It’s a Small Tree Afterall

It will be two years ago Monday that I started my Family History Blog. It is amazing how far I have come and what I have accomplished. I started only as an outlet to share my ancestor findings with my family. It has grown to be so much more.  

It not only has helped me be a better researcher and storyteller, but it has also given me so much more insight into my ancestors and who they were and who I am.  

In October, I start a Family History Detectives Club at my school for 4th graders. I am very excited. I bought these little detective hats, magnifying classes, and detective badges. After we do the boring stuff of going over #Genealogy vocabulary words and learning what a pedigree chart is, I will have them pick an ancestor to investigate.  

When I was doing research into genealogy or family history for children, there wasn’t much there as far as actually teaching them. There were many activities and fun worksheets, but nothing teaching them on how to start researching, how to start investigating their family history. Nothing about sources or how to read them. 

That gave me an idea. After seeing the excitement in the children’s eyes about the club and not finding much help on the internet, I knew there was a need. So, I created an online Google Classroom course and am checking into giving courses at my local library. They had genealogy courses on their calendar, but for teens and seniors. Nothing for children. 

You may not think children are interested, but I promise you they are. Just today I had an 8th grader bring me his surname family history book. This thing was huge. His ancestors had published his family tree and had it bound into this beautiful book. He heard I was doing the club and wanted to share with me that he had an ancestor who came over on the Mayflower.  

As I was perusing the book, I looked up this ancestor in the index of names. Just for kicks, I looked up Logan. Sure enough, there were several. Then one familiar Logan popped out at me. He was MY 1st cousin, 6x removed! This student and I are related. His mom happened to be in the office when I found the discovery and he came in not long after. He was blown away, as were all of us.  

It just goes to show, we are all related. The tree is a small world after all.

If you are interested in having your child join my virtual Google classroom event, Roots to Trees, go to my Genealogy Classes and register.

Thanks for reading!