Genealogy for Kids

I really believe that children need to learn about their ancestors. These days we don’t live close together as families like our ancestors did and so were may not know as much about our forebears.

So since its Christmas time there is a good chance that families will be getting together and meeting up with family members they haven’t seen in ages. Kids tend to get bored at these gatherings. So why not set them the challenge of finding out more about their ancestors.

I remember as a kid having to ask questions of my Grandpa as part of a school project. I had a sheet with my questions on and Grandpa wrote down his answers in my Fraggle Rock note book as I sat with him in his bedroom and asked the questions.

The answers to the questions I asked Grandpa

I was trying to decide what the questions were and I think they must have been:

1. Where did you live growing up?

2. How many rooms were there in your house?

3. How many bedrooms did your house have?

4. Who lived in the house?

5. ?

6. What was used for cleaning the house?

7. How did you do the washing?

8. How was the house heated?

9. What was there in the kitchen?

10. What furniture did you have in your bedroom?

11. What was in the bathroom?

12. What furniture was in the sitting room?

So from here I decided to compile a list of questions children could ask their parents, grandparents and if their lucky enough great grandparents (I was lucky I knew both my paternal great grandma’s).

1. What is your full name?

2. When and where were you born?

3. Did you have a nick name?

4. What were your parent’s names?

5. When were your parent’s dates of birth?

6. Where were your parents born?

7. What were your siblings called and when and where were they born?

8. Where did you live?

9. Where did you go to school?

10. What was you highest qualification?

11. Who did you marry?

12. Where did you meet your spouse?

13. When did you get married?

14. Who were your bridesmaids and best man?

15. Did you have any children?

16. What did you do for a living?

17. Who were your grandparents?

18. When and where were they born?

19. What were their occupations?

20. Did you know your Great Grandparents?

21. What can you tell me about them?

22. When and where did they die?

23. Where were they buried or cremated?

They could take a list of questions with them to the family gathering and ask away. Once they’ve got all their answers they could spend the rest of Christmas writing the story of their ancestors. Or they could have one of the many blank ancestor forms from the Internet download and printed and then file them in. There is a great selection at: https://www.cyndislist.com/free-stuff/printable-charts-and-forms/

They could also have a blank family tree printed out and filed in or even better make one. All you need to do is draw a tree and place small printed out photos of your ancestors and stick them on. Then write their names underneath. Alternatively use one of the many blank family trees which can be printed out that don’t have photos on.

An example of the blank trees available

Who knows what impact going through this process may have on the kids. They may develop an interest in genealogy. This may lead to a lifelong passion for the subject and who knows where they may end up. They may up being a professional genealogist like me. This could also lead them to a passion for history in general as a hobby and it’s well know a knowledge of the past can help in future.

Another quick thought is to get a cheap diary and get the kids to write all the birth, marriages and deaths of their ancestors in it so they can wish a happy birthday to them.

So enjoy Christmas however you spend it and if you can get some genealogy into it then that’s brilliant.

Merry Christmas to all for Family History Research England.