Genealogy has been my subject of interest since I was in grade four. I had made a family tree on a piece of paper with different colored markers and it was interesting how small my paper looked once the tree started expanding. I wished I would make a proper family tree one day. I’m happy to have fulfilled my own dream. Of course the effort is ongoing and it isn’t possible to ever complete this hobby.
So my real family tree is online at Ancestry website but I have made a Genealogy journal so I can share my research with friends and family without having to turn on my laptop. I had shared my Ancestry Journal with you all on the blog on this link. Afterwards when I was decorating my new home in Lahore, I thought theres not a single wall hanging of my hobby Genealogy where as I have many of my other hobbies displayed on the wall i.e. painting, postal stamps and key obsession.
I had visions in my mind of a family tree till my great great grandparents. I only had to take out time and get down to this project. One day last month, my sister Nataliya was over and she showed me this pin on Pinterest which again inspired me to make our family tree.
But I decided to add birthday, marriage and death dates along with a passport picture of each person in my family tree. The main challenges I had to face while making my family tree wall hanging were:
1. How to add so many great great grandparents on one chart paper?
2. So many of my ancestors are repeated again and again due to cousin marriages. How to avoid duplicate persons on the tree?
My repeated great grandparents are shown in the following page of my Genealogy Journal too:
Once I started working on the project, it suddenly occurred to me that I should arrange siblings together so I could avoid repeating their parents on the tree. So I simply arranged the tree in a way that its clear when two people share the same parents. That way I would have more space and avoid repetition. It took me a full day to complete the project from scratch. After getting it framed, I was happy with the end result. I’m glad I have this hobby displayed on the wall too now. Following is the end result of my effort:
During this time, I decided to gift my sister and my mom a Genealogy wall hanging. I thought this would be the perfect gift for them as finally after years, my discovery of our family tree upto 4th generation is almost complete. The wall hanging gifts which I got printed and framed for them is as under:
While I was in the process of getting these printed, I got an amazing idea from my colleague which was to get a t-shirt printed with my family tree on it. So there I was getting a little carried away with that thought on my budget but it was sure something that bought me happiness. That matters really!
So I wore it in my home once. The first thing my husband said to me when he saw me in this was that he won’t be able to come close to me when I’m wearing that t-shirt as he doesn’t want all my ancestors to be staring at him. Now I know what to wear when I want my me-me time next.
The reason I shared these ideas on my blog is to hopefully motivate you to make your family tree display. These projects gave me a lot of satisfaction and happiness as I knew I was investing my time into something useful. Inspired yet?
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