Sunday, July 25, 2010

Getting Kids Involved in Genealogy

Lately I have been feeling the need to teach young people about genealogy. The feeling started about a year ago, but I did not actively pursue this area until recently. I have been researching my family history since 1994 and conducting genealogy workshops since 1998. But now, I feel the need to reach out to the young. As a result, I have begun searching for resources related to teaching youth about genealogy. Today and in future blog postings, I will discuss some of my findings. If you have taught young people how to do genealogy, I encourage you to share your experiences.

One video I discovered was done by Elyse Doerflinger of Elyse’s Genealogy Blog. In this video, Elyse shares how she is teaching her young cousin how to do genealogy.

Getting Kids Involved in Genealogy

1 comment:

Mile Lane Memories said...

Our Genealogy Project at MLBC

I recently got my children's ministry involved in genealogy. Each year at my church I have to do a children's day program the second Sunday in June. This year I decided to get them involved in genealogy.

I had a scripture based theme. The chldren in the group range from ages 4-12. Their project was to interview the oldest person in their family. This could have been done via phone interview or a face to face interview. They had 10 questions to ask their relative and then to present it as a report during the day of our program.

Along with that, I asked them to do a family tree. I gave each a pedigree chart (one that was in a juvenile format). I also gave them each a three-fold display board. Each were asked to display their family in any way that they like and to include the pedigree chart on their board.

On the day of the program I was amazed at how hard they all worked on their project. I had told the parents in the beginning that this would be a family effort project that I prayed in the end that they would enjoy.

Their interviews were awesome! The oldest person interviewed was 94 years old. Reading their reports gave them the opportunity to publicly speak to our congregation. They were so proud of their reports. To my suprise, three of my children had invited their relative that they interviewed to come to our program. Wow, my heart was swelling by the minute. As a part of the program, I have the congregation a little bit about genealogy and how doing it is a family effort and can be fun.

I had the children to display their boards across the front of the church. I also included my displays that I had done. At the end of the program one of my children came up and invited the congregation to come up and view their family trees. They did an awesome job. One actually made a tree out of leaves and added names and pictures to her tree. They displayed family photos, family history and other genealogical things that made me so proud.

The outcome of this project was way more than I had expected. My parents sacrificed and made sure the projects were done and everyone expressed that they enjoyed the project.

Regina Spencer