IDEAS FOR CREATING FAMILY HISTORY

FAMILY ACTIVITIES

  1. Label & Organize Photographs – use acid free ink and materials. Put names, dates and places.
  2. Visit & Interview Relatives – make a list of questions besides facts; get flavor, opinion, humor, and stories, traditions that make ancestors real.
  3. Locate & Copy Family Documents – from attic and cousins. Label, list information.
  4. Fill in an Ancestor Chart – buy or make one. Use pencil if not proven. It will show you what you need to research. Full names, maiden name only.
  5. Write Your Life Story – wouldn’t you treasure your grandfather’s life story? Write yours.
  6. Start a Family Journal – each member write in it fairly regularly or when there is special news.
  7. Make a Time Line – use long paper, draw a center line; historic dates on one side, family dates on the other (births, marriages, milestones)

SENIORS’ ACTIVITIES

  1. Write Your Life Story – include memories, thoughts, funny stories, recollections of older relatives (your parents and grandparents). Do it in booklet form, as letters to grandchildren or poems. Do it chronologically starting with your birth or do it in any order that appeals to you. If you’re not a writer, talk into a tape recorder (and let someone else type it).
  2. Label & Organize Photographs – full names, dates, places events. Use acid-free albums and pencil.
  3. Print up Family Recipes – favorite family recipes are a strong link to the past. Share them!
  4. Start a Family Round-Robin Letter – write a letter (put in lots of memories) to a relative, ask them to add to it and send it on. Each cousin adds to it and eventually, a very long letter returns to you. Replace your original letter with a new one, send it again.
  5. Write a Family Newsletter – include articles about ancestors and what’s happening now: births, school, marriages and deaths, family stories and achievements.

CHILDREN’S ACTIVITES

  1. Draw Your Family Tree – fill in a form and illustrate it or draw one in your own way.
  2. Dress as Your Ancestor – from 1950’s poodle skirt to ethnic costume of homeland.
  3. Cook/Bake a Family Favorite – get recipe for dish or meal, make it and share it.
  4. Draw a World Map – show origins of your ancestors, with pins, flags or colored drawings.
  5. Use the Language – learn a song, poem, story or a sentence in an ancestral language.
  6. Visit – a place of interest, Ellis Island or a home or building nearby of family importance.
  7. Read a Fable or Story – from an ancestral nation, illustrate it, and share it with family and friends.
  8. Write Your Own Life Story – family history begins with you!

RESOURCES

www.familysearch.org - This site provides access to the world's largest collection of free genealogical records.  It is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church), which has gathered family history records worldwide for more than 100 years.

www.ancestry.com - A pay-per-view genealogical site

http://www.cyndislist.com/  - List of Genealogy websites

www.godfrey.org - Godfrey Memorial Library, 134 Newfield Street, Middletown, CT 06457-2534  860 346-4375