80th birthday memory book: decades, contributors and photos
Build an 80th birthday book around dates, places or interests. Ask contributors for photos and memories, check names and let the recipient choose what stays private.
Start with the person's actual birth year and the parts of their life they want recorded. The book can include friends, neighbours, colleagues and relatives in any combination.
Create a list of periods and places, then note who might have material for each. A school friend may fill one gap; a former colleague may hold another.
Decade sections are a planning option. Use homes, work or interests instead if the photographs are unevenly spread.
Make the memory book together
Invite people to send photos and their own words, then choose what goes in the book.
Questions to send to each generation
- Which decade do you know them best from?
- Where did you first meet them, and roughly what year was it?
- What did their house look like when you visited as a child?
- Which of their stories have you heard more than once?
- What did they teach you to do with your hands?
- What did an ordinary Sunday with them look like in the years you remember?
- Which photo of them do you have that the rest of the family has not seen?
- What do they still do now that they did when you first knew them?
- Which saying or habit of theirs does every generation recognise?
- For the youngest: what do you do together when you visit?
Allocate sections to the people with evidence
List the periods or themes first, then invite people who know each one. A section can use photos, documents or the recipient's own account rather than a relative's contribution.
- Childhood: anyone holding early prints, school records or named group photos.
- Early adult years: friends, colleagues, neighbours or the recipient.
- Middle years: people from work, homes, interests or family life.
- Recent years: current friends and anyone who shares activities with them.
Ask contributors how they prefer to send material
Start with material that needs collecting or scanning. Offer to visit or work from copies; keep a list of borrowed items and who owns them.
Ask each contributor for different dates or settings. Keep their names with their words, and request permission before showing contributions at a party.
Test the page with its reader
Put words beside a photograph, never across it. Use dark text on a plain pale background and keep to two or three photos a page so each one can be large.
Print one page before laying out the rest. Ask them to read a caption at the distance they normally hold a book, and enlarge the type if they hesitate.
- Write a contributor's name with their relation: Name, granddaughter.
- Use the name the reader knew a person by, then the full name in brackets.
- Give each decade the same caption size so no section reads as less important.
Contributions without writing
A contributor can choose a photograph, make a drawing or dictate words to someone who writes them down exactly. Include their name and the date without guessing a relationship.
Pages to make
The earliest period
A named school, street or group photograph beside an account from someone who knows the setting. Mark uncertain dates clearly.
One place across time
Two photographs of the same home, workplace or meeting place, with their dates and a separate contribution about each.
An interest that lasted
A club programme, object or photograph from an activity, with the names of people who shared it.
The birthday and recent life
Recent photographs chosen with the recipient. Reserve an optional page for the birthday itself, then add only the pictures they want.
Questions
How many pages should an 80th birthday memory book have?
One spread per decade is sixteen pages for eight decades. Add an opening page, a contributors page and the party spread and you have about twenty.
What if one decade has almost no photos?
Use a written memory from someone who was there, a document from the period, or a photograph of an object they still own from it. Leave the gap visible rather than stretching other years.
How can someone contribute without writing?
They can choose a photo, draw, or dictate to someone who records their words exactly. Label the contribution with their name and the date.