One of my best friends got married this month. She is well situated, already has children, a nice house and a good career. So my family was wondering what would be the best thing to give her as a wedding present. She has pretty much everything, and can afford whatever she needs. What could I possibly give her which would be of any real worth to her?

Then I remembered a conversation I had had with her some time ago, where she expressed a desire to know more about her husband’s family. His surname of Brandstatter has been present in Slovenia as long as family remembers, but is not of Slovene origin. She said: “I wish I could tell people where my husband’s surname comes from when they ask me.”

That converstion ignited an idea for a great wedding present!

In couple of weeks following that conversation I researched, called and visited the archives in order to find at least five generations of both of their families. When I compiled all the needed information I contacted a family business in the US who are experts in woving family trees onto a piece of fabric. They did an an excellent work and all that was left to do is to frame it and pack it nicely.

The framed family tree of Brandstatter & Zajc families (click to enlarge)

When their family history was presented to them at the wedding, everyone was touched! Newlyweds shed tears of joy as they were reading from the family tree about their ancestry. But not just newylweds, their entire family was amazed and deeply touched when realizing that I had found a piece of their history that they didn’t even know it existed.