Posts Tagged ‘History’
Today I have an another activity for you. Let’s break down your family. Write a story about your mom, dad, aunt, uncle, grandma and grandpa that includes the following information:
Their name
Date of birth
Place of birth
How big they were at birth – both in length and weight?
What color are their eyes and hair?
Where did they live when they were born? Who lived with them?
What is your father’s full name? What is his date of birth?
What is your mother’s full name? What is her date of birth?
Name all your aunts and uncles and write down their dates of birth.
Did your family attend church? Which one? Did they have any special roles in the church?
Where did your parents or grandparents go to school? Who were their teachers? What were their favorite subjects?
Have they achieved anything? Won a contest? Received an award for something?
What hobbies do they have?
Did they play any sports?
Who were their best friends? What did they like to do together? Where did they hang out?
Make a timeline of important events in their lives.
Add important historical events to that timeline.
Ask them how much things were when they were growing up.
Save your responses in your notebook. Check back next week for a guide to write about your parents and grandparents.
Today I have an activity for you. Let’s break down your life, family, and interests. Write a story that includes the following information:
Your name
Date of birth
Place of birth
How big were you at birth – both in length and weight?
What color are your eyes? Your hair?
Where did you live when you were born? Who lived with you?
What is your father’s full name? What is his date of birth?
What is your mother’s full name? What is her date of birth?
Name all your siblings and write down their dates of birth.
Do you go to church? Were you baptized? Who are your godparents?
Where have you gone to school? Who were your teachers? What were your favorite subjects?
Have you achieved anything? Won a contest? Received an award for something? Earned an A in a subject you did not like very much?
What hobbies do you have?
Do you play any sports? Are you on any teams?
Do you have pets? If you do not, what pet would you have?
Who are your best friends? What do you like to do together? Where do you hang out?
Make a timeline of important events in your life.
Add important historical events to that timeline. For example: My oldest son was born January 2001. I would put that in. I would mark his birthdays each year. I would mark the date he started school. I would mark the date he did something important. Then I could go add history – 11 September 2001 was an important day in history. He was only 8 months old but it happened during his lifetime.
Write down how much things cost that you use all the time. This could be gas for your car, how much a loaf of bread is or a gallon of milk. How much did you pay for your computer? What kind of computer did you buy? Those sorts of things.
Where have you gone on vacation? What trips did you like best?
Save your responses in your notebook. Check back next week for a guide to write about your parents and grandparents.
I have been working on a friend’s genealogy off and on when I have time for the last three years. Found out he has two Civil War soldiers on his dad’s side. We have not done his mom’s side yet. My friend ordered the pension files for these two soldiers and had them shipped to me. Wow.
File no. 1 was for Henry A. Hayes, Ohio Union soldier. His file is 150 pages long.
File no. 2 was Milton T. McCoy, Iowa Union soldier. His file is 175 pages long.
Now, National Archives will send you up to 100 pages for the $75 they charge you for a full pension file. Anything over 100 pages is not sent until you call or write them giving them a payment for the rest. Well I called them as soon as the files arrived Monday to give them a credit card number so I could get the rest of the pages.
When you get a pension file it is not copied in date order. This makes it difficult to grasp the full picture. So I pulled out my post it notes and a stack of paper clips and got to work. I used 3×5 post it notes to write the year on and attach to the first document in each year’s stack. I used the tiny post it notes on some documents to tag a date or note about something in that document. Things that stuck out. I paper clipped multiple pages together. It took me about a half an hour to sort and organize the 100 pages for one file, then another half an hour for the other.
What do I have now? An organized file by date. I can track the medical issues for each man from the date of his discharge to his death. I learn the names of doctors who treated them and the neighbors and friends who vouched that each man was who he said he was. I can also track when Milton moved from Iowa to Missouri. I had an idea of when that took place but now I can narrow it down to a few years thanks to his pension file.
No matter if your documents for a person are thick or thin, putting them in date order can make a world of difference when it comes to fully understanding a person and locating clues.
Related articles
- Military Monday – Searching Beyond those Federal Records (dupagecountygenealogicalsociety.wordpress.com)
I just finished reading a book called Bloody Times The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and The Manhunt for Jefferson Davis by James L. Swanson. This book is written for a 3-6 grade child.
When I saw this book I thought, they didn’t teach us about Jefferson Davis in elementary school and Jr. High. I remember only learning about the Civil War in general and Abraham Lincoln. So this book was a very interesting read for me.
The stories of Abraham Lincoln’s death and funeral are told side by side with the stories of the end of the Civil War and Jefferson Davis on the run. Swanson describes the state of Lincoln’s body as it made the rounds on the funeral train ride back to Springfield, IL. He describes the elaborate funeral processions and services given in each city along the route. Swanson discusses Davis’s retreat from Virginia into the deep south where he tries to escape when Lee surrenders, yet continue the war.
This was a great book for any child interested in Lincoln and the very end of the Civil War. It is a quick read and you will learn a lot about history. After you read this book, try to link it to your family. Do you have any Civil War ancestors? Do you know their stories?
If you visited the blog last week you learned about many great PDF resources provided by PBS through their Ancestors series. Today I would like you to download and print a Timeline.
This timeline is great for kids because it outlines every age from birth to age 18 on a sheet about one specific ancestor. At the bottom of the sheet it has a space for listing source documents where you gathered the information. Use this along with the Research Checklist from last week to uncover your ancestral information.
