on my husband Terry, thankfully very much alive and kicking. Christmas is a time to celebrate with our living family and create new memories to add to the old ones . So it is fitting that, with the end of the year fast approaching, I share a brand new story from this past Christmas.
Our family had decided to downsize the number of gifts this Christmas and focus instead on enjoying each other's company and celebrating the season together. Admittedly there was still a bit of overflow of “stocking stuffers” (not everything was able to fit in a stocking), but nothing went over budget. So this approach proved very successful and less stressful. The last present that Terry opened on Christmas morning was inside a flat rectangular orange box, too big for the stocking. “What’s this?” he asked, but I kept silent while he opened the box. “Oh, it’s a ME book!!!” he exclaimed with a huge smile. He had uncovered a customized, hard covered photo book about himself and his extended family that I had created. Looking carefully through the pages, he remarked “I haven’t seen some of these pictures in a long long time. This is wonderful!” The gift was obviously a bigger hit than I thought it would be.
Our family had decided to downsize the number of gifts this Christmas and focus instead on enjoying each other's company and celebrating the season together. Admittedly there was still a bit of overflow of “stocking stuffers” (not everything was able to fit in a stocking), but nothing went over budget. So this approach proved very successful and less stressful. The last present that Terry opened on Christmas morning was inside a flat rectangular orange box, too big for the stocking. “What’s this?” he asked, but I kept silent while he opened the box. “Oh, it’s a ME book!!!” he exclaimed with a huge smile. He had uncovered a customized, hard covered photo book about himself and his extended family that I had created. Looking carefully through the pages, he remarked “I haven’t seen some of these pictures in a long long time. This is wonderful!” The gift was obviously a bigger hit than I thought it would be.
Baby Terry BOORMAN with his motherJoyce nee THOMAS, 1945
In the past I had created other photo memory books for my side of the family using the online tools at shutterfly.com, but none for the Boorman side. Last summer I decided it was time to rectify that situation. I pulled out old photo albums and boxes of loose pictures, then scanned, enhanced and organized those that had not yet been digitized. There were lots.
Gradually a theme presented itself, and I decided to make Terry the focal point of the new book and save it as a Christmas present. The title became “Terry Boorman’s Family”. Terry's childhood naturally included his parents and sister. As Terry’s life also includes his marriage and his children (no grandchildren yet), I also needed to add the younger generation to the book. And finally I decided to include his parents’ siblings and Terry’s grandparents. I was important for me to include all those relatives who had affected Terry's life, as well as information on his more recent heritage.
Gradually a theme presented itself, and I decided to make Terry the focal point of the new book and save it as a Christmas present. The title became “Terry Boorman’s Family”. Terry's childhood naturally included his parents and sister. As Terry’s life also includes his marriage and his children (no grandchildren yet), I also needed to add the younger generation to the book. And finally I decided to include his parents’ siblings and Terry’s grandparents. I was important for me to include all those relatives who had affected Terry's life, as well as information on his more recent heritage.
Terry as a young boy with his father Bill BOORMAN, enjoying the snowin their yard on Oliver Street, Victoria BC.
With the book's scope set to include four generations, the next task was to pick the best of the photos and to group them by era and type of content. Then I let the number and proportions of each group of photos mandate the layout of each page. Because of this I always had to customize the pre-formatted pages included with the chosen book template. It was worth the extra time and effort because the results were more personal and effective, and made the way I wanted.
The front cover shows three different photos of Terry: as a toddler, a young man, and after retirement. The back cover shows a grid of nine photos of his extended family throughout the years, including his childhood home. And the 48 pages between the covers contain a large variety of colour and black and white photos with captions and short descriptive paragraphs. One of the first pages includes a “picture family tree” page, showing thumbnail-sized head shots in four rows, one for each generation: grandparents, parents, siblings and cousins.
The front cover shows three different photos of Terry: as a toddler, a young man, and after retirement. The back cover shows a grid of nine photos of his extended family throughout the years, including his childhood home. And the 48 pages between the covers contain a large variety of colour and black and white photos with captions and short descriptive paragraphs. One of the first pages includes a “picture family tree” page, showing thumbnail-sized head shots in four rows, one for each generation: grandparents, parents, siblings and cousins.
JOHNSTON family, 1911 - 4 generations:Daisy Louise (Johnston) Boorman,
Deborah S (Kerfoot) Johnston holding baby Bill Boorman,
Russell Johnston, Eliza Jane (Neeland) Kerfoot,
Della and Irene Johnston
The next group of photos involved Terry’s grandparents: Harry Eustace BOORMAN and Daisy Louise JOHNSTON and their five children: Bill, Ken, Jack, Sheila and Audrey. I even added in two formal group photos from 1911, showing four generations of the JOHNSTON family. The youngest in the group was Terry’s father William Irvine "Bill" BOORMAN (a baby in his christening gown), then his mother Daisy Louise BOORMAN (nee JOHNSTON), his grandmother Deborah Sophronia JOHNSTON (nee KERFOOT), and his great-grandmother Eliza Jane KERFOOT (nee NEELAND). The second picture also included three of Daisy's siblings: Russell JOHNSTON, Della JOHNSTON and Irene JOHNSTON. It's fun to see the family resemblances.
Three more pages in the book were dedicated to Terry’s father of Bill BOORMAN, including his service in WWII in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserves. Four pages were devoted to Terry’s THOMAS grandparents and relatives: Ivor John THOMAS, Lily Mary YEOMANS and their five children. Terry’s mother Lillian Joyce THOMAS was their youngest.
Three more pages in the book were dedicated to Terry’s father of Bill BOORMAN, including his service in WWII in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserves. Four pages were devoted to Terry’s THOMAS grandparents and relatives: Ivor John THOMAS, Lily Mary YEOMANS and their five children. Terry’s mother Lillian Joyce THOMAS was their youngest.
Daisy Louise (Johnston) BOORMAN and most of her grandchildren.Terry is on the left, back row.
Later sections included Terry and his sister’s childhood and family holidays, and group photos of them with their BOORMAN cousins. Then came Terry's marriage and children, with formal portraits and candid shots of our two boys and family activities. A shorter section on Terry’s sister and her family included her five granddaughters. The final pages focused on our retirement years, with photos taken at a some of our regular family gatherings and on holidays. Great memories!
I spent most of the month of August creating this book, then ordered it online, successfully hiding it until Christmas. So it was a total surprise. Terry wanted to show it to the family, so he brought the book along to a post-Christmas brunch at his sister’s place. Even the youngest child seemed interested in looking at the photos and learning more about their family history. They saw pictures of themselves and others at various ages, reinforcing memories of happy family gatherings. It's amazing how young we all looked!
I think such self-published books are an excellent way of preserving old family photos and information, as well as kindling interest in family heritage among family members. And I am glad that this particular family photo memory book was so well received this Christmas.
Happy New Year to one and all! Here's wishing you happy family times and successful genealogy research in 2016.
I spent most of the month of August creating this book, then ordered it online, successfully hiding it until Christmas. So it was a total surprise. Terry wanted to show it to the family, so he brought the book along to a post-Christmas brunch at his sister’s place. Even the youngest child seemed interested in looking at the photos and learning more about their family history. They saw pictures of themselves and others at various ages, reinforcing memories of happy family gatherings. It's amazing how young we all looked!
I think such self-published books are an excellent way of preserving old family photos and information, as well as kindling interest in family heritage among family members. And I am glad that this particular family photo memory book was so well received this Christmas.
Happy New Year to one and all! Here's wishing you happy family times and successful genealogy research in 2016.
I have posted additional information on my BOORMAN, JOHNSTON, KERFOOT, and THOMAS
families elsewhere on this website.
"52 Ancestors" is a reference to the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge I am participating in.
Reference the No Story Too Small blog by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow for more details.
It is giving me the much needed incentive to write and publish my family stories.
families elsewhere on this website.
"52 Ancestors" is a reference to the "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge I am participating in.
Reference the No Story Too Small blog by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow for more details.
It is giving me the much needed incentive to write and publish my family stories.
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