MULTIMEDIA FAMILY FORMS
When I first got into genealogy, I was expecting to find only a few ancestors. After all, nana's background was confusing, to say the least, and father's father was pure mystery. As it turned out, I needn't have worried. My worry, instead, became how to keep all of my father's mother's family straight. Too many dates! Too many facts! My brain was roiling. Every genealogy layout I knew just overwhelmed me.

That's when I decided to design my own approach to genealogy forms - to find the layout that was most natural for me to understand. I'm a visual person, and I'd worked in multimedia design at IBM Research, so something that emphasized images, rather than just dates, was what I needed.

What I came up with is something I call a MultiMedia Family Form. I call it that because I used to work for defense contractors, who abbreviate and pronounce everything, and mmmmfffffs sounded perfect.

A MMFF covers at least a couple, and may cover their children. The couple's name and dates is at top left. Their relationship to me is at top right. Below our relationship, I put a small descendancy outline. These don't have to be complete. They just need to remind me how I connect to them. Grandfather of a recognizable immigrant ancestor, for example. The rest of the page consists of a textual description, surrounded by images that remind me of aspects of their lives. This means I can glance at a MMFF and instantly connect names to our relationship, and remember who they are by images rather than words. I then file the MMFFs in notebooks by generation.

There's another reason I use MMFFs. They bring the person alive for me. They're not a box on a graph, or a line in a list. They're people, who lived and loved and breathed and who share my blood. I want them to live again. Emphasizing individuals in MMFFs does that for me. It might do that for you, too.

GRANDPARENTS
Jack Bell
Catharine Burnett
James Homer Butridge
Jennie Audrey Dribben
UNCLES, AUNTS & COUSINS OF GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION
Lawrence Lewis Gillespie
Irene Sherman
. . .
GREAT GRANDPARENTS
Brig.Gen. H.L. Burnett
Sarah Lansing
. Charles Butridge
Mary Susan Walker
Zach Mulhall
Unknown
UNCLES, AUNTS & COUSINS OF GREAT GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION
George Gillespie
Rhobie McMaster
William Watts Sherman
Sophie Brown
. .
GREAT2 GRANDPARENTS
Henry Burnett
Nancy Jones
Brig.Gen. H.L. Lansing
Catharine Gibson
Riley Butridge
Mary Susan Watson
John Walker
Susan Mary Hall
UNCLES, AUNTS & COUSINS OF GREAT2 GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION
Watts Sherman, II
Sarah Maria Gibson
Brig.Gen. Henry S. Lansing
Jane White
Elisha Kent Kane Frederic Remington
Eva Adelle
Theodore Roosevelt
Alice Lee, Edith Carow
. . .
GREAT3 GRANDPARENTS
Samuel Burnett
Nancy Halliday
Barent Bleecker Lansing
Sarah Breese
Henry B. Gibson
Sarah Sherman
Henry Butridge, Jr.
Sarah
Coleman Watson
Lucy M. Coleman
. . .
UNCLES, AUNTS & COUSINS OF GREAT3 GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION
Samuel L. Breese
Frances Stout
Emma Lovett
Sidney Breese
Eliza Morrison
Richard Ray Lansing
Susan Platt
Elizabeth Livingston
SFB Morse
Lucretia Walker
Sarah Griswold
Sidney Morse
Catharine Livingston
Louisa May Alcott Thomas Edison
Mary Stillwell
Mina Miller
General Sherman
Ellen Ewing
Senator Sherman
Margaret Stewart
. . .
GREAT4 GRANDPARENTS
Arthur Breese
Catharine Livingston
Gerrit G. Lansing
Mary Antill
Watts Sherman
Olivia Jillson
John Gibson
Catharine Bicker
UNCLES, AUNTS & COUSINS OF GREAT4 GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION
Smith Thompson
Sarah Livingston
Elizabeth Livingston
Melanchton T. Woolsey
Susan Tredwell
Elias Kent Kane
Alida Van Rensselaer
Hamilton Fish
Julia Kean
John Lansing
Cornelia Ray
Sanders Lansing
Catharine TenEyck
Abraham Lansing
Susannah Yates
Barent Bleecker
Sarah Lansing
Jacob G. Lansing II
Fenimetje Lansing
. . .
GREAT5 GRANDPARENTS
Henry Livingston
Sarah Welles
Nathaniel Sherman
Lucy Tisdale
James Jillson
Amy Whipple
Samuel Breese
Elizabeth Anderson
Edward Antill
Charlotte Riverin
Henry Bicker
Sophia Heyer
Gerrit Jacob Lansing
Jannetje Waters
.
UNCLES, AUNTS & COUSINS OF GREAT5 GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION
Jonas Platt
Helena Livingston
Gilbert Livingston
Catharine Crannell
John Henry Livingston
Sarah Livingston
Gouveneur Morris
Anna Randolph
Timothy Dwight
Mary Woolsey
Richard Montgomery
Janet Livingston
Robert R. Livingston
Mary Stevens
John Jay
Sarah Livingston
Jacob J. Lansing
Marytje Egberts
. . .
GREAT6 GRANDPARENTS
Henry Livingston, Sr.
Suzannah Conklin
Noah Welles
Abigail Woolsey
Edward Antill
Anne Morris
Sidney Breese
Elizabeth Penkethman
Jacob Gerrit Lansing
Helena Glen
. . .
UNCLES, AUNTS & COUSINS OF GREAT6 GRANDPARENTS' GENERATION
Pierre Van Cortlandt
Joanna Livingston
William Livingston
Susannah French
Robert Livingston
Maria Thong
Philip John Schuyler
Catharine Van Renessalaer
Lewis Morris
Mary Walton
Philip Livingson
Christina Ten Broeck
Abraham Whipple
Sarah Hopkins
Roger Sherman
Rebecca Prescott
GREAT7 GRANDPARENTS
Governor Lewis Morris
Isabella Graham
Gilbert Livingston
Cornelia Beekman
Benjamin Woolsey
Abigail Taylor
James Anderson
Suit Garland
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