The Clark Family

description

For my fall semester senior project, I chose to create a way of organizing and sharing family histories that is non-traditional, inventive and user-friendly. I used my own family's history for the project, but another family could easily be swapped in.

I conducted extensive research for this project. About 180 hours were spent researching, using the internet and any existing records that my family had. I was put in touch with several relatives that I didn't know existed, and the research stage was truly a group effort. The earliest family member I found was born in the year 1196, and I also discovered that my family is related to the royal family of Scotland. I became captivated by the research process, and learned more than I ever would have without this project. That was one of the most rewarding aspects of the project.

Once the research was completed, I had to choose a format for this project to take. I originally toyed with the idea of creating an interactive app for the iPad, but eventually decided that a large-scale book was the most appropriate choice. With a book, small or large groups of family could gather to flip through its pages and learn about their ancestors together. The final book is 11" by 14", so that, when open, it perfectly sits atop two people's laps when they are seated side by side.

The book has three main sections. The first contains a spread-out map of the ancestors with their name, life span and the page on which more information about them could be found. This section therefore doubles as a table of contents. This section also features several fold-out pages so that longer lineages can be shown without breaking between pages. The second section has a spread or page for each individual mentioned in the first section. These profile pages contain as much information about them as possible, and this information is sorted into columns according to importance. This treatment is continuous throughout the book, so that a reader looking for specific information would be able to find it as quickly as possible. The third section makes connections between ancestors and points out patterns to the viewer. For instance, the oldest age lived to and the average number of children are calculated and displayed here. This section also contains an immigration map, showing how many individuals moved from Europe to the Americas by country.