Genealogy for Kids

Posts Tagged ‘family stories’

I asked my son to write a guest post for me and gave him a few questions to answer. Here is what he had to say.

Why is my family history important to me?

So I can learn how far my family goes back in history.

One interesting thing I learned about my family history is:

My cousin was a Flying Tiger.

If I were interviewing my parents, I would ask these five questions.

1. Did you get expelled?

2. Favorite food

3. Worst grade

4. Favorite teacher

5. Best subject

Other things I want to know about my family history:

1. How many family members served in a war?

2. How many cousins do I have?

3. What is my oldest living family member?

4. Was my family rich?

5. Was my family ever famous?

Yesterday we looked at Home Sources such as Bibles, photographs, military records, and newspaper articles. Today let’s look at other documents that might be around your home.

This is a marriage license for my great grandparents, Joseph Kokoska and Bessie Zajicek. It was issued in Chicago and has their marriage date and location on it. Marriage records are a good source of information. Sometimes they have variations of name spellings which can be helpful when searching for records.

Death certificates are another good source of information. Many list the names of the person’s parents, the person’s birth date and place, death date and place, sometimes an address, spouse’s name and other information. Always keep in mind that you may find a birth date listed on a death certificate that does not match the birth date you found in the family Bible or a birth certificate. In these cases, look for other documents that have the person’s birth date on it to try to figure out which is the correct date.

Mass cards or funeral cards are good sources of information. Some contain birth and death dates and burial location. Others may only contain the death date. Regardless, it is a good source of information.

Last week we started our family history research. This week we will explore our home for sources that will add information to our tree.

What is a Home Source? Anything that will provide facts on people in our family. This could be a birth or death certificate, funeral card, family Bible, old photographs, a diary, military records, and other documents.

Let’s start with family photographs. Do you have any really old photographs? Do your grandparents or aunts and uncles? Old photographs are a great place to start looking for information. Many times the names of the people are written on the back of the photograph or underneath if the photographs are in a scrapbook or album.

This photograph is of my grandfather – the tall boy standing. His name was Joseph Holik. His parents, John and Marie are seated. The boy on the far left is my great uncle John, the little boy is my great uncle Frank, the little girl is my great aunt Ella, and the tall girl on the right is my great aunt Mae. The photograph was taken in Chicago before 1920.

Next, look for old newspaper articles. Sometimes these can be found in family Bibles or scrapbooks.  What information can you gather from a newspaper clipping? This example is a death notice of a great uncle, Emil Ratay(Rataj). From this article I learned a little about his military career and his death.

Do you have a family Bible? Does it contain the names and birth dates, marriage dates and death dates of any of your family? Who wrote in the Bible? Is it something that has been passed down for several generations?

What about military records? Did anyone in your family serve in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II or other wars? Are there medals or patches from uniforms in your house? What about certificates or official discharge papers? All of these items can provide more clues about your relatives.

So what are you waiting for? Start looking for some Home Sources today. Check back tomorrow for more on Home Sources.

Today you are going to interview your mom and write a short story about her. Grab a piece of paper and a pencil and jot down these questions. Some you can just look at your mom and know the answer, but the point of this exercise is to learn to interview relatives and gather information.

1. What is your full name?
2. What is your maiden name?
3. Where were you born? What city and state? What hospital?
4. When were you born?
5. What are your parents names?
6. When were they born? Where?
7. What are your siblings names?
8. When were your siblings born?
9. Who did your siblings marry?
10. Are you right or left-handed?
11. What is your eye color? Hair color? Do you wear glasses?
12. If your parents are married, when and where did they get married?
13. What is your job?
14. Do you have a nickname?
15. Growing up did you live in a house or apartment?
16. Write down the date of your interview and the address where you are living. Keeping a log of addresses when you take interviews or find documents can help you locate new information.

Did you finish filling out your family tree and family group sheets? Great! Let’s move on to a writing activity. Today you are going to interview your dad and write a short story about him. Grab a piece of paper and a pencil and jot down these questions. Some you can just look at your dad and know the answer to, but the point of this exercise is to learn to interview relatives and gather information.

1. What is your full name?
2. Where were you born? What city and state? What hospital?
3. When were you born?
4. What are your parents names?
5. When were they born? Where?
6. What are your siblings names?
7. When were your siblings born?
8. Who did your siblings marry?
9. Are you right or left-handed?
10. What is your eye color? Hair color? Do you wear glasses?
11. If your parents are married, when and where did they get married?
12. What is your job?
13. Do you have a nickname?
14. Growing up did you live in a house or apartment?
15. Write down the date of your interview and the address where you are living. Keeping a log of addresses when you take interviews or find documents can help you locate new information.

Knowing where we came from and the history of our family gives us roots. It helps us understand why we live where we live, eat what we eat, act the way we do, and have the traditions we do.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to get you thinking about your family history.

1. Why do I live where I live? Which part of my family came to this place to settle down? When did they come and why?
2. My mom makes special desserts or meals for holidays. Where did those recipes come from? Why does she always make those same recipes year after year?
3. Most of us have light colored hair and eyes. Or, most of us have darker colored skin and eyes. What is our background?
4. Every year at Christmas my mom places a pickle on the tree and we have to look for it. The child that finds it gets a present. Why do we do this? Where did this tradition come from?

Just starting with a few of those questions will get a child thinking about his roots. The answers will also help the child come to a better understanding of who he is.