Storytelling templates for family history books.
Turn your genealogy research, photos, and interview notes into a genealogy book your family will love! This collection of 36 professionally designed layouts gives you every storytelling building block you need — short stories, story maps, photo stories, photo captions, Q&A interview transcriptions, timelines, ancestor profiles, family trees, annotations, sidebars, and tables — so you can focus on the stories, not the design.
✔ To use these templates, you will need a free or paid Canva account. From Canva, create your pages, save your finished files, and then upload them to the publisher of your choice or print them at home.
✔ The templates are fully editable. You can change the fonts, colors, point sizes, add/remove photos, and rearrange layouts to match your personal preferences.
✔ Designed with your readers in mind. These layouts were built with your readers' experiences as the priority — not just yours as the creator.
✔ Headings, pull quotes, captions, and body text are sized and spaced so readers always know what to look at first, keeping them moving through the page instead of getting lost.
✔ Consistent design across 36 layouts. Because every layout shares the same spacing rules and typography system, your finished book will read as one cohesive, professional publication — not a patchwork.
✔ Built to be easy to use. You won't need design training — the templates do all the hard work for you. Choose the pages you need, then duplicate any page. Every page includes writing prompts and example short stories. Drag and drop photos into placeholders.
✔ Original, human-illustrated clip art included free. PNGs are 300 DPI (high-resolution quality).
📐 Book Sizes
8.5"W x 11"H (US letter portrait)
12" x 12" (square)
A4 (210 x 297 mm)
📖 Short Stories
Use for: Full narrative accounts — an ancestor's immigration story, a wedding day retelling, a family legend passed down through generations. Column options are flexible for different story lengths. Includes layouts for 1-, 2-, and 3-columns.
👪🏽 Ancestor Profiles
Use for: Dedicated biography pages for individual family members — birth/death details, occupation, personality, key life events. Give each ancestor their own spotlight.
🌳 Family Trees
Use for: Visualizing lineage and relationships across generations. Anchor the entire book with a clear reference point readers can flip back to when tracking who's who.
📄 Annotations
Use for: Adding notes, translations, or clarifying details directly alongside documents, letters, or records. Explain historical context or handwriting/translation notes.
📍 Story Maps
Use for: Illustrating migration routes, homestead locations, or pinpointing key events. Turn geography into a visual anchor for stories and instantly understandable to readers.
🗓️ Timelines
Use for: Mapping major life events, generational milestones, or historical context alongside family events. Condense decades of dates and events into a scannable visual reference for your readers.
📷 Photo Stories & Photo Captions
Use for: Pairing a photo with the narrative behind it — who's in it, what was happening, why it matters. Give context to images that would otherwise be silent, transforming your book into a storytelling experience.
🎨 Bonus Clip Art
Man & woman silhouettes
50 US state maps
USA map with Alaska and Hawaii inset
⚠️ Important Note
This is a DIGITAL product. No physical book or printed materials will be shipped to you. Photos are for display only and are not included. Resale strictly prohibited.
📂 File Info
Upon purchase, you will receive a ZIP file that contains 2 PDFs. The PDFs contain the links to your Canva templates and clip art. The PDF is also your quick start guide, packed with instructions, tips, and ideas for creating your family legacy book.
ZIP File Size: 930 KB
PDF File Sizes: 190 - 980 KB
PNG File Sizes: 120 KB - 2.5 MB
© StoryMap Studio, LLC
