A Kid’s Guide to Genealogy: Design Your Family Tree
I really loved writing this book. Genealogy has always been an important part of our family. For as long as I can remember, my mom has studied and researched her family’s history in order to find family members on her family tree. She passed that love for family history research on to all of her kids, too. Here’s one of my first print publications recounting an experience I had doing family history research.
This book shares with children how to organize and design their own family trees. Nearly all of the photos in the book (with the exception of one or two throughout) belong to our family. I even made up the collage pages and timelines, etc.
On page 9, I included a sample pictorial family tree. I actually printed this out and have it hanging on my refrigerator. Every time my youngest niece (Ava) and nephew (Cameron) come over to visit, they like to look at this family tree. I made bubble magnets of each of the pictures on the tree and they like to match the picture on the sheet with the correct picture on the bubble magnet. Not only that, they ask every time who each person is. They’ve gotten to the point that they’ve even been able to match up these photos with other family photos I have sitting around my house. I love this because they are getting to know their great-grandparents and their great-great grandparents–people who they have obviously never met. Not only are they getting to know their ancestors’ names but also what they looked like. And along the way, I share with them different stories about them too like Great-Grandpa George flew airplanes and Aunt Amie was named after Great-Great-Grandpa Amos. I highly recommend making these pictorial family trees and bubble magnets. They are such a wonderful way to learn more about your ancestors.
Overview of the book:
Genealogists love to share the treasures they find about their families with others. This book gives you loads of tips on how you can share your family history gems with the masses in such ways as timelines, autobiographies, scrapbooks, cookbooks, family web sites, and traditional and nontraditional family trees. You ll also find out how to have fun with your family history by hosting family reunions, visiting family history sites, and making PowerPoint presentations to showcase your photos and research. Sharing family history is fun, and this book will help you find the joy in this popular hobby.