Genealogy Hack: Use Websites to Engage Kids
I know you love genealogy, right? If you didn’t have any other responsibilities to do, you most likely would pick genealogy to fill your day. However, for those of you with kids, they might not love the same thing you do. This is where genealogy websites come in for the win! I’m going to highlight some websites that have kids activities to help them see genealogy in a new light.
Family Search Websites
Obviously, the number one website for both grownups and kids is Family Search because they’ve worked hard at it! I know many of you are already familiar with the activities on this website. However, if you’re not, then head over there and click on the Activities button to show the whole list of fun things to do with your kids. This is not a comprehensive list! In fact, I’m going to talk more about some other websites that I love, but I couldn’t pass up one of the major players.
Although, other major genealogy websites such as Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, and FindMyPast.com are great if your family wants to research their ancestors. However, Family Search has made a huge effort to make their website not just research friendly, but kid friendly as well. My favorite activity is Record Your Story because anyone in your family can do it. It’s easy and fun! You just pick a topic from the list it provides then you pick a prompt from that topic. Then you record your story and it saves to your Memories category under your personal file.
This is different if you want to record a story for one of your ancestors. You have to go to your ancestor’s personal file and click on the Memories category. Then you can scroll down to find Stories and record a story about that ancestor. This activity is fun to do on a lazy weekend when the family is home or for a family reunion to get different perspectives of an ancestor.
Family Tree Kids
Family Tree Kids is part of Family Tree Magazine and has a lot of activities for kids. It also provides useful information for kids interested in researching their family tree. It even provides family tree charts and forms to get them started. You can either fill them out digitally or print them. The activities include scavenger hunts, interview a relative, making picture magnets from old photos, creating a time capsule, family history detective checklist for junior genealogists, etc. I’m even getting excited about doing some of these with my daughter! The point is to make it fun and to use stories throughout so they can feel engaged.
Genealogy Kids
This is a website that I ran across this last year and it’s fun! The Genealogy Kids website was created by a professional genealogist to help her family of seven kids get involved with their own family history. Her website is very user friendly and her ideas are from a wide range of topics that center around her ancestors. It inspires me to try new ideas with my family. She also has an Instagram account @thegenealogykids, and a Pinterest and Facebook page. Her website has ideas ranging from food, projects, crafts, road trips, and kid-friendly website links to other great genealogy websites. It’s worth checking out!
BillionGraves
Now this one is for the older kid crowd. Billion Graves is fun because they have interesting cemeteries and headstones from all over the world. When I was younger, one of my favorite activities to do in a cemetery was try to find out what the symbols meant on the headstones. Because it usually gave an insight into that family’s customs and rituals. Today many cemeteries have a list of the common symbols that you’ll find on headstones and it can be a fun activity for the kids. Yes, it’s a little odd to say, Let’s go to a cemetery! However, they’ll probably have fun after they get done rolling their eyes at you. It also makes it a little more meaningful when you find many of your ancestors in one cemetery.
Conclusion on Genealogy Websites
Technology today is really an amazing thing. Websites have come a long way in trying to engage the whole family. So try one of these websites or find your own, but take the time to use these kid activities to strengthen family connections.
And as always if you want to learn more about my previous genealogy hacks, then click the links below.
In the meantime…good luck and happy hunting!
Tiffany
P.S. Have you signed up for your free download of my favorite American and Scandinavian genealogy websites yet? Then get on it!
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