Albums

HEIRLOOM FAMILY HISTORY ALBUMS

Do you know the names of your eight great-grandparents? Would you like to learn about how and where they spent their lives?
Do you want to compile your family information, photos and documents into a book that will remain in your family forever?
Have you spent years researching your family’s history, and now need a way to present it so that all of your family can appreciate it for generations to come?

Heirloom Family Albums are…

A legacy to leave your children and grandchildren that will be treasured by their grandchildren and beyond
A unique gift to honor a milestone birthday or anniversary, wedding or new baby
A rewarding way to celebrate and honor your family

These books are ideal for families whose ancestors have been living in the United States since the end of the 1800s or before. You will fill out a form telling me what you know about your parents, grandparents and so on. I will endeavor to identify the names of ancestors you don’t know, and locate vital records and documents they left behind. Each of our Heirloom Albums includes a dedication page, a family tree chart, a family page for each ancestral couple and their children, a timeline of their lives, at least two to three original documents for each generation, and your family photos, supplemented by historical photos I uncover during the research process. Documents I locate and incorporate in the book may include census records, marriage licenses, draft registrations, vintage newspaper articles, and immigration and citizenship documents.

Latest Blog Posts

National Archives of Ireland Tour

A tour of the National Archives of Ireland, by a visiting American professional genealogist. Read More...

The National Library of Ireland

As if I wasn't overwhelmed enough by just being in Ireland, entering the most beautiful library I have ever been in put me over the top. I love this place. If I didn't have to find food eventually, I might never leave. Well, not for a long time anyway. Doesn't the beauty of this place say...

A heart-filling, time-traveling day in Ireland

I've been home from Ireland for a few weeks, but am just now getting my feet back under me. I had hoped to post to my blog during my trip, but I found myself falling exhausted into bed each night instead. Every day was thrilling and overwhelming. I did take lots of photos, and over the next few weeks I plan to write about some of the research repositories where I worked. But there is one particular story that wants to be told first. The day that stands out most in my mind was the day that my new-found Irish cousins, Ann and her brother Peter, took my husband and I out to Moycullen, a parish in County Galway, northwest of Galway City. My great-grandmother's brother, Stephen Burke, married a Moycullen girl named Margaret Barrett. Margaret's younger brother was Ann's great-grandfather, Nicholas Barrett. That Ann and I found each other and wove the wandering threads of our families back together is a miracle that Internet communication made possible, but that's another story. Margaret and Nicholas grew up in a cluster of cottages that made up the Townland of Islandmore. It was an exquisite day when we set off to find this place. In a land of soft days filled with misty rain, this day was crystalline clear and warm, under a dazzling blue sky. Ann stopped the car along the side of a vine-covered stone wall. We pulled aside the vegetation that had overgrown the engraving in the stone that told us we had come home to Islandmore. Ann drove down a dirt lane just wide enough for two tire tracks, and pulled up to a small farm house. The owner graciously led us back, climbing through piles of hay bales, and pointed out the ruins of the original stone cottages. The thatched roofs were long gone, only scraps of corrugated tin that replaced them remained. Some of the stone had been replaced by cement blocks during the years that the structures had been used as barns and outbuildings. Vines and bushes had been hard at work reclaiming the former homes, but parts of the walls survived. We pulled the branches aside, ducked our heads under the low doorway, and crossed the threshold into what the elderly property owner pointed out as being the former Barrett

Catherine Desmarais is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists

Catherine is a Board-Certified Genealogist. Certified Genealogist and CG are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by Board-certified associates after periodic competency evaluations.