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Teaching Family History, or "Genealogy" in schools can be tough. The basic worksheets and trees used in genealogical research are difficult to use in most assignments since families are no longer strictly defined as a two-parent household and a school's population can include single parents, adoptive families and same-sex households. Children with families that defy the traditional design of a family tree can have difficulty completing a narrowly-defined assignment. This presents a challenge to educators trying to incorporate genealogy into the curriculum. However, since schoolwork is intended to teach students skills, not become professional genealogists, teachers need to be aware of that there are still a lot of ways to expose students to genealogy, no matter what their family backgrounds. Creating a unit on Family History is a great way to get your students interested in their own background. Students can interview their family members to learn more about their own ancestors, and then share their new knowledge with the class.

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Family History Curriculum hero

Family History Curriculum

Expanding the reach of family history education

Developed by experts at American Ancestors, this free-to-access national curriculum is designed to expose students in grades 4 through 8 to the concepts, benefits, and joys of family history. Each lesson incorporates authentic methodologies used by professional genealogists, along with inclusive teaching strategies to ensure genealogy is accessible to all students.

Empower all students to discover their personal connection to history

• Inquiry-based lessons that align with the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards
• Inclusive teaching strategies to ensure genealogy is accessible to all students
• Authentic methodologies used by professional genealogists
• Flexible lessons with step-by-step instructions
• Culturally responsive primary sources and case studies

Free to Access

• Full curriculum and lesson-by-lesson downloads
• Editable student handouts
• Editable Google Slides presentation
• Case studies of historic figures

This curriculum aims to empower students to explore family history in a safe way. All students, regardless of their background and family configuration, should be given an equal opportunity to develop critical skills to better understand themselves and the shared human experience.

• Empower students to develop critical research and thinking skills
• Empower teachers to effectively teach genealogy to all students
• Inspire the next generation of family historians

Target Audience

• Lesson plans target grades 4-8
• Teaching strategies target grades K-12
• C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards
• Common Core State Standards
• NCSS National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
• Language Arts and Social Studies State Standards

Teach Skills and Methodologies Used by Professional Genealogists

Educators Excited to Use Genealogy in Classrooms After Workshop at UVI  (Virgin Islands Source, March 11, 2024)

History Class Gets Personal ( The Wanderer , February 1, 2024)

Old Rochester Regional High School Celebrates Students’ Findings in Genealogy Course (Old Rochester Regional School District, January 19, 2024)

Unraveling Roots: Cultivating Genealogy as an Instructive Journey (Maine Department of Education, August 2, 2023)

Essay Contest Celebrating Mayflower's 400th Anniversary Offers Prizes To Students (CBS News Boston, February 13, 2020)

Recorded Webinar: Using the National Family History Curriculum

Learn about the challenges and opportunities when teaching and learning genealogy, and hear an overview of the lesson plan sequence and key teaching strategies in our curriculum.

Teacher Training

Schedule a free training with our Youth Genealogy Curriculum Coordinator and learn how you can implement the family history curriculum in your classroom.

Youth Education Resources

Discover more resources and activities to engage young people with family history research.

Virtual Field Trips

Take a field trip without leaving your classroom! Introduce your students to the concepts, benefits, and joys of family history. Students will learn how to think like a genealogist and discover how to trace families back in time.

Join Our Mailing List!

Get updates on youth family history education and be the first to access new lesson plans and material.

Access the Curriculum

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Educator Resources

Genealogy Activities For Kids!

Looking for fun ways to engage kids in finding family history? We have downloadable family trees and activity sheets for kids of all ages.

Family Tree Charts and Activity Sheets for Kids

Family Tree

Family Tree for Blended Families

Assemble a Family Photo Tree

Yellow Balloons Family Tree

Blue Balloons Family Tree

Family Record Based on a Fraktur

Family Migration Journey Map

Family Immigration Journey Map

Other Activities

Create a family food tree, materials needed:.

• A few pieces of sturdy paper or cardboard 
• Markers, crayons, colored pencils - whatever colors you want to use
• Pair of scissors 
• Pictures from old magazines or catalogs, or pictures you find online
• Tape or glue stick
• And of course, creativity and imagination!

Start your Investigation: Ask as many members of your family as you can these questions. Suggestions for people to ask include: parents, guardians, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.

• What is one of your favorite foods you eat with your family?
• Why is it your favorite? Did someone special make it for you, or is it a family recipe, or is there another reason?

  Note Your Findings:  Write (or draw) each food people tell you. Compare their answers. Did some family members say the same things, or are they all different? How do their favorite foods compare to yours?   Search for Pictures: Find pictures online or in old magazines of the foods people mentioned. How many of them can you find?   Create Your Food Family Tree: Once you find matching food pictures, cut them out. Draw a tree base and put the pictures on. Decorate the tree or the area around it any way you want to. What should a background of your family tree look like?   Share Your Work:  Make sure to take a picture of your food family tree when it is finished. Share it with the family members you talked to!   Questions to Think About: How important is food in our family history? What can our favorite foods help tell us about our family and culture?  

Congratulations - you now have your food family tree!

  Sizing it Up [For Older Kids]: Older kids can write a story, poem, or a report of their findings and what foods are important in their family history.

Family Tree Lesson Plans

 Getty / Diane Collins and Jordan Hollender

• Genealogy Fun
• Vital Records Around the World
• American History
• African American History
• African History
• Ancient History and Culture
• Asian History
• European History
• Latin American History
• Medieval & Renaissance History
• Military History
• The 20th Century
• Women's History
• Certificate in Genealogical Research, Boston University
• B.A., Carnegie Mellon University

Family tree lesson plans help teachers and students bring history to life, through the important steps and principles of family history research. These genealogy lesson plans help teachers and students trace their family tree, understand immigrant origins , explore history in the cemetery, discover world geography and investigate genetics.

Find and create interactive learning activities for your students with primary source documents that promote historical thinking skills. The website provides ready-to-use tools for teaching with documents in the classroom, as well as thousands of primary source documents selected from the National Archives to help you tailor the lesson to your students.

Little House in the Census & Other Lesson Plans from the National Archives

The U.S. National Archives & Records Administration offers dozens of lesson plans from all eras of U.S. history, complete with documents. One popular example is the Little House in the Census lesson plan, with pages from the 1880 and 1900 census schedules, teaching activities, and links related to the family of author Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Ancestors Teachers Guide

This free guide was developed in conjunction with the

Ancestors television series from PBS to help teachers and students in grades 7-12 actively discover their ancestors. It introduces important steps and principles of genealogy research and provides family history assignments. television series from PBS to help teachers and students in grades 7-12 actively discover their ancestors. It introduces important steps and principles of genealogy research and provides family history assignments.

History Hunters Cemetery Tour

This elementary lesson plan makes an interesting field trip to the local cemetery or is easily adaptable to a regular classroom setting when exploring topics in state and local history. From the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Design Your Own Coat of Arms Lesson Plan

This lesson plan, most easily adapted to an Art or Social Studies curriculum, introduces students to the history of a Coat of Arms and some traditional heraldic designs, by encouraging them to design their own Coat of Arms and then interpret each other's designs.

All in the Family: Discover Relatives & Genetic Connections

In this lesson from the New York Times , students develop family genealogy charts in search of noticeable genetic relationships between relatives. , students develop family genealogy charts in search of noticeable genetic relationships between relatives.

Climbing the Family Tree: A Jewish Genealogy Lesson Plan

This lesson plan/lecture outline by Yigal Rechtman introduces Jewish genealogy myths and methods for reconstructing an ancestor's life, with accompanying teachers' notes. The scope includes both genealogy in the United States, as well as Jewish genealogy in Eastern Europe.

Cemeteries are Historical, Not Solely Grave

The New York Times shares a Social Studies or Language Arts lesson examining graveyards as historical sites for students in grades 6-12. shares a Social Studies or Language Arts lesson examining graveyards as historical sites for students in grades 6-12.

Listening to History

This lesson plan from Edsitement is designed to help students explore oral history by conducting interviews with family members. Recommended for students in grades 6-8.

Coming to America - Immigration Builds a Nation

Discover the United States all over again as you introduce your students to the two major waves of immigration that brought 34 million people to our nation's shores and spurred the greatest period of national change and growth. Part of a series of lesson plans from EducationWorld.

Planning a School or Community Archives

Practical suggestions from The Montana Heritage Project on establishing and maintaining a school or community archives or historical collection. An excellent school or district-wide project.

History in the Heartland: Lesson Plans

Classroom activities from History in the Heartland, a project of Ohio State University and the Ohio Historical Society, offers dozens of lesson plans and primary source document activities based on Ohio Social Studies Academic Content Standards. Several are related to genealogy and immigration.

Genealogy: Coming to America

This free lesson plan, just one of many created by FirstLadies.org, focuses on Ida McKinley's great grandparents who emigrated from England, Scotland and Germany prior to the opening of Ellis Island. In this lesson, students will learn about the history of their family as it relates to the history of the United States and the world.

The Third Grader's 1850 Census

This suggested project by Michael John Neill uses a family group chart to explore the census and to interpret old handwriting. The exercise leads to map reading and ends with more genealogy exercises for children.

This is Your Life

In this set of three activities, students in grades 7-12 create family trees, interview a family member, and share childhood treasures.

The Valley of the Shadow

The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War by historian Edward L. Ayers of the University of Virginia allows students to compare and contrast a Northern town with a Southern one before, during, and after the Civil War.

What is History? Timelines & Oral History

To understand that history is made up of many people’s stories of the past, students interview family members about the same event and compare the different versions, construct a personal history timeline and connect it to larger historical events, and synthesize eyewitness testimony from different sources to create their own “official” account. Grades K-2.

Where I Come From

Students take research into their heritage a step beyond the construction of a family tree in this Edsitement lesson, traveling through cyberspace to find out what's happening in their ancestral homelands today. Grades 3-5.

U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services – Lesson Plans & Activities

USCIS offers lesson plans with instructions and teaching strategies for the novice and seasoned ESL instructors preparing students for U.S. citizenship, including interactive games and activities.

Tracing Immigrant Ancestors

This assignment is designed to teach students the concept of immigration and how to connect events in history with the movement of their ancestors, as well as develop a better understanding of the United States as a melting pot. Appropriate for grades 5-11.

UK National Archives - Resources for Teachers

Designed for teachers, this online resource is designed to tie in with the History National Curriculum from Key Stages 2 to 5 and contains a varied range of sources, lessons, and tutorials from the holdings of the Public Records Office in the UK.

My Piece of History

Students examine pictures of household objects from the late 20th century, gather historical information about them from older family members, and then create an in-class exhibit of historical objects from their own homes. Grades K-2.

Library and Archives Canada - For Teachers

Lesson plans, teacher resources and more from Library & Archives Canada to help students appreciate their own personal past by identifying significant people, places and events.

• Daily Planning Questions: Tools for the Secondary Classroom
• Free Family Tree Charts
• How to Begin Tracing Your Family Tree
• Getting Your Lesson Plans Done More Quickly
• 10 Steps for Finding Your Family Tree Online
• 10 Educational Opportunities for Genealogists
• Writing Lesson Plans in the Self-Contained Classroom
• 19 Places to Research Your Family Tree for Free
• Topics for a Lesson Plan Template
• 10 Top Genealogy Questions and Answers
• Content Area Nights that Create Opportunities for Parent Engagement
• The Whys and How-tos for Group Writing in All Content Areas
• 10 Free High-Interest Lessons - Architecture for All Ages
• What Is GIS and How to Use It in Education
• Researching Your Revolutionary War Ancestor
• Researching Famous (or Infamous) Ancestors

Exploring and Sharing Family Stories

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

In this lesson, students are encouraged to explore the idea of memory in both large- and small-group settings. Students access their own life experiences and then discuss family stories they have heard. After choosing a family member to interview, students create questions, interview their relative, and write a personal narrative that describes not only the answers to their questions but their own reactions to these responses. These narratives are peer reviewed and can be published as a class magazine or a website.

From Theory to Practice

• The topic of memory can engage students in both reading and writing, especially if those activities act as a bridge between school and family.
• Students can be encouraged to view their own life history and that of other family members as a composition that is created through memory and that is therefore subject to constant revision and documentation.
• Requiring students to pay attention to and craft both their own memories and those of other people can help them become more thoughtful readers and writers in other contexts.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Video or tape recorders (optional)
• Chart paper
• Note to Families
• Personal Narrative Assignment Sheet
• Oral History Questions worksheet
• How to Interview a Relative worksheet
• Peer Review Worksheet
• "Mixing Memory and Desire: A Family Literacy Event" by Mark Faust
• Family Memories Narrative Rubric

Preparation

Student objectives.

Students will

• Access personal and family memories by discussing them in large- and small-group settings
• Demonstrate comprehension by reviewing other personal narratives and discussing how they might apply some of the same techniques to their own work
• Apply critical-thinking skills by translating what they see in these narratives into potential interview questions
• Practice knowledge acquisition by learning how to best conduct an interview and taking notes during their interview to use for their future personal narrative.
• Work collaboratively by peer reviewing each other's work
• Practice synthesizing information and writing by assembling their notes into a personal narrative

Homework (due by Session 3): Students should bring home the Note to Families and talk about interviewing an older relative. With help, they should determine whom they are going to talk to for this assignment and how the interview will be conducted (for example, over the phone or email or by visiting the relative). Students should contact the relative and should come to Session 3 with a name and the format their interview will take.

Homework (due before Session 4): Write at least five interview questions.

Note: Students need to have finalized their interview questions by this session. You may need to leave time for them to turn in several drafts.

Homework: Students should complete their interviews and write drafts of their personal narratives by Session 5. The amount of time you give students to complete this work is up to you, but it should be a minimum of a week.

Sessions 5 and 6

Homework: Students should revise their personal narratives using the feedback from the peer review sheets. They should turn in these sheets along with their interview questions and notes when they hand in their final personal narrative. You may want to give them time (and encourage them) to contact their relatives for further questioning or clarification after the peer review sessions.

Bring the class back together for a final discussion about memory and what they learned by interviewing their relative and writing the personal narrative. Questions for discussion include:

• When reading other people's narratives, did you see any similarities with your own narrative? What were they?
• What was unique to your own narrative?
• Did you see any differences in experiences based on where people lived?
• Why do you think it is important for people to share their life stories?
• If you were writing your own life story, what are some things you would include?
• Publish the student narratives as a magazine or website. If you do this, you might collect family photos from each student. Allow students time in class to review the publication.
• Have students share their stories with younger classes. A class "author's night" could also be arranged to share stories with family members (including interview subjects).
• Have students read the novel The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines (Bantam, 1982). Have students compare this fictional personal narrative with the ones they wrote.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Assess student participation during both whole-class discussions and small-group work using your observations and anecdotal notes.
• Evaluate the interview questions and the notes from the actual interview. How well were students able to use the materials you provided (the Oral History Questions worksheet and the How to Interview a Relative worksheet) to develop their interview questions and conduct their interviews? Did students choose thoughtful and appropriate questions? Did they use these questions during the interview? Did they take opportunities to ask related questions while interviewing their relative?
• Use the Family Memories Narrative Rubric to evaluate the completed personal narratives and peer review forms.

Students imagine they have been asked to participate in a museum exhibit, take photos/videos of a significant location, and write or record reflections. Students can also create an exhibit from something they have read.

Students interview a parent or another adult about the Challenger and hypothesize about differences. Students can also write about the Columbia disaster in 2003.

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Twelve Easy Family History Projects for Beginners

Blog / February 22, 2022 by Emilie Amt / Leave a Comment

I remember when the original Roots first came out on TV, and it suddenly seemed as if everyone—black and white—was interested in genealogy . Those were pre-internet days, of course. Today companies like Ancestry.com put powerful family research tools at our fingertips. But not everyone wants—or can afford—to make a big commitment to family history research. I thought Black History Month would be a good time for this post about twelve easy projects you can do, even if you’re a beginner, to explore and preserve your family’s history.

There are a gazillion books and websites to guide you in heavy-duty genealogy, but this is a list of just-dipping-a-toe-in-the-water projects. And most of them can be group activities. They’ll be richer if you share them with family members.

1. Write down (or record) what you know.

This is so basic, we forget how valuable it is. You have knowledge. Write down the family tree, as much as you know: your parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and so on. You know stories! Write them down, or record them, or ask someone else to help you to do that. The first principal of genealogy is start with yourself and work back . (Afterwards, share copies.)

2. Interview your older relatives.

They get older every day, and one day they’ll be gone, along with all the precious knowledge they have. When I started doing my family history seriously, one of the most valuable documents I had was a pair of twenty-year-old family trees that my cousins had made in eighth grade, as an assignment. They’d called up our grandparents and interviewed them about who our ancestors were. By the time I was doing genealogy, our grandparents were gone, but I had that record of their knowledge. I’m ever grateful.

3. Talk with younger family members about your family history.

Make sure they know where your people came from. Don’t assume kids just know that stuff—they won’t know it unless someone specifically tells them. Pass on the family stories. Show them pictures, if you have them. Speaking of which…

4. Label some old photographs.

If you have family pictures lying around, are they labeled? Or are all the backs blank? Sure, you know who all those people are, but when you’re no longer around, will the next generation know? Label pictures of people with first and last name, date (or approximate date), and a place if possible. If you can add information like “Tina’s confirmation” or “Maurice was her second husband,” so much the better. Don’t let this overwhelm you; even labeling a few is better than nothing.

5. Print some family photographs.

Are all your photos on your phone or your computer? Is that going to work well for passing them on to future generations? I don’t know for sure, but maybe print some out and label them.

6. Pass old photos/papers/heirlooms along to younger relatives.

As I get older, I think more about this. My family has given me a lot of family stuff over the years, because I’m “the family historian.” But history has to be kept by all the generations. If a younger relative is interested, they might be receptive to some family photos and papers.

This goes for heirlooms too. We hear a lot about how young people today don’t want old stuff, and it may be generally true. But be selective. A young cousin of mine who cooks seriously was thrilled to receive our grandmother’s recipe box, and my nephew who does metalworking and carpentry was the right recipient for my grandfather’s drafting tools. Maybe include a picture of the ancestor along with the heirloom.

7. Gather things together.

Is all your family history stuff (photos, family papers, small heirlooms that are packed away) in one place? You could do good work by just gathering it into one box. Or several boxes. But labeled, in one place.

8. Make copies.

Got some precious family papers like old marriage certificates, baptismal certificates, and so on? If you make copies (or digitize them), you can store them in more than one place. Also, you can give copies to family members or other people (see #10 below).

9. Make a file for the local historical society.

Is your family documented at the local historical society? (If your family is African American, I’m betting it isn’t.) If not, you can fix that. Collect some information, put it in a folder (or an envelope), label it (for example, “Willis Family Information, for family history files”), and send it or carry it in to the local historical society, specifically for their family history files. Some items to include if you have them: a family tree, copies of photographs, copies of family documents if you’re willing to share them (but obviously not anything with Social Security numbers, and perhaps not birthdates of living people), and anything you’ve written about the family history. (You might want to check with them first to make sure they do have family history files.)

10. Make a family calendar.

This was the first family history project my cousin and I did; it was a Christmas surprise, and it made my mother cry. Big success! (They were happy tears.) We made a calendar for the coming year, with an old family photo for each month, and gave everyone a copy. Back in the ’90s, we made it in MS Word and printed it ourselves, but companies like Vistaprint make this easy nowadays.

11. Take a trip.

Invite a younger relative along, and go show them the house where you grew up, or track down the house where your grandparents lived. The place will prompt stories. Don’t forget to ask them about their lives too. Which brings us to…

12. Interview your younger relatives.

History isn’t just about the old folks. The experiences of young and middle-aged people are important, too. Inter-generational interviewing can have all sorts of benefits. For examples, listen to some of the stories at StoryCorps .

Now, will one of these projects inspire you to do more? Maybe! If you’d like to try an online genealogy research site, there are free ones like FamilySearch.org (you have to register for a free account), or your public library may provide free access to Ancestry.com or another commercial service. Ancestry offers a free two-week trial. Some libraries and historical societies offer help with genealogy. The Washington County Historical Society in Hagerstown has the kinship Family Heritage Research Center , a genealogical library.  If you live near a Family Research Center of the LDS Church ( there’s one in Frederick ), they provide free, knowledgeable volunteer help to anyone doing genealogical research.

But don’t feel pressured. Even if you just do one of the twelve easy family history projects listed above, you’ll be playing a part in preserving your family’s history. Pass it on.

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About Emilie Amt

Emilie Amt is a retired professor of history. From 1998 to 2021 she held the Hildegarde Pilgram Chair of History at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. She earned a B.A. in medieval studies from Swarthmore College and a D.Phil. in modern history from Oxford University. Her current research focuses on nineteenth-century African American history in western Maryland.

Her most recent book is Black Antietam: African Americans and the Civil War in Sharpsburg (The History Press, 2022). She is also working on a history of slavery in Washington County, Maryland. A medieval historian by training, she has published books and articles on medieval religious women and English government, war, and finance. Her books include college textbooks and scholarly editions of Latin texts.

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African-American History

Godstow Abbey

• Grades 6-12
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Why It’s Time to Rethink Family Tree Assignments

They may be more harmful than you realize.

Most of us remember plodding through family tree assignments at some point during our school years. Perhaps you created a handprint tree in preschool or filled out your madre and padre on a worksheet for Spanish class. It’s a common activity for a topic that’s important in schools—family. But in 2020, our students are coming from increasingly diverse families, and these types of activities can feel unsettling and exclusionary.

It’s time we moved past the family trees and looked for more inclusive options. Here are several reasons why it’s time to rethink the family tree assignment:

All families are different.

We all know that families consist of something more than diverse than a mom, dad, and 2.5 children. So why do our family trees still reflect that structure? Schools should not require students to complete an activity that fails to represent LGBTQ-headed, multigenerational, step, adoptive, and foster families.

Families are important to children. When they don’t see their own family reflected in the curriculum, they feel left out. And a student who doesn’t feel welcome at school might fail to learn. 

Not everyone has access to family information.

Family tree assignments often require students to research their family history, and that’s just not possible for everyone. Children in adoptive and foster families may not have baby pictures or be able to draw a coat of arms with a flag of where their ancestors came from. And it’s not just about the inability to complete the assignment, which is stressful enough. The greater harm is the complicated emotions that can come up for students when we remind them of what they don’t know.

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Family tree assignments are not trauma-informed.

We must consider that not all students come from loving home environments. Many of our students have experienced abuse and neglect. Family tree activities can trigger anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder in students with adverse childhood experiences. Revelation of their private lives can also make them vulnerable to bullying and isolation. Our students’ physical and mental well-being should always come first.

Let’s move to more inclusive projects.

All this is not to say that we shouldn’t be talking about families in school. We can and should. We just have to be more mindful of what kinds of activities we plan. Try “Circles of Caring Community” , a lesson from Welcoming Schools that focuses on all the caring adults in students’ lives. “Autobio” and “Where I’m From” poems are also nice ways for students to share about themselves and the important people in their lives outside the confines of a traditional family tree assignment.

What alternate ideas do you have to family trees? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, why we should make all school events inclusive.

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Genealogy Lesson Plans for K-12: Ideas for Researching Genealogy, Recommended Books, and Assignments

• Lynn-nore Chittom
• Categories : Fun activities & crafts for grade school
• Tags : Teaching grades pre k to 5

Lesson Plan Overview/Rationale

These genealogy lesson plans should help students understand the terminology, concepts and significance of learning about family history. It should provide them with a working knowledge of the vocabulary related to genealogical studies and some exposure to the forms and charts used when doing family history research. If family interviews are required, students will also learn the personal significance and relational nature of genealogy.

Students completing this genealogy lesson should be able to do the following:

• Discuss genealogy using the vocabulary terms they have learned.
• Explain and demonstrate the purpose of a family tree chart.
• Explain and demonstrate the usefulness of doing family interviews.

Students and teachers wishing to do further research on their family trees may want to check out some of these useful websites:

• The USGen Web Project
• Ancestry.com
• FamilySearch

Prior Knowledge/Vocabulary

Teaching students the vocabulary related to genealogy provides educators with a simple measurable element for assessment purposes. If you are teaching in the lower elementary grades, you may want to skip this part of the lesson or make it very basic and simple. Older students should be able to understand concepts such as generations, descendants, and ancestors.

Provide students with these terms and definitions or have them look up definitions in a dictionary. Students should be tested over this material as part of the assessment process.

• Genealogy: 1. A record or table of the descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or ancestors; a family tree. 2. Direct descent from an ancestor; lineage or pedigree. 3. The study or investigation of ancestry and family histories.
• Ancestor: A person from whom one is descended, especially if more remote than a grandparent.
• Descendant: A person whose descent can be traced to a particular individual or couple.
• Generation: All of the offspring that are at the same stage of descent from a common ancestor.
• Family Tree : 1. A genealogical diagram of a family’s ancestry. 2. The ancestors and descendants of a family considered as a group.

Procedure - Family Tree Assignment

Once the vocabulary has been established, you should go into further detail about family trees.

For younger students, you might want to begin by reading a book, such as The Kids’ Family Tree Book , by Caroline Leavitt.

For older students, the discussion can begin by filling out a family tree together as a class. Draw an outline of a family tree on the chalkboard or wipe-off board and demonstrate to the students how to fill in the lines with knowledge they possess about their families. For example, as you fill in each line, you might say, “This line should have your name on it.” or “This line should have your mother’s name on it.” or “This line should have your mother’s mother’s name on it.” You may want to use your own family in this example and explain to the children how each person on the family tree is related to you.

After discussing how a family tree diagram is completed, it is time to give the students a chance to fill one out for their own family line.

Give each student a family tree diagram to complete. Click here for Ancestor charts courtesy of Rootsweb.com that you can print or students can use a ruler and a large sheet of paper to build their own. Younger students should use a simple tree structure which includes only the names of extended family members, while older students should include information such as birth dates, wedding dates, and death dates. These diagrams should be similar to the links provided here.

Remember to emphasize that genealogy is about biological relationships and that step-parents and step-siblings should not be included. Some students may have difficulties completing their family tree diagrams due to complicated family relationships. Be sure to handle this with sensitivity, or let them enter those people marked as “steps.” This assignment should be graded according to the students’ willingness to participate in the assignment, not by the number of lines filled.

Procedure – Family Interviews Assignment

After students have learned about genealogical terms and family trees, students should learn how to interview family members to gather family stories.

To introduce this topic, share with the class an example of a family genealogy book and describe how the book shows a family’s history. In many families, the mother or grandmother has completed a book about the family. You may want to ask your students ahead of time if their families have such books and allow them to bring in their books as additional examples.

Choose a story from a genealogy book such as The Family Book by Todd Parr and read it to your class. You can also choose to

share a story from your own family history. Use your examples to demonstrate the value of family interviews.

Another option is to ask the students something important they would want their grandchildren to know about them and then have them consider that their grandparents may have those types of stories in their lives, too.

Give each student a list of possible family interview questions. The following questions could be used or you could generate a list with the class.

FAMILY INTERVIEWS

• What are some of your favorite memories from your childhood?
• What were your parents like? (This is a great question, especially if these individuals have already passed away.)
• Do you recall any memorable family vacations?
• How did you and Grandpa (or Grandma, or Dad, etc.) meet? Further questions may be helpful as they may trigger great stories, such as do you recall a best date or what movies did you go see or what kind of car did Grandpa drive?
• Did you have any family pets that you recall?
• Where did you live throughout your childhood?
• Do you still keep in touch with any of your friends? If so, who and why?
• Did you live through any big historical event(s)? If so, what do you recall from those days?

Encourage students to consider videotaping their family interviews for posterity or for extra credit.

Optional Craft - Family Tree Placemat Craft

This fun genealogy project is a terrific craft that can be used along with these genealogy lesson plans, but it will require some planning if it is to be done in the classroom. At least a week prior to beginning this lesson. send home a letter with each child requesting that each student bring in a photograph of themselves and one of each of their parents and grandparents on both sides of their family. Photographs of other family members such as aunts, uncles, step-parents, siblings and even step-siblings can also be included, as this craft is intended to represent a child’s family, not just their blood line. Allow students to begin bringing in their photos as soon as possible so that all students have the necessary supplies when it is time to complete the craft. An alternative to doing this craft in class is to assign it as a homework project.

The remaining supplies are as follows:

• Glue or photo tape
• Large construction paper sheets, posterboard, or two 8.5 X 11 sheets, taped together.
• Markers or stickers for labeling the page
• Markers or a pen for labeling the photographs.
• Laminating materials or clear contact paper
• Paint for making hand prints (optional according to students’ ages)

Step 1 - Instruct students to position their paper landscape style.

Step 2. - Instruct students to arrange their photos with the picture of themselves near the bottom middle of the paper and the photo of their parents directly above. (For younger students, space should be left between these pictures for the students’ handprints. Handprints can be done with classroom paint supplies or finger paint.) Have students leave space at the top of the page for labeling the Family Tree according to the student’s first and last name.

Step 3 - Help students position photos of grandparents and others to the right and left of their parents’ photos according to maternal and paternal family lines.

Step 4 - Instruct students or help students attach their photos using glue or double-sided tape.

Step 5 - Instruct students or help students label the top of their place mat in the following format:

“__(first name)____(last name)___’s Family”

Step 6 - Laminate each placemat.

Assessments for this genealogy lesson plan include the family tree assignment, family interviews and classroom participation or homework participation making family tree placemats. If students were assigned vocabulary words to define, grade that as well. Students may also be quizzed on the vocabulary.

Vocabulary definitions are from TheFreeDictionary.com

Finding ancestors and keeping them close to the heart

Remember me?

Doing a Genealogy Research Project from Start to Finish

Have you ever completed a genealogy research project from the beginning to end? From objective to report? I just completed one and I want to share what I learned.

I did the project for our Research Like a Pro study group. I wasn’t planning to join the group at first – I thought I would just help in the background with whatever Diana needed. She developed the idea for the study group and was finishing up her planning. At the last minute, she encouraged me to join. I knew that having assignments and peer review would provide accountability. I do well when I have accountability – it’s highly motivational for me, so I agreed to join.

The first assignment in the study group was to choose an objective and write it down. So, I started a document for the research project and wrote my objective at the top.

If you want to see an idea for a research project document, Diana has created a template for the next Research Like a Pro Study Group that you can download below. Included are sections for the basic elements of a genealogy research project: objective, summary of known facts, background information, working hypothesis, identified sources to search using a locality guide, prioritized research strategy, findings and analysis, conclusion, suggestions for future research, and results summary. Here is the template:

Research Project Template (google docs file)

When viewing the google docs template, click “file” then “make a copy” to save the template to your own google drive and begin typing into it.

Research Project Template (free download docx file)

Would you like to find more templates and research tips like this? This template and others are available in our book, Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist’s Guide.   We hope you’ll try it out!

Objective and Analysis

I chose a research objective that coincided with the research I was already doing on my Confederate soldier ancestors for my RootsTech presentation. My objective was not the typical “prove a relationship” objective, but instead focused on discovering the actions of my relatives during the Civil War. Here’s the objective I wrote at the start of the project:

Discover the actions of three brothers, sons of John D. Isenhour and Sarah Bailey, in the antebellum period and during the Civil War:

– Valentine Isenhour, born 1820 in North Carolina and died 23 Apr 1895 in Clyde, Callahan, Texas.

– Moses William Isenhour, Confederate soldier, born 1823 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, died 16 February 1862 in Fort Thompson, United States, married to Amanda Martha McKinney 1 October 1846 in Montgomery, Arkansas.

– Josiah Edmond Isenhour, born 1825 in Missouri and died 13 December 1868 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

After creating my objective, I analyzed the information I already had and made a timeline showing important dates. I evaluated each record to decide how credible it was. I asked, “Is it an original or derivative record?   Or an authored work?” and “Is this primary, secondary, or undetermined information?” and “Does the information provide direct or indirect evidence?”

It was helpful to review each other’s work as we practiced this step. Others’ comments shed light onto records that I hadn’t thought of in that way before. I had to decide whether I thought a newspaper obituary was original, derivative, or authored. That was a tricky question. I ultimately decided that it was an original record but that the information was undetermined – whether or not it was primary or secondary, since the author was unknown. Others say an obituary is an authored narrative. (What do you think? Here’s the discussion on Evidence Explained  )

I made notes in my research project document as I analyzed the records I already had, with questions and ideas for research.

One thing I learned throughout this process is that creating too broad of an objective makes the project harder to organize. If I could go back to the objective assignment, I would only select one individual at a time. I also learned the value of the three different types of genealogy research questions / objectives : identify an individual, prove a relationship, and discover actions.

Before researching a person’s actions, you must first identify them! When I discovered a second Civil War Service Record for Moses Isenhour in a different location, I wondered if I had I wasted time researching the wrong person. That’s when I went back and made sure to identify Moses of Arkansas and Moses of Texas as distinct individuals.

I found that Moses of Arkansas’ family moved to Texas right around the time of the Civil War. That’s when I found a separate Confederate Service Record for a man with the same name (Moses Isenhower) in Texas. My Moses Isenhour had a Compiled Military Service record for a regiment in Arkansas. As I continued to research, I was able to identify the Texas man as a different Moses than mine through tracing his family in census and cemetery records. That brought me back to my original hypothesis: my relative was Moses Isenhour of Arkansas.

Now I was ready to continue researching Moses of Arkansas’ actions, having identified him as my relative.

Locality Guide

The next assignment was to learn about the state or county where I would be researching and create a guide to genealogy research in that place. When were the records created in that county? What repositories exist there? What is the geography like? What county histories are available? I added lots of links to my locality guide document. Instead of copying and pasting a lot of text, I just linked to articles that had historical background and websites that had county boundary changes, and so on. I realized that there are hundreds of resources online with helpful information.

As I learned about all the records available in my location, questions and ideas for what to research came to mind. I made notes of this in my Research Project document.

Research Planning

For the research planning assignment, I organized my notes and ideas into a prioritized plan and wrote a hypothesis for what I thought the records would show. I realized that I need to take some steps to identify each individual a little further with census, land, and tax records before I could research their military service with confidence that I had the right person. I put that as top priority in my plan, then listed the collections I wanted to search in Fold3 and Ancestry military records. I also ordered the regimental history for Moses Isenhour’s unit.

Research, Research Log, Citations

Before I started, I knew that Moses Isenhour was likely a Confederate soldier. I just needed to review the evidence and make sure I had the right person. I followed all three men in land, census, and tax records. Once I had this part down, I moved on to the fun part – researching their actions during the Civil War.

My favorite part of the project was using the details I found in the records to flesh out the historical scene that they were living through. It was fascinating to learn about the day to day happenings of Moses’ regiment, the 11th Arkansas Infantry.  The entire regiment was captured at the Battle of Island Number 10, but Moses died before his unit saw battle. The regimental history revealed that the winter was harsh, muddy, and full of illness. Moses died during this bleak winter while taking his turn at rotating through picket duty night and day.

Diana taught us to make citations as we went along so we wouldn’t have to return to our source. I learned my lesson after doing some searches and not creating the citation. It was a pain to go back to the URL that I had saved and try to remember the details that should go in the citation.

I learned a lot about citations this time by reading Diana’s lesson about citations and Elizabeth Shown Mill’s book and website,  Evidence Explained.  I spent a lot of time studying the first two chapters of the book. Once I got the basics of the citation down, it became a lot easier to create subsequent citations. One of the group members shared a fabulous resource from the BYU Family History Department that I want to share with you – Templates for Citations.  These templates are based on the citation style in Elizabeth Shown Mills’  Evidence Explained.

Next time, I will create separate research logs and reports for each person. It was not fun searching through my research log for the entries about Moses and then the entries about Valentine. I know this will depend on the objective and the project, but I  don’t think doing one single log for all three of these men was helpful in this instance.

Writing Conclusions

Writing about my discoveries, connections, thoughts, and the conclusions I came to during the research phase is an important step that I often skip. I want to be better about this. Whether it’s in the notes section of a software program or in a more formal document, written conclusions are extremely valuable. I discovered it was not enough to just keep my notes in a research log. A research log is not cohesive and does not have enough space to truly analyze and discuss your hypothesis.

Since I have to spread out my work with several days in between work sessions, I need to be able to quickly glance at a project and remember where I left off.  Waiting to write up my research until the end of my project meant that I forgot some of the conclusions that I came to while I was researching, even though I did keep detailed notes in that section of my log. It was best to write my findings in the report as I went along researching.

I found that the most helpful section of the report was the “future research suggestions” section. This section allowed me to list new ideas for research as I wrote without getting off track. I could finish my analysis of a record knowing that my idea was saved in “future research.”

My report isn’t perfect, but if you’re interested in reading it, here it is:

Isenhour Brothers Confederate Service Research Report

I created separate documents for my evidence analysis, research plan, and log.

Overall Lesson Learned

Besides learning several new skills, I learned overall that the simpler the objective, the more manageable the project. There’s no reason to create an objective and research plan for a 50 hour project all at once. In the future, I will create smaller plans that will yield a 10-20 hour project. If I don’t solve the problem or answer the question in that time, I can use my ‘future research suggestions’ to go forward and create a new plan for my next research session. I may decide to keep adding to my report or write up an entirely new one for each session. I feel that doing research in manageable chunks of time, coupled with writing my conclusions will increase my efficiency twofold!

Study Group

If you are considering signing up for the next session of the Research Like a Pro study group , please feel free to contact us with any questions.

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About Nicole Elder Dyer

Nicole Dyer is a professional genealogist specializing in Southern United States research and genetic genealogy. She is the creator of FamilyLocket.com and the Research Like a Pro Genealogy Podcast. She co-authored Research Like a Pro: A Genealogist's Guide and Research Like a Pro with DNA and is an instructor for the study groups of the same name. She lectures at conferences and institutes and previously served as the secretary and publicity chair of the Pima County Genealogy Society. Nicole holds a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in History Teaching. At Family Locket Genealogists, Nicole is a project manager, editor, and researcher.

14 Comments

Leave your reply..

Well done, Nicole! This is definitely good prep work for Accreditation. I like that you included a map and timeline in your report. Thanks for sharing your study group experience.

Thanks for reading and commenting! Yes I learned so much for the accreditation process.

I really appreciate you putting your work out there so I could read it and compare it to my style of work. Good Job! I’m working on my 4 generation project as well. Your blog is a welcome diversion.

Thanks Tami. I know it wasn’t perfect but I do think it’s important to share our work!

Inspired me to start a project — one project and finish it, learning citation form along the way. Query, how do you document your research time?

Great idea! I use a Google spreadsheet to track the time I spend researching. I would recommend Elizabeth Shown Mills’ book Evidence Explained and her website of the same name while you’re learning citation. That’s what I use!

Wealth of information in your report. It was interesting reading. I can see why writing summaries in your log frequently as you go is a must. Loved the maps.

Thank you for sharing your report. I am a visual learner and seeing the report truly helped me,

You’re welcome! As I have been learning how to write reports in the last couple years, seeing examples of other reports has helped me more than anything else. Glad it helped you also!

This is really helpful. Your comment about creating the smaller objectives for 10-20 hour projects really made this concrete for me. I’m much more comfortable with my simplified objective now. Thank you for a thorough write-up!

Nicole, this is a great quote and good words to research by “I learned overall that the simpler the objective, the more manageable the project.”

Lots of great information in this post! I’ve copied the link an added it to a Research Guide I created, which follows along the lines of the Locality Guide. A document with links to useful information.

Thanks Nicole!

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Diana Elder, AG®, and Nicole Dyer We are mother & daughter professional genealogists sharing ideas for finding ancestors and keeping them close to the heart. Read more about us and our research team here.   Thanks for visiting!

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• Family Health History

Health Family Tree Lesson Plan

Engage students in learning about health family history and the connection between genetics and health. By completing this module students will:

• Understand basic information about common (and in some cases preventable) diseases, understand that the risk for developing these diseases has both a hereditary and environmental component, and understand what it means to be "at risk" for developing these diseases.
• Assess personal risk for developing common diseases by filling out the online Health Family Tree tool at home with their families.
• Construct a "Reduce your Risk" Promotional Campaign aimed at educating their peers.

Follow the suggested lesson plan below to work your way through this module.

Pre-Activity Movie: Using Family History to Improve Your Health

Risk continuum.

A whole-class kinesthetic demonstration of what it means to be in a "risk group" for developing heart disease based on family history/genetics.

• People can be assigned to a risk group for developing heart, and other diseases based on family history/genetics.
• Lifestyle choices can positively or negatively influence the risk of developing heart disease.
• A higher risk means a greater chance of developing heart disease, not an inevitability of developing it.
• Though a lower risk means there is a reduced chance, it is still possible for members of this risk group to develop heart disease.

Using Family History to Improve Your Health Web Quest

Students explore the Using Family History to Improve Your Health module on the Genetic Science Learning Center website to complete a web quest.

• Chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, run in families.
• An individual’s environment, personal choices and genetic make-up all contribute to their risk of developing a chronic disease.
• Family health histories can provide important information about an individual’s risk of develoing a chronic disease.
• Lifestyle modifications that improve health can reduce an individual’s risk of developing a chronic disease.

Pick the Risk: The Polygenic Pedigree Challenge

Students are challenged to track and record the passage of colored pom poms (representing genes) through generations of a family using a pedigree.

• An inherited trait can be determined by one or by many genes.
• All humans have the same genes, but each inherits slightly different forms or “flavors” of each gene.
• Many common diseases (such as heart disease) run in families and have a genetic component.
• Most common diseases are caused by the combined action of multiple genes and environmental factors.
• An individual’s risk of developing a common disease is estimated by looking at siblings, parents and grandparents in a family medical history.

Reduce Your Risk: A Promotional Campaign

Students design a promotional campaign that educates their peer group about how to prevent common diseases (e.g., heart disease or obesity).

• Certain measures can be taken to reduce an individual’s risk of developing common diseases.
• Educating the public abouthow to reduce their risk of developing common diseases is important.

What's Your Family Health Story?

Collect your family health history using this easy to follow guide and checklist. Arrange your family's health history into a pedigree chart. Student pages available in English, Spanish, and Tongan.

• Knowing your family health history is an important first step in improving or maintaining your own health.

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How to Plan and Host a Successful Family History Interview

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Family members are one of the best sources of genealogy information you can find. Their personal experiences are unique and intimate views of the past that you can’t get anywhere else.

Here, we’ll provide our tips for successful family history interviews so that you can preserve your relatives’ unique experiences for generations to come.

How to Set Up and Prepare for Your Interview

First, you will need to decide which family members you’d like to interview and in what order. It’s usually best practice to start with your oldest family members (grandparents, great aunts and uncles, parents, etc.)

Decide on the scope of your interview

Focusing your scope will make writing your questions easier and make your interview more efficient. Some common interview themes are:

• Family history
• Personal histories
• Historical events

Invite your interviewees

Reach out to your subjects and invite them to the interview. If you and the subject aren’t close, be sure to introduce yourself by saying “I’m such-and-such’s oldest daughter” or something similar. Explain that you are interested in family history and why you want to do an interview. It helps put people at ease (and make it more likely they’ll say yes!) if you give them an idea of what to expect.

it’s also courteous to let your interviewee know if you’ll be recording an interview. If you’re doing the interview via phone, check the call-recording laws in your state to make sure your recording is legal.

Prepare and practice your questions

Before the interview, prepare and practice your questions. It’s best to ask open-ended questions (rather than ones with yes or no answers), and to focus on people’s memories and experiences.

Anticipate problems (listed below) and how you’ll respond to them. Don’t send questions ahead of time. It’s helpful to do some preliminary research on your subject so that you can prepare more specific questions and be able to help your interviewee if they struggle to remember a name or a date.

Gather your supplies

We recommend recording family history interviews, and there are several helpful apps you can use to do so. Be sure that your device is charged and that you have sufficient storage space. It never hurts to bring a backup option in case you have technical difficulties! Be sure to have your list of questions and something to take notes with.

Bring photos or other memorabilia! It’s true what they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Photos and other items can help jog your subject’s memory and reveal details, memories and stories that would have otherwise gone unmentioned.

Sample Questions

Below are our suggested questions for three different kinds of family history interviews. Use them as a springboard to create your own list of questions.

Family History

• Tell me about your family growing up (grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.)
• Have you done any family history research? What did you learn?
• What surnames do you you know?
• Tell me about the oldest relative.
• What family stories were you told growing up?
• What traditions did you grow up with? Where did they come from?
• Do you have any heirlooms, scrapbooks, home movies?
• How has family changed over your lifetime?

Personal History

• What’s your first memory?
• How did your parents meet
• Tell me about your childhood home.
• What were your favorite subjects in school?
• Who was your favorite teacher?
• How did meet you your spouse?
• Tell me about your wedding day.
• Tell me about the day your first child was born.
• Tell me about your friends. How did you meet?
• Describe your first job.
• What was your favorite job and why?
• Tell me about your coworkers.
• What did you do with your first paycheck?
• Who are your heroes?
• What was your experience with computers?
• What were your favorite books, songs, etc?
• Where and when have you been the happiest?

Historical Events

• Where were you when this happened?
• What to you remember about that day/event?
• How did it affect your life? Life of others and community?
• How did you feel about it? How have your feelings changed or not?
• What do you remember about other people’s reactions?
• How did life change for you after this event, if at all?

Tips for During the Interview

Throughout the interview, be attentive and show that you’re listening. Try not to spend the whole time scribbling notes. It’s up to you to set the initial tone of the interview, so try to be calm and positive.

Shy or Resistant Interviewees

It usually takes a while for interviewees to feel comfortable and start opening up, so don’t be surprised if their answers are a little short to begin with. Plan for asking some “warm-up” questions to start the interview ( “Tell me about the house where you grew up.” ) and don’t be afraid to ask clarifying or follow-up questions (“ What was the surrounding neighborhood like? ”).

It is also helpful to pause for 1-2 seconds after the interviewee has finished talking to see if they add anything else. Sometimes people will open up more if you give them an extra opportunity to do so.

Staying Focused

Sometimes the challenge isn’t getting your subject to talk, but getting your them to stay on track. If you know they are a talker, it can be helpful to remind them of the goal of the interview before you get started “ Thanks so much for talking with me today. In this interview I’m hoping to learn more about xyz ”.

If your interviewee gets off track, don’t tune out. You don’t have to be held hostage! Listen and affirm the last thing they said and then try to gently bring them back to the question. (“ It sounds like you really love your cat, Fluffy. Did you or any of your have pets growing up? ”)

If your interviewee talks without pause, try to interrupt them as tactfully as you can, affirm you are listening and then ask to finish up the your last question before moving on. (“ Sorry to interrupt, I do want to hear about xyz. Can we quickly wrap up talking about your great-grandfather before we move on? ”)

Not every tangent is a bad tangent. If your interviewee starts to go off track, see where they are headed before correcting them. Often, the best stories are the ones you didn’t think to ask about.

Ending the Interview

Plenty of interviews wrap up naturally. If you find yourself at the end of your time and need a way to wrap-up, you can ask “ What haven’t we talked about that you’d like to discuss in the time we have left? ”

If you’ve made it to the end of your questions and you still have a decent amount of time left, think about something that piqued your interest during the interview. “ I was really intrigued by xyz, can you tell me more about that? ”

Try to stick to your allotted time and be sure to thank your interviewee before you leave.

After the Interview

You did it! You now have a valuable piece of oral history to pass on to future generations. After the interview, make sure that you’ve properly organized and preserved the information you gathered.

If you recorded the interview, be sure to download the file and save it in multiple places. Remember, LOCKSS (lots of copies keeps stuff safe). You should also create a transcription of the interview. Some recording apps like Rev may include a transcription feature.

Also be sure to organize and back up any notes you took during the interview. As you organize, look for any information you might have missed. You can reach out to your interviewee for clarification or ask for a follow-up interview if you feel it’s appropriate.

It’s a nice gesture to send your interviewee a thank you note, either in the mail or via email.

Last updated, Oct 2023

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In This Section

• Classroom Materials: Digitized Primary Sources
• Classroom Materials: Rubrics and Syllabi
• Classroom Materials: Sample Assignments
• Classroom Materials: Teaching Modules
• Classroom Materials: History Skills
• Classroom Materials: Reflections on Teaching
• Classroom Materials: History Lessons and Background Materials

Sample Assignments

Sample assignment showcasing the importance of local/regional history in the early american survey course.

Brittany Adams focuses on incorporating more regional history into the early survey. She also emphasizes the importance of de-centering the British colonial narrative when teaching students who identify more with western US history, as do many of her students at UC Irvine.

Assignment: Social History of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Shannon Bontrager not only incorporated global contexts into his survey, but he also used non-traditional and digital pedagogical tools to engage his students.

Chinese Immigrants in America in the 19th Century: A Study Module

These materials, produced by Vincent A. Clark as a result of his work in the Bridging Cultures program, consist of an illustrated introduction, excerpts from four contemporaneous articles, an online quiz (not included in these materials), and an assignment for an e-mail discussion. The introduction describes not only the life of the immigrants in the United States but their economic and cultural background in China. The goal is to expand the students’ knowledge to include the China from which these immigrants came. Two of the articles oppose Chinese immigrants; two praise them. They are designed to let students see the varying perceptions of the immigrants, the arguments for and against Chinese immigration, and the complex class and ethnic dimensions of this controversy.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Extra Credit Assignment

As part of her work in the Bridging Cultures program, Cheryll Cody designed a course assignment using the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. It requires students to answer a series of questions by looking at the database’s extensive collection of maps and charts.

The US Becomes an Empire, Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

As part of his work in the Bridging Cultures program, Carlos Contreras provided some classroom assignments and activities that challenge students to think "Atlantically" and "Pacifically" as they think broadly about American history. This set of discussion questions focuses on the expansion of the US as it becomes an imperial power and has students critically examine the US-Caribbean relationship, Hawaii and the Philippines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Discussion Questions on the Film Manifest Destiny

History and policy education program.

Oct. 2, 2015 -  Modeled on the National History Center's Congressional Briefings by Historians program, the History and Policy Education Program aims to help students appreciate the importance of bringing historical perspectives to contemporary policy conversations.  Designed to be adaptable to many courses and teaching styles, the Mock Policy Briefing initiative provides a guide for history educators to develop and host briefings about the historical dimensions of current policy questions.  Read more about the background of the initiative in the October issue of  Perspectives on History. 

Paper Assignment: Encountering Commodities in the Atlantic and the Pacific Worlds

This sample assignment requires students to use primary and secondary sources to connect American history with the Atlantic and Pacific worlds and write a paper that focuses on the circulation of commodities, peoples, and ideas throughout those worlds. This paper assignment has three major parts: a list of sources for students to read and study along with guiding questions on each reading; a mapping exercise; and the five page paper.

Paper Assignment: Localizing Global Encounters, Case Study: New Netherland/New York (Suffolk County Community College)

This sample assignment requires students to use primary and secondary sources to connect American history with the Atlantic and Pacific worlds and write a paper that focuses on encounters between different groups of Europeans in New Netherland/New York. This paper assignment has three major parts: a list of sources for students to read and study along with guiding questions on each reading; a mapping exercise; and the five page paper.

Sample Assignments from Globalized US History Courses

As part of her work in the Bridging Cultures program, Amy Forss employed wide-ranging techniques such as PechaKucha presentations, oral history research, and greater study of maps to engage her students in their globalized US history courses. She even had her students find historical recipes and try them out.

Revolutions, Independence and New Nations: The Great Transformation

As part of his work in the Bridging Cultures program, Carlos Contreras provided some classroom assignments and activities that challenge students to think "Atlantically" and "Pacifically" as they think broadly about American history. This set of discussion questions helps students consider the implications of revolution in the Atlantic world.

Discussion Questions on the Film Black in Latin America

As part of his work in the Bridging Cultures program, Carlos Contreras provided some classroom assignments and activities that challenge students to think "Atlantically" and "Pacifically" as they think broadly about American history. This set of readings and discussion questions helps students consider the complexities of the Transatlantic slave trade and the broader Atlantic world during the colonial era, particularly considering the film "Black in Latin America."

Films and Readings on the African Slave Trade and the Atlantic World

As part of his work in the Bridging Cultures program, Carlos Contreras provided some classroom assignments and activities that challenge students to think "Atlantically" and "Pacifically" as they think broadly about American history. This set of discussion questions helps students consider the complexities of the Transatlantic slave trade and the broader Atlantic world during the colonial era.

Africans in the Americas: Discussion Questions from Lepore, Benjamin, Articles, and Film

Video assignment based on isabel allende's daughter of fortune.

Oscar Cañedo crafted this creative assignment about the California Gold Rush and the experiences of people traveling from South America to get to California. He used a story from prominent Latin American novelist Isabel Allende as a backdrop for the assignment. Students craft their own characters based on Isabelle Allende's novel Daughter of Fortune and produce videos to explain why they wished to make the arduous journey to California

Plagiarism: Curricular Materials for History Instructors

History instructors can use this guide to teach students how to avoid plagiarism. It includes a discussion of how the American Historical Association defines plagiarism, tips on preventing and detecting plagiarism in student work, exercises to sharpen students’ understanding of plagiarism, a list of suggested readings for graduate students, an annotated bibliography, and a list of useful web sites.

ChronoZoom Memory and History Project Rubric

Discovering american social history on the web.

Dan Kallgren developed several sample assignments for use in his undergraduate survey course "United States History Since the Civil War," in the spring of 2000. Assignments can be used inidividually or in series, as each is accompanied by suggested reading and primary sources.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

One of Dan Kallgren's assignments. Students read a section from "Out of Many; A History of the American People" by John Mack Faragher, et al., to contextualize primary source documents about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. After analyzing the sources, the students write a short report.

The Anti-Saloon League

One of Dan Kallgren's assignments. Students analyze digital primary sources in order to contextualize and understand the motivation of the Anti-Saloon League members.

Mapping Suburbanization

One of Dan Kallgren's assignments. Using topographical maps from the University of New Hampshire, students explore how the landscape surrounding a 1950s New Hampshire city changed over time. Students are asked to consider how sociopolitical factors such as the Cold War might have affected the development of the United States.

World Civilizations: The Ancient Period to 500 CE

In David Smith's project, students use world history methods (Big Picture, Diffusion, Syncretism, Comparison, and Common Phenomena) to interpret secondary and primary materials. Primary material is handled through directed reading questions that focus on three classics: the Odyssey, the Ramayana and the Analects.

JFK's Executive Orders and the New Frontier

One of Dan Kallgren's assignments. Students analyze executive orders from President Kennedy to draw out themes and place them in the context of Kennedy's agenda.

United States History from the Civil War to the Present Syllabus

Sue C. Patrick's syllabus for her United States History from the Civil War to the Present course, which includes assignments and links to digital primary sources.

United States History through the Civil War Syllabus

Sue C. Patrick's syllabus for a United States History through the Civil War course. The syllabus includes assignments and links to digital primary sources.

Sample Assignment: Charting Your Journey with ORBIS

Created by John Rosinbum as part of his Teaching with #DigHist series on AHA Today, This assignment asks students to craft a hypothetical journey using ORBIS, a digital humanities project at Stanford University that allows users to plot a route between sites in the Roman Empire and simulate the journey. After rationalizing the choices made when planning their trip, students use a comic strip or travel diary to recount the trials and tribulations of their journey. The assignment helps develop skills in writing narratives, real or imagined. In addition, it develops the historical skills of contextualization and causation by asking the students to ground their narratives in a place they have already learned about and then justify the steps in their journey. While designed for middle school students, the assignment and attached rubric could easily be adapted for students ranging from elementary school to entry-level undergraduate.

Sample Assignment: Comparing Spatial Depictions of the Roman World

Created by John Rosinbum as part of his Teaching with #DigHist series on AHA Today, this assignment requires students to analyze the depictions of the Roman world created in digital projects ORBIS and the Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations. Designed for high performing high school students and freshman/sophomore undergraduate students, the assignment pushes students to compare the two projects and gives them the opportunity to explore how purpose, argument and data shape a project.

Sample Assignment: Visualizing the Transatlantic Slave Trade with Voyages

Created by John Rosinbum as part of his Teaching with #DigHist series on AHA Today, this assignment offers students the opportunity to use their visual and/or technical skills to create a visualization of the transatlantic slave trade. Students will use the information provided by Voyages to create either a digital or an analog data visualization of the trade. In addition they will write a detailed guide explaining their process and defending their choices. This assignment asks them to think deeply about the process of visualizing history and personally involves them in the process of generating a better understanding of the past.

Sample Assignment: Tracking a Slave Ship with Voyages

Created by John Rosinbum as part of his Teaching with #DigHist series on AHA Today, asks students to investigate a specific slave vessel and contextualize its journeys within their broader knowledge of the trade and concurrent historical events/processes that might have affected it.

Teaching the Slave Trade with Voyages: The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database (AHA Today)

New perspectives on 19th-century america [assignment].

John Rosinbum uses American Panorama, a digital atlas created by the University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab, to teach students about the economic, cultural, and territorial transformations that changed America during the 19th century. In this assignment, students must create their own visualization of changes in 19th-century America. Students must also develop a guide that defends their research choices in the creation of the visualization, explains how the visualization extends our current understanding of the period, and distinguishes their visualization from American Panorama.

Analyzing Visual Depictions of America's Expansion with American Panorama

John Rosinbum uses American Panorama, a digital atlas created by the University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab, to teach students about the economic, cultural, and territorial transformations that changed America during the 19th century. In this sample assignment, he asks students to compare two maps from American Panorama dealing with the 19th century and explore how each map presents American expansion differently.

Creating Maps Using Carto [Assignment]

Lindsey Passenger Wieck (St. Mary's Univ.) explains how students in her history classroom use Carto to create maps. The exercise helps students become critical consumers of maps and media, while designing and implementing digital projects that communicate historical content. In this assignment, students explain the significance of maps they created using Carto.

Creating a Dataset [Assignment]

Lindsey Passenger Wieck (St. Mary's Univ.) explains how students in her history classroom use Carto to create maps. The exercise helps students become critical consumer of maps and media, while designing and implementing digital projects that communicate historical content. In this assignment, students develop and analyze a dataset and consider its potential for mapping.

Mapping the Early Modern World [Instructions)

Julia M Gossard (Utah State Univ.) uses the widely available Google Maps to assign a mapping project to her students. The assignment allows students to think carefully about the economic, political, religious, and ideological connections between Europe and the rest of the world in the early modern period.

The Historian's Toolbox: Source Evaluation [Worksheet]

Julia M Gossard (Utah State Univ.) uses the widely available Google Maps to assign a mapping project to her students. The assignment allows students to think carefully about the economic, political, religious, and ideological connections between Europe and the rest of the world in the early modern period. In this worksheet, Gossard asks her student to carefully evaluate the sources they use for their Google Map entries.

Visualizing the Past [Sample Assignment]

John Rosinbum looks at a spectrum of digital archives available on the web today and explores how teachers can use them in the classroom. In this sample assignment, students are asked to use data from a digital archive to visualize the past.

Operation War Diary Project [Sample Assignment]

In this assignment, Susan Corbesero (The Ellis School) discusses using the crowdsourcing project, Operation War Diary, to help students learn about the First World War. The project contains over one million digitized images of war diaries from British and Indian troops.

Teach Your Family

In this project, you will show your instructor—and your family or friends—what you’ve learned in class.

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

• Family Health History
• Family Health History Tools and Resources
• Family Health History and Pregnancy
• Family Health History and Your Child
• Family Health History for Adults
• Family Health History Resources for Health Professionals and Researchers
• MFHP Algorithms
• Genomics and Your Health
• About Cascade Testing
• Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer
• Hereditary Colorectal (Colon) Cancer
• Heart Disease, Family Health History, and Familial Hypercholesterolemia
• Public Health Genomics at CDC

What to know

If you have a family health history of a chronic disease such as cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, you are more likely to get that disease yourself. Knowing your family health history risk can help you—if you act on it. Share your family health history with your healthcare provider, who can help you take steps to prevent disease and catch it early if it develops. Finding disease early can often mean better health in the long run.

Knowing and acting on your family health history can be an important part of staying healthy. Family health history can help your healthcare provider decide what screening tests and other interventions you need and when. For example, if you have a parent or sibling diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50, your healthcare provider might refer you for cancer genetic counseling .

Whether you know a lot about your family health history or only a little, take time to talk to your family about their health histories. It might not be easy. Your family members might not be used to talking about their diseases or might not want to talk. But starting the conversation is important. Remember, you're asking not just for your own health, but for the health of everyone in your family.

If you have a medical condition, such as cancer , heart disease , or diabetes , be sure to let your family members know about your diagnosis. If you have had genetic testing done, share your results with your family members. If you are one of the older members of your family, you may know more about diseases and health conditions in your family, especially in relatives who are no longer living. Be sure to share this information with your younger relatives so that you may all benefit from knowing this family health history information.

Collect and share your family health history

Are you ready to collect your family health history but don’t know where to start? Here’s how!

Talk to your family. Write down the names of your close blood relatives from both sides of the family: parents, siblings, half-siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews. Talk to these family members about what conditions they have or had, and at what age the conditions were first diagnosed. You might think you know about all of the conditions in your parents or siblings, but you might find out more information if you ask.

Ask questions. To find out about your risk for chronic diseases , ask your relatives about which of these diseases they have had and when they were diagnosed. Questions can include

• Do you have any chronic diseases, such as heart disease or diabetes, or health conditions such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol?
• Have you had any other serious diseases, such as cancer or stroke? What type of cancer?
• How old were you when each of these diseases and health conditions were diagnosed? (If your relative doesn’t remember the exact age, knowing the approximate age is still useful.)
• What is our family’s ancestry? From what countries did our ancestors come to the United States?
• What were the cause and age of death for relatives who have died?

Record the information and update it whenever you learn new family health history information . My Family Health Portrait , a free web-based tool, is helpful in organizing the information in your family health history. My Family Health Portrait allows you to share this information easily with your healthcare provider and other family members.

Share family health history information with your healthcare provider. If you are concerned about diseases that are common in your family, talk with your healthcare provider at your next visit. Even if you don't know all of your family health history information, share what you do know. Family health history information, even if incomplete, can help your healthcare provider decide which screening tests you need and when those tests should start.

Share your medical and family health history with your family members. If you have a medical condition, such as cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, be sure to let your family members know about your diagnosis. If you have had genetic testing done, share your results with your family members. If you are one of the older members of your family, you may know more about diseases and health conditions in your family, especially in relatives who are no longer living. Be sure to share this information with your younger relatives so that you may all benefit from knowing this family health history information.

Act on your family health history

Having a family health history of a disease doesn't mean that you or your family members will definitely get it. Knowing about your family health history of a disease can motivate you to take steps to lower your chances of getting the disease. You can’t change your family health history, but you can change unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking, not exercising or being active, and poor eating habits.

Talk with your healthcare provider about steps that you can take, including whether you should consider early screening for the disease. If you have a family health history of disease, you may have the most to gain from lifestyle changes and screening tests.

What you can do if you have a family health history of

• Colorectal cancer : If you have a mother, father, sister, brother, or other close family member who had colorectal cancer before age 50 or have multiple close family members with colorectal cancer, talk to your healthcare provider about whether you should have screening starting at a younger age, being done more frequently, and using colonoscopy only instead of other tests. In some cases, your healthcare provider may recommend that you have genetic counseling, and a genetic counselor may recommend genetic testing based on your family health history.
• Breast or ovarian cancer : If you have a parent, sibling, or child with breast cancer, follow current recommendations and start getting mammograms at age 40. If your relative was diagnosed with breast cancer before age 50, if you have a close relative with ovarian cancer, or if you have a male relative with breast cancer, your healthcare provider might refer you for cancer genetic counseling to find out if genetic testing is right for you. In some cases, your healthcare provider might recommend taking tamoxifen, raloxifene, or aromatase inhibitors, drugs that can decrease risk of developing breast cancer in some women.
• Heart disease : If you have a family health history of heart disease, you can take steps to lower your chances of getting heart disease . These steps can include eating a healthy diet, being physically active, maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, limiting your alcohol use, having any screening tests that your healthcare provider recommends, and, in some cases, taking medication. If you or a family member has low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels over 190 mg/dL (or over 160 mg/dL in children), talk to your healthcare provider about getting checked for familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), especially if you have a family health history of early heart disease or heart attacks. If you have FH, you might need to take additional steps to maintain your health.
• Diabetes : If your mother, father, brother, or sister has type 2 diabetes, you and your other family members could have prediabetes and are more likely to get type 2 diabetes. While most people with type 2 diabetes are older adults, more and more children, teens, and young adults are developing type 2 diabetes. But there are important steps you and your children can take to prevent type 2 diabetes and reverse prediabetes if you have it. Take this test to find out if you or your family members could have prediabetes. Ask your healthcare provider whether you need earlier screening for diabetes. Find out more about the National Diabetes Prevention Program 's lifestyle change program and how to find a program near you .
• Osteoporosis : This is a medical condition where bones become weak and are more likely to break. A family health history of osteoporosis is one of a number of factors that make you more likely to develop osteoporosis. For example, if you are a white woman whose mother or father fractured a hip, talk to your healthcare provider about screening for osteoporosis earlier (at about age 55, compared with age 65 for most women).
• Hereditary Hemochromatosis : Hereditary hemochromatosis is a disorder in which the body can build up too much iron and can lead to serious liver damage and other problems. If you have a family member, especially a brother or sister, with hemochromatosis, you may be more likely to develop the condition yourself. Talk to your healthcare provider about testing for hemochromatosis and whether you should take steps to lower the amount of iron in your body.

Learn how collecting your family health history can help prevent disease or find it early.

For Everyone

Public health.