Every family story is different, and your book should be too. Following the Family Trail creates fully customized family-history and legacy books designed around your photographs, records, memories, research, and the people you want to remember. There are no one-size-fits-all templates—each book is planned and designed to reflect your family’s unique story.
A custom book can be created to:
- Trace your family through several generations, combining genealogy research, family trees, photographs, records, maps, and stories.
- Celebrate the life of a parent, grandparent, or other special person, preserving their memories, accomplishments, traditions, and favorite stories.
- Honor a milestone birthday, such as an 80th or 90th birthday, with photographs and memories gathered from family and friends.
- Celebrate a wedding anniversary, telling the story of a couple’s life together through photographs, memories, family milestones, and changing generations.
- Preserve the history of a family farm, home, or property, including the people who lived there, historic photographs, deeds, maps, and stories connected to the land.
- Create a family reunion keepsake, bringing together family branches, photographs, family trees, recipes, memories, and stories to share with everyone attending.
- Turn years of genealogy research into something your family will actually enjoy reading, instead of leaving valuable discoveries hidden away in binders, files, or an online family tree.
- Preserve old photographs, letters, recipes, newspaper clippings, military records, and family documents by giving them a permanent place within the story of your family.
- Follow one ancestor’s journey, from immigration or migration to the communities, churches, farms, businesses, and families they helped build.
- Tell the story of a family business, church, organization, or community, celebrating an anniversary or preserving its history for future generations.
- Create a meaningful gift for children and grandchildren, giving them a connection to relatives and stories they may never have had the chance to know.
- Preserve family stories before they are lost, recording the memories of older family members while they are still here to share them.
From the cover and page design to family trees, timelines, maps, photographs, documents, and personal stories, every detail is thoughtfully arranged to create a beautiful, one-of-a-kind book. The finished book becomes more than a collection of names and pictures—it becomes a family heirloom that can be shared, treasured, and passed down for generations.
Your finished book should feel as special as the story it preserves. I use Snapfish.com to produce beautifully bound, professional-quality books in a range of sizes, cover styles, and formats. You select the book style that best fits your project, and you pay Snapfish directly for printing and shipping, with no added markup from me.
Before the book is printed, I handle the complete design and production process. I typeset the text, create the page layouts, prepare photographs and documents, and carefully arrange family trees, timelines, maps, captions, and other details so the finished book feels cohesive, polished, and entirely personal. Every book is custom designed from beginning to end—never dropped into a generic template.
I also keep sample books on hand so you can see and feel the finished quality before choosing your own format. The result is more than a photo book. It is a thoughtfully designed family heirloom, created to be enjoyed now and passed down to children, grandchildren, and future generations.
| Family Keepsake | Family Story | Family Legacy |
|---|---|---|
| Starting at $650 Approximately 20–24 pages Best for one person, couple, ancestor, anniversary or short family story. | Starting at $1,150 Approximately 30–40 pages Most Popular Designed for several generations or a more complete family story. | Starting at $1,850 Approximately 50–70 pages For a comprehensive multigenerational family history. |
| Includes: – Custom cover – Professionally designed pages – Up to approximately 25 photos/documents – Basic photo cleanup – Short family tree – Simple timeline if desired – Client-provided text – Captions and headings – Two rounds of corrections – Setup of the finished book with the photo-book printer Research and physical books are separate. | Includes: – Custom cover and page design – Up to approximately 50 photos/documents – Family tree – Timeline – Maps where appropriate – Census/newspaper /church/document reproductions – Short ancestor profiles – Moderate photo cleanup – Historical context supplied by the family – Three rounds of corrections – Complete photo-book and printer setup Research and physical books are separate. | Includes: – Fully customized design – Multiple family branches – Approximately 75+ photos and documents – Family trees – Detailed timeline – Maps and migration routes – Ancestor profiles – Letters and newspaper clippings – Census, military, church and cemetery material – Family recipes and memorabilia – More extensive image restoration – Historical context – Sources section – Three rounds of corrections – Complete production setup with the book printer Research and physical books are separate. |