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The Multi-Media Family Tree is an on-going project which I began in 1996. Inspired by a box of old photographs that one of my grandmothers found in her garage, I decided to create a digital family tree which would archive the photos and memories of my family spanning 4 generations, and an entire century.


1940 screen 1990 screen
On the top level, the tree looks like any traditional family tree, showing the names, birthdays, and marriage dates of all of my relatives. There is a timeline found at the bottom of the screen spanning from 1900 through 1990. When a decade is clicked on, pictures of each person, corresponding to what they looked like during that decade shows above their name.


1930 screnshot 1940 screenshot
Once a decade has been chosen, the user can then click on the icon of that person, and they will be introduced to a series of "scrapbook pages" which displays photographs of that person from that decade. Some of these pages contain audio, a narrative by that person describing of the photographs.
Other pages contain video files, which I presented as a "picture coming to life".


wedding screen birth screen
Another way to navigate through my family tree is to click on either the birthdate or the marriage date of any person. From here, the user is automatically taken the scrapbook photos from when that person was born, or their wedding album.

Version 1.0 was completed and presented to my grandparents in the Spring 1997 when both sets of my grandparents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary.

The Stories of how my Grandparents met...

Choo and May 1947
Choo & May
Chuck and May 1947
Chuck & May

My maternal and paternal grandparents were both married in 1947. Both of my Grandfathers had traveled from the United States to China to find a bride.

Although their two stories sound quite similar, I was intrigued to find out just how different their early stages of romance really were.

Please click here to read their stories.


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