Getting children involved in family history encourages an enquiring mind and helps with the development, experience and knowledge of IT, computer and research skills.
Useful social skills can be gained from talking to relatives and research centre staff and insight and understanding of different people can be achieved through discovery of the lives of ancestors.
It is appreciated that in the UK today there are many different family combinations from a variety of International origins and it's suggested a supervising adult select the information and projects that are relevant to the child's background.
Family history for children should be interesting and fun and you can encourage initial interest by talking about your own life and what you've discovered in your family history researches.
Once a child shows an interest in wanting to know more, you can then turn genealogy into an imaginative game in which they're the lead player taking one of the following roles.
Investigator - when they're finding out facts and information on name and dates and where ancestors lived.
Reporter - when talking to relatives and writing up their stories.
Explorer - when hunting for genealogical treasures in old boxes and attics, when visiting archives, a family history centre or just the places where an ancestor lived.
They would then become a fully fledged Genealogist.
INVESTIGATOR
Here's a simple form that can be printed off for children to give to their parents and grandparents to complete. The information can then be used to draw up a simple family tree.
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Full name |
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Surname before marriage, if different |
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Birth date |
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Birth place |
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Date of marriage |
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Place of marriage |
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Parents’ full names |
Mother |
Father |
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Parents’ date of birth |
Mother |
Father |
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Parents' place of birth |
Mother |
Father |
INVESTIGATION PROJECT - GROWING A FAMILY TREE
Helping a child construct a basic family tree will help with understanding about relationships and generations. Blank charts can be downloaded free from the internet (See: Useful Info and Tips) or a child can draw their own tree.
Left-over wallpaper is ideal, and using a large sticky label for each person defines their place on the tree and keeps things orderly and organised.
At first, limit the people on the tree to the child, siblings, parents and grandparents and write out a label for each giving their name and any relevant dates and places for birth, marriage and death. A drawn picture or photograph of the person can be added.
The first label to be stuck down should be the child's, and others should then be arranged in the traditional way with lines linking siblings attached sideways, and parents attached above like tree branches.
download family tree example (131kb)
REPORTER
Children can become a reporter by interviewing family relations about their lives. Here's an example of, we'll call it an interviewing brief, which children can base their questions on. Answers could be written down or tape recorded. Distant relatives could be asked for their answers by letter or e-mail.
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Ten things to ask your parents, Granny and Granddad :
- Which schools did you go to?
- What was your best subject at school?
- What other subjects did you study?
- What kind of sweets did you eat?
- What were your favourite toys?
- As a child, did you go to church? If so, which one?
- What did you like best about your childhood?
- Where did you live as a child?
- Did you play for any sports team?
- What did you do in your first job?
The questions are designed to discover basic information about relative’s life which can later be used for follow up research.
Encourage discussion on how relatives life compares and contrasts with the child's own life.
REPORTER PROJECT - PUBLICATION
There should now be enough information for a child to put together a 'This Is Your Life' booklet which could be given as a Christmas or birthday present to the person concerned.
Containing stories, pictures and photographs gathered from the interviews and researches, the booklet could be compiled by hand, or by computer with pictures and photographs being scanned in. Free genealogical clipart could be used for illustration. (See: Useful Info and Tips)
EXPLORER
In addition to discovering family genealogical treasures in the attic or back of the garden shed children can become explorers of archives and the places their ancestors lived.
Working with the child, you could search the Access to Archives site (www.a2a.org.uk) to see if any school, works, sports team or church records can be found for relatives and ancestors. Be aware there may be closure notices or access restrictions on more recent records.
If references to records are found, contacting the archive about the possibilities of seeing the records may be an opportunity for you to take the child to see actual documents or photographs. As archive materials are not on open access and have to be requested, it's not quite like the opening of Tutenkhamen's tomb, but the treasures found can be just as exciting.
If you've gained ancestor's addresses from certificates and census returns taking a child to see those houses (if they're still standing) and the surrounding neighbourhood, will ground any research they've done in something they can see and touch and record.
Involve a child in journey planning and preparation including drawing up a list of things you're hoping to discover.
It's courtesy to ask permission of the current resident if photographing a house but take lots of photographs as you walk around the area where an ancestor lived. Encourage discussion around what it might have been like for an ancestor to walk those same streets and how things might have been different in their day.
Visiting a library or museum local to the neighbourhood may unearth lots of information, photographs and maps of how things might have been in past times.
If you have burial records, visiting a cemetery can be an exploration that might lead to the discovery of interesting family history. Some cemeteries have trails that can be explored via the internet and there might be a note on famous people buried in the cemetery.
Rootsweb - links plus how to do your family history.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgwkidzGENTEEN - a mailing list for young genealogists. http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Miscellaneous/GENTEEN.html
BBC history - history activities
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/forkids/National Archives Learning Curve - if you want to know more about history.
http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/default.htmFamily Tree - has some craft projects
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/familytreeDigital Library of Canada - has a Canadian emphasis but lots of interesting family history activities for children. Available in both French and English.
http://www.genealogy.gc.ca/022-400-e.html
