All in the Family Genealogy and family history resources for kids and teens
By Gail Junion-Metz -- School Library Journal, 1/1/2006
www.byubroadcasting.org/ancestors
Want to turn teens on to researching their ancestry? Then check out the Web site of Ancestors, the PBS television series on genealogy. Here you’ll find excellent lesson plans and class activities, via the “Teachers Guide” link. Created by: KBYU Television, Salt Lake City, UT, and PBS. Don’t Miss: Click on the tab “Links Seen on TV” to access information on related topics, such as how to create a medical pedigree chart and exploring African-American research. Detour: Teens interested in genealogy can connect with like-minded peers by joining the GENTEEN listserv at lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Miscellaneous/GENTEEN.html.
Fun Family History Activities for Kids
www.geocities.com/genealogy4kids/genealogy4kids.html
This site contains more than 160 ideas for hands-on family history activities and projects. Created by: Linda Mahood Morgan, Independence, MO. Don’t Miss: Activities geared for young children are marked with two asterisks—a timesaver for elementary teachers. Detour: Once you’ve piqued their interest in genealogy, kids might wish to join the GENEALOGYFORKIDS listserv at lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Research_Techniques/GENEALOGYFORKIDS.html.
Genealogy and Family History Lesson Plans
marcopolosearch.org/MPSearch/Basic_Search.asp?orgn_id=5
Another great resource from the folks at EDSITEment and MarcoPolo. From the search page, simply type “genealogy” or “family history” in the keyword search box to retrieve a ton of multi-class teaching modules—from “GeoGenerations” (grades K–2) and “What’s in a Name?” (grades 3–5) to “Exploring and Sharing Family Stories” (grades 6–8). Created by: The EDSitement staff, for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Printable Genealogy Forms for Kids
www.kidsturncentral.com/topics/hobbies/genforms.htm
Nice looking genealogy charts for young kids—that aren’t ads for commercial products—are hard to find. Here, though, are two simple family trees, one for very young genealogists, and another, more detailed one for older kids. Created by: Wendy Hogan, founder of Kids’ Turn Central. Detour: To get kids to read more about tracing their family history, check out the great list of age-appropriate genealogy books at www.cyndislist.com/kids.htm#Pubs.
Resources for Teachers and Students
uscis.gov/graphics/aboutus/history/teacher/Resources.htm
Practically every American has an ancestor who emigrated from somewhere else in the world. Here’s one of the few sites to describe the experience of both early and more recent immigrants, including statistics, information about immigration laws, and even a 100-question test given to those applying for citizenship. (Consider giving it to students to see if they’d pass!) Created by: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
