PROJECTS GET CHILDREN ENGAGED! USE A ‘PROJECT IDEA’ TO INSPIRE CHILDREN TO LOVE FAMILY HISTORY!

Choose an ancestor to research and find as many sources as you can. Collect photos, documents, journal entries, etc. Using all of the sources you find, compile all of the information you learn and write your ancestor’s story. Share what you learn with your family members.

There are various forms of memory books that can be bought or made. If you make the book, you can add pictures to go with the questions and answers and it can be typed or handwritten. If it is bought, then there is space to handwrite answers and tape or glue in pictures. Here are a few types of memory books you might assemble:

1. A book for individuals to fill out about themselves. This can be given to a parent or grandparent to fill out about themselves or it can be done by a child about him or herself. Some examples of questions are: What is your first memory? Who have your closest friends been? What do you like to do in your free time?

2. A book for children to fill out about a parent or grandparent. This can be given as a gift to a parent or grandparent for Christmas, a birthday, or Mother’s or Father’s Day. People love to read what their children and/or grandchildren remember and appreciate about them. Children will learn by reflecting on their answers. Some examples of questions are: My first memory of you is ____. My favorite thing to do with you was ____. When I smell ____ it reminds me of you. My favorite holiday meal was ____.

Looking up significant world or national events during a year of your ancestor’s life can help you know what your ancestor may have been thinking about, worrying about, or excited about. You can also find details such as costs of certain items and popular music and books. You might research an ancestor’s birth year, marriage year, year he or she joined the military, death year, or any significant year in his or her life. It is interesting to see the differences and similarities between that year and the present.

A pioneer is not just someone who crossed the plains of the United States. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a pioneer as “a person or group that originates or helps open up a new line of thought or activity or a new method or technical development” or “one of the first to settle a territory” (merriam-webster.com, pioneer). There are a lot of firsts that are unique to each family. Here is a list of possible pioneer feats in my family that you can think about.

The first person to:

play an instrument
work as a ____
move to a big city
be in a newspaper
travel to another country
serve in the military or specific branch of the military

attend/graduate from college
go on a mission
join a specific church
compete in the Olympics
perform in a musical
meet someone famous
cross an ocean

Use a common item from a relative or ancestor to make an heirloom. Some examples include: use a relative or ancestors shirt to make a neck tie or use clothing from a relative or ancestor to make a blanket.

“I realized very early the power of food to evoke memory, to bring people together, to transport you to other places.”

— Jose Andres Puerta

Food brings family together. Almost everyone has favorite family recipes. Usually they are eaten around holidays. Holiday traditions and memories are often built around food. What are your favorite family recipes? You can compile these recipes into one recipe book. Ask relatives in your family to send you their favorite family recipes, even recipes from those who are deceased. You may have specific recipes that you want to ask for, but they may have more recipes that you are not aware of. Compile them. Under each recipe, put the name of the person in the family who had made the recipe or contributed it. If certain recipes have specific memories to go with them, you can include them with each recipe. Put the recipes into categories (ex: appetizers and sides, breads, soups, salads, meals, desserts, beverages, snacks, and so on). Once the book is typed and organized you can send digital copies to family members or find a local printer and have them printed. This may be a family heirloom that is passed down for generations. While you make the recipes in the future, talk about the ancestor or family member who made the recipe.

Idea from Jana Greenhalgh, The Genealogy Kids

Children may enjoy taking a family recipe and creating their own cooking show. This can be recorded for personal memory or shared with family members. During the show they can teach how to make the recipe as well as talk about the ancestor who made it.

Idea from BYU TV - Generations Project

Individuals can connect to their ancestors and find more information about them by doing a generations project. Choose an ancestor to connect with. Learn about the ancestor or think about what you already know about him or her, answering questions like:

Where did they live? What did they do for a profession or hobby? What skills did they have? What traditions did they have?

Once you have learned about your ancestor, choose a project such as:

Learn something or do something that they did such as fishing, using a washboard, knitting, gardening, going to an opera, or having a picnic in the mountains.
Visit a place they lived or frequented such as a lake, the ocean, or a park.
Do one of their traditions.
Make one of their recipes.

Children can think about what their ancestor may have thought about during the activity, like, did they find this activity was difficult to learn? Was the place beautiful in their eyes? Was the recipe delicious or difficult?

Make a calendar of significant dates for your ancestors. It can be a birthday calendar noting ancestors’ birthdays, or it can include marriage, death, and other significant dates as well. You can even use these dates to spotlight ancestors each week. When going over the week’s plans, children can be reminded of which ancestor had a significant event.

*CREATE YOUR OWN FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY*

A family history library is a collection of books or movies that you have found or made that are connected to your family. As you do family history, you will come across books that can be added to your family history library. The following is a list of different kinds of books that can contribute to your library:

Books about an ancestor or branch of your family tree.
- Familysearch.org shows individuals who have contributed information to a specific ancestor’s profile. Ancestry.com shows individuals who have a common ancestor on their own family tree. These websites allow you to privately message these individuals. Send a message to the contributor or distant relative, asking if they know more about that ancestor or branch of the family. They may respond with more information or resources they know of. Some of these resources may be books or movies. When this happens, buy the book or movie.
Books that an ancestor has written.
Books written about an ancestor.
Books about places an ancestor lived or frequented during the time your ancestor was there.
- Most towns or areas have books written about the place and its history. They can be found online or by visiting a bookshop, historical society or museum in the area. I have found that some churches have brochures or books about their history. There is a book series called Images of America about the history of many US cities.
Books or movies that take place in a similar place and time period to where and when an ancestor lived.
- These are fiction or historical fiction. If your ancestors lived in the English countryside during the 1800s, you could choose from among many classic literature that could bring that time period and place to life (Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, to name a few). Even though family stories are unique to each family, learning what it was like to live at that time and place through various customs and cultural normalities can be beneficial when piecing stories together.
- Books or movies about an event that an ancestor experienced.
- These are nonfiction. The story may not be exactly the same account as your ancestor’s, but it definitely give you a feel for what it may have been like.

A timeline can be created for a specific ancestor or an ancestor’s family. Creating a timeline can be done simply by writing names and major events or it can be more detailed and include pictures, maps and more information found on records. To add even more depth, a child learning about a specific event in history, such as the Revolutionary War, could make a timeline of ancestors who lived during that period and see how the event and ancestors’ lives overlapped. Children may wonder, “Where was my ancestor when this event was happening?” Thinking about ancestors in relation to a specific event in history can help children feel more connected to the event and their ancestor. There are websites that can aid in creating a timeline on the computer.

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