Apples Don't Fall Far-Family History
Read about being a mother of 12 as our resident 'Supermom'
shares her wise parenting advice.
The local middle school that all of my 12 children have attended
requires the students to make a presentation on their family histories in the
eighth and final year of the school. It's lucky for my kids that mom is into
genealogy in a big way and can give them scads of material to use. More than
that, my kids tend to catch my excitement for family history as we work
together on the project and it gladdens my heart to think that someone might
take up my work when I am gone.
There are other benefits to learning about one's family roots. I always
had a terrible time learning dry facts and dates in history class. After I
began research on my family, all those dates and facts held a personal context
for me. World War I was no longer something that happened to someone else. It
happened to my family, including my cousin who was conscripted into the Russian
army as a young child and never returned to the family village. It was presumed
that he was killed in the war. World War I was no longer something in a high
school history book; it had affected my family in an intimate way. I would
never view history the same way, again. My children, too, found that history
class came alive for them, once they knew about family connections to events
and dates in history.
Getting Started
If you don't know a thing about the family history, the best way to
start is by interviewing the oldest member of your family. Help your child find
a way to contact his relative: look up the phone number or mailing address with
the aid of an online white pages directory. Guide your child to drawing up a
list of questions he might like to ask his relative. If he will be interviewing
the relative in person, make sure he has a tape recorder as well as a pad of
paper and a pen to record his relative's words for posterity.
Getting Creative
Discuss with your child the best way to capture the family tree as hard
copy. If your child is artistic, he might come up with some creative ideas,
such as affixing paper leaves with the names of family members to real tree
branches and gluing them onto heavy stock. Have his project framed and hang it
in place of pride, over the dining room table, or over a sofa.
