Family History & CSI #45

This week over at CSI we are working with this gorgeous palette, which I felt was perfect for a heritage layout :

The journaling prompt to go visit this website inspired this whole layout actually. I chose prompt #13 "Write a story of one of your ancestors in connection to a famous event in history." Right away, I thought about how my Grandparents (both from the Netherlands) survived both World Wars. That got me wondering about their stories from that time. I never met my Grandfather, and my Grandmother passed away over 13 years ago, so I asked my Aunts and Uncles if they would be willing to share some of their stories with me. They were, but I didn't receive their stories until after I sent the picture to Debbi, so I'll be posting some revised shots here on my blog. Here's the shot of the layout that's in the gallery:

And here's some detail shots of the layout as it is now with the stories from my Aunt Tjaltje added in. 

I made a little booklet that is attached together by a brad so you can fan the pages to read them. It's really quite small (about 2.5 in x 4 in), but I didn't want the journaling to overwhelm the layout. I added an extra piece of paper over the back after I put the brad through, so that the prongs on the back of the brad wouldn't scratch the picture when you take it out of the envelope.

I was surprised to learn that during the war, my Grandparents hid a Jewish woman and later, her two nieces as well. My Aunt tells me that they, along with many other people during that time, believed that they were God's chosen people and that they needed help. So they helped. Simple, and very brave. I am so very proud of them. There are other stories there as well; about being cold in the winters, about having to miss school and how, because my Grandparents always had a huge garden, they fared better then some other families when it came to food.

And the whole layout again as it is now (this is a bad shot, as the light is stinky here today):

I am really hoping that I get a few more stories from some of my other Aunts and Uncles; if i do, they will be added onto the layout as well. If I get too many, I think I might add them in pockets on the back of the layout.

I feel that it's important to write down your family history. When I think of the stories that are already lost because Pake & Beppe are gone now, I get a little sad.

If you've never tried out CSI, I really encourage you to check it out!

Thanks for popping by today!