Family Movie Story Books

06/11/2024

Celebrating Ancestors of Service? Save 11% until Nov 11 on Family History Book Publishing packages.

Celebrate those ancestors of service by publishing your Family Book Done For You with a special 11% off discount coupon valid until 11pm November 11.

25/09/2024

Does gathering stories for your family history book seem complex and challenging? Try these free interview tools!

After decades of interviewing folks for family history books and movies we've created several tools that help you get your head around what content you might want to include. Whether you're planning, interviewing a family member, or being interviewed yourself, these tools will make the task easier.

Download these tools free: Life Story Questionnaire, Family Tree Chart, 110 Interview Questions, and Sentence Completions. https://familymoviestorybooks.com/family-history-interview-preparation/

16/09/2024

Curating old photos. You either love it or hate it. Either way wrangling all those old photos can be so addicting that you never get started publishing your family book OR it can all be so frustrating that you quit. This free workshop is designed to give you simple strategies for working through all those photos on the way to leaving your loved ones with the most amazing family book ever!

Gathering, digitizing, and uploading your old photos for your family history book project.

31/07/2024

So excited to help Marlene Wilson publish her book Riding with Hope and Resilience. https://familymoviestorybooks.com/riding-with-hope-and-resilience Marlene tells stories of her life: facing down dangerous cattle, outrunning wide fires on the range, staying sober, healing from childhood trauma, broken relationships, the death of two of her children, and bringing love and care to the humans and animals of her own herd. Her heart warming book is packed with real-life-tested wisdom and ways to stay calm and peaceful, no matter what is happening.

08/05/2024

Family Book Done For You. We interview and record your and/or mom and dad telling those stories.

With our interviewing and book design you get a custom crafted, bespoke family history book perfect for a cherished family keepsake, bedtime stories, and as a durable compilation of your irreplaceable family history and your parent’s lives too.

Once you have approved the text and images you get a gorgeously designed family book ready to be printed with your choice of quality paper.

Free consultation.

https://familymoviestorybooks.com/family-book-done-for-you/

08/05/2024

Family History Book Chapter 7: The Essential Crazy Aunts and Uncles

To be clear, it was mother who thought her brother Martin (my beloved Uncle Marty) was crazy. To her he was goofy, irresponsible, and erratic. To me he was playful, fun, carefree, approachable, and brave. Uncle Marty was a black belt Judo instructor, a successful radio advertising sales rep, father, husband, and even a pretty wise dog owner. He passed away when he was just 38 and I was 18. I really miss him. There's two pages in my family book about him. Glad he was in my life. — Cory Bretz, Family Historian

Which of your aunts and uncles will be in your Family Book Done For You?

08/05/2024

Chapter 19: Cars: Our family fleet
Did your grandfather love his cars?

07/05/2024

How To Share Your Old Photos, our free online workshop is this coming Thursday May 9 @ 10am Pacific. The workshop content will teach you the steps for converting your paper print photo collection into print-quality digital images, ready for inclusion in your family history book project. Hear about the simplest and proven methods from sorting, preparing, and digitizing to developing, storing, and uploading. Whether you are doing the digitizing yourself or having someone else do it for you, this workshop will answer all your questions, plus save you time, money and prevent frustration. Reserve your spot on Eventbrite:

Gathering, digitizing, and uploading your old photos for your family history book project.

04/05/2024

Chapter 19: Cars: Our family fleet
Who in your family loved cars?

02/05/2024

Family History Book Chapter 17: Our Family Toys
What family keepsake toys have been handed down from your family?

02/05/2024

Family History Book Chapter 17: Our Family Toys

30/04/2024

Family History Book Chapter 32: Haircuts, Curlers, and our Family style! https://familymoviestorybooks.com/family-book-done-for-you/

29/04/2024

Chapter 17: Our Family Toys.

26/04/2024

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL THOSE CELEBRATING.

My mother was a statuesque 5'11" beauty {and an exceptionally gifted seamstress and South African discus throwing champion}.

She was always very conscious of her height. Her twin Ivan was 6'4" … could she ever have been short? I always felt confident that I would never lose her in a crowded store. All I needed to do was to crane my neck upwards and I would easily see her off in the distance.

Her height and her snow white/prematurely grey hair were striking. Going shopping with her was a workout. Her legs were so long that one stride for her was about four kid strides. Suffice to say I must have been a very fit kid!

My mother was an exceptional seamstress. She made 90% of our clothing. I would watch (and kibbitz) as she would skillfully lay the fabric on the floor, pattern on-top and chick-chak2 the outfit was completed. She would make outfits for my Barbie doll as well. She would use the left over pieces of fabric using doll Vogue patterns and again in no time Barbie was sporting the latest Chanel or Halston outfit. Without a doubt my Barbie was hands down the best dressed in the whole neighborhood.

My mom also made a mean chocolate cake. How she had the patience with two little girls repeatedly asking for the beaters to lick even before she had dispersed the batter, I don’t know. Of course the best part was the chocolate icing made from scratch. She iced the cake with flair and ease. She created the best birthday cakes. I recall the chocolate gingerbread man for my third birthday, Hansel and Gretel for my fourth and the bride with her bridesmaids was my fifth. René and I continued her master cake tradition. When my sister’s son, Davey, turned one it was Thomas the Tank Engine. Davey was the train driver with all the Vancouver family as passengers.

Community service came easily to my mom. At 23 she was the youngest woman to chair the Ladies Synagogue Guild in East London. When the Mental Health Society needed urgent funding, she began the tradition of chairing their Annual Fundraiser Gala, bringing in much needed cash. Her sewing talents were skillfully used again when the Lions Club my father belonged to needed marionette costumes. She also learned the art of working the complex marionette movements for their many fundraiser performances

She was a loving, demonstrative mother.
I always knew I was loved and cherished.

Our home was always neat, clean and tidy. If she was not happy with the state of our bedrooms, our doors would unceremoniously be slammed closed. Next would be a rebuke that ended with “you weren’t born in a pigsty!”

She was not a hoarder by any means. Everything had its place. But when she passed away (at a very young 55) I was packing up her home and found a huuuuuuuge binder of baby and toddler patterns that she had kept which was titled ‘For My Grandchildren.’ Sadly she died before Davey (René’s son) was born, robbing her of the chance to knit those cute jerseys. She would have loved Davey ‘all the world and apple pie’. Now I have a lump in my throat. I miss her every day.

Today I am in my 60s. I have currently outlived my mother by many years. Many people I know do not enjoy their birthdays. They dread getting older and would rather their birthdays went under the radar. Since my mother passed away so young I celebrate my birthday with utter joy and happiness in her honour. I am grateful for having a mother who unconditionally loved, cared and protected me during challenging times in my life with the strength of a lioness.

Barbi Braude

26/04/2024

The Joy of Inspiring Great Grandchildren! Download this 25 Simple Tips Free E-Book that makes the confusing steps of creating THE family book for the next generation easy and rewarding. Finally experience the relief of honoring the ancestors and also passing on precious history information. Find out proven strategies for storytelling, organizing imagery, and taming all that genealogy. Give the most amazing family book ever.
https://familymoviestorybooks.com/25-simple-tips-free-e-book/

23/04/2024

My own mom Henrietta Leigh was fiercely loving. She always encouraged me to be bold and creative, qualities that now serve me as I help others inspire the world. When I was six, my little brother was three and my little sister was just a baby. My mom could be irritable and scary to me as a small boy because she would often scream and yell at us kids. It was only when I grew up that I started to understand that she probably didn't feel physically very well, dealing with diabetes and other medical conditions.

By the time I was 26 Mom was dying from the disease. As she declined, we spent a lot of quiet moments together, her talking, me listening. She confided in me and told me just before she passed away that throughout her life she was often scared and frustrated. She said it didn't feel fair to her that she had a terrible disease and that she was going to die before she was 50. It all made sense why she was screaming and angry when I was a kid.

When I turned eight years old my mom told me it was time I learned to cook. At the time I was mad because I just wanted to play and have fun. Cooking seemed like a lot of work and hard to do. Now I know that at the time she had a raging headache and was feeling dizzy and nauseous but I had no idea back then. I burned a few meals but eventually I was serving the most amazing burgers our family ever had on Saturday evenings! The gift has been that when I got married and my own baby daughter came along I loved cooking and that left my spouse less challenged and more able to focus on the baby.

Thanks Mom!

When you think about your own mom, what are the gifts that she gave you? Those are the things that are easily added to your family book.

Come join us at this next free workshop at 4pm Pacific on Thursday April 25 as we work on how to honor Mom in our family books!

Tix on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/825500242447

Sincerely,
Henrietta Leigh's Son
Cory Bretz, Family Historian

23/04/2024

At our next free online workshop How To Easily Share Your Photos we focus on the section of your family book that will honor your Mom.

Whether she's still around or passed on, documenting who Mom is and what gifts she brought to your family will be inspiring generations to come. How you reflect your mother in your keepsake family book is not only a positive experience for you in honoring her but also a way to transmit a valuable example of how (or how NOT) to be a mother into the future for your descendants.

Tickets on Eventbrite

Gathering, digitizing, and uploading your old photos for your family book project.

14/03/2024

What’s one thing you admire about your mother?

In the tapestry of life, mothers weave the most intricate threads of love, care, and sacrifice. Their presence leaves an indelible mark on our hearts, shaping us into the individuals we are today. As we navigate the complexities of the world, it’s essential to pause and reflect on the profound impact our mothers have had on our lives. For most making a family book for their great grandkids there is at least one chapter about Mom and also the Grandmothers.

Give mom the most amazing gift this year...her own family book project!

For most making a family book for the great grandkids there is at least one chapter about Mom. What’s one thing you admire about your mother?