Fun Genealogy Activities to do With Your Family
It’s summer! And that means fun in the sun, pool time, barbecues, vacations, and lots of downtime at home. So you want to do family history with your family, but you’re looking for ideas. These fun genealogy activities need to be easy, little to no planning, and doable for all ages. Also, they need to appeal to kids who love researching and to those who don’t. So I’ve scoured the Internet looking for these activities and here are some that I would recommend.
Fun Genealogy Activities Using Games
Ancestor Basket- This is like Fruit Basket but instead of using fruit names, you use ancestor names. Put chairs in a circle enough for everyone to sit in except the “it” person. Pick 3-4 ancestor names and give several people the same ancestor name. Then the person who is in the middle of the circle as “it” says an ancestor’s name and everyone with that name has to move to another seat. The person in the middle tries to steal a seat before the people can sit in it. Then the person who is it starts another round.
Family History Bingo- Make a series of bingo cards with up to 5 columns and 5 rows of ancestor photos. Put the names of all pictured family members into a bowl. Then draw out the names until someone has bingo.
Play Family History Activities Using Family Search- Family Search is amazing for having fun activities that help you learn about your family tree. Of course you need to have a family tree on it first in order for them to create personalized activities. But no worries! It’s easy to set up an account and get started.
Roots and Branches- This is a game where the company has taken family history questions and turned it into a board game. You roll the dice, move along the board, and land on a color that represents a certain category. Then you answer the question with a family story. My daughter loves playing this one!
Social Media
Now who doesn’t know that social media can be a huge family history tool? I think everybody does nowadays. The question is what are some simple ways to use it so you don’t feel overwhelmed and your teen actually wants to help.
Let them run the show- Together plan what platform you’re going to use and for what purpose. Then let them set it all up and have them decide what topics or questions to focus on. It could be YouTube family videos, Instagram account that stays private, a Facebook group for your whole family, etc. The main point is to learn from each other what is appropriate and what is useful and fun for your whole family.
New Apps- What new apps are out there that makes genealogy fun? By the time this post airs who knows how many new apps there will be on the market. Your youth have an inside contact to the many new apps out there. Find one and see if you can be creative enough to get that to work for family history. Many apps are intended for a certain use, but have been found to be helpful for family history as well. So scour the Android/iPhone Play Store!
Videos
Adding Home Videos to your Family Photo/Scrap books- Now this is an awesome idea! The blogger, Sarah Desjardins, teaches you how to add your home videos to either printed or digital photobooks or scrapbooks using QR codes. Now I’ve seen QR codes used for many different family history projects. But I personally haven’t tried this yet, but it’s definitely on my to do list. Her blog How to Add Home Videos to Scrapbooks and Photobooks shows you a step-by-step process that looks easy to do. QR codes are also good to use if you have music, photo slideshows, audio clips, other websites, and journaling you want to add to your projects.
Virtual House Tour- This is a new one for me. I’ve never thought to do a virtual tour of my own home unless I’m in the process of selling it! But if you put a family history spin on it, then it becomes a fun activity! It’s exactly like it sounds. Just take your phone or tablet and go around each room recording the tour. You can be creative and describe what you typically do in each room or tell stories about certain objects in each room. Also, you can tell why you bought the house and why you’ve updated it the way you have, etc.
Make home movies- This of course is the most basic thing to do that takes little to no planning. Just pick a topic such as daily life, birthdays, or a certain person and get filming. You could follow someone around for the day or go for a drive filming your favorite places and why. The sky’s the limit when it comes to how you want to make your movies. So just do it!
Fun Genealogy Activities Resources
Last Thoughts
Again, these are just a few of the many ways we can do family history during the summer. I loved being able to research these fun genealogy activities. It gives me hope that even I can do these activities when I don’t have a lot of time to prep something and show my daughter the world of family history.
And as always…good luck and happy hunting!
Tiffany
P.S. Related Reads…
family, family activities, family history activities, games, social media, videos