Joining the Generations with Genealogy
Connect your child with his past and preserve your family's history for the future.
Don't let the warmth of your holiday family gatherings evaporate — spend them creating a family tree with your child. It's a fantastic way to connect your family's future to its past, rekindle relationships with distant relatives, and even discover new branches of your kith and kin.
Getting Started
Researching the Past
Family Tree Templates
Getting Started
Create a "Family History Detective Kit" for your child that contains a notebook, pencils, and a clear plastic bin with a lid for storing papers such as birth certificates, photos, and newspaper clippings. Or, instead of a bin, you could use a three-ring binder. Stock it with paper and clear plastic pouches that hold everything in one place.
Start at the easy part: immediate family. Have your child write down his full name, birth date and place. Then include the same information for siblings and you and your spouse, as well as (if applicable) the date and place you were married. The next step is to add any nicknames or former names (i.e. maiden names). Gather your birth and marriage certificates and make copies of them for your child. If there was a newspaper announcement of your marriage or his birth, make a copy of that too.
With your child, find out the same information for aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. If any dates aren't 100% certain, write them down and mark them in some way to note that further research is needed. Ask for copies of birth and marriage certificates for the collection. Visit relatives, especially grandparents, and ask them about their parents and grandparents (your child can do this over the phone or via e-mail if you're not able to visit in person). It's important to capture vital information, but also ask relatives to pass on family stories, which add texture and richness to the family history. It's also great to see old photo albums and family bibles, which can supply more names and dates. Again, make copies of anything you can.
By now, you should have a good amount of information. The next step is to research the blanks, missing dates and links, and see how far back you and your child can trace the family line.
Researching the Past
To confirm dates, locate missing ones, or find copies of birth, death, and marriage certificates, visit local city courthouse offices (you need to go to the one in the town where your relatives lived). Another place to check is the library's periodical section, to search the obituaries and birth announcements in newspapers. You'd be surprised how much information you can learn from an obituary, which usually lists surviving family. If your family has a cemetery plot, spend a day verifying dates from tombstones and making rubbings of the headstones to add to the collection — who knows, you may discover a forgotten cousin.
You can also try your family's church, which may keep records of baptisms, weddings, and funerals. A particularly good place to do research is the Latter Day Saints Family History Center. If you happen to live near any of the over 3,000 centers, you're in luck — the church has some of the most extensive genealogy records anywhere in the world, which are not limited to the church's members. You can search for locations near you on their Web site, which also lets you search their online database and offers many helpful tips and resources on genealogy.
Even though much of the information you'll end up searching for with your child won't be available online, there are a lot of great Web sites that can help. If family members immigrated to the U.S. between 1892 and 1924, check the Ellis Island Immigration Records to find people — you'll discover the age your relatives were when they set foot in America and where they came from. If you register, you can view the ship they arrived in and what port they left from.
Other helpful Web sites include:
Ancestry.com
With the largest collection of family history records on the Web, this is a great resource to help fill in holes — allowing you to search census, military, and immigration records as well as newspapers all from one place. Some information is available only with a paid subscription.
PBS Ancestors
A companion site to PBS's series, you can find a helpful glossary of genealogy terms, tips from pros, and explanations of the types of records your child may encounter while climbing the family tree.
Cyndi's List
An enormous compilation of links to genealogy sites on the Internet, with a helpful section just for beginners.
National Genealogical Society
A non-profit formed in 1903 that offers advice, how-to guides, and support for genealogists young and old.
Family Tree Templates
Once your child is done researching, use one of the templates below to transform the notes and dates into a wonderful document you can display and distribute to every leaf on the tree. For little kids, help them fill in names, and let them enjoy coloring and decorating the final product. Older kids can include more details about dates and places.
PDF Family Tree Template: Pedigree Chart
PDF Family Tree Template: Tree
PDF Family Tree Template: Fan
PDF
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