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Classroom Practice/Program

of what people have in common. Stress commonalities among all students.
Caution: You may have to assist students in determining
commonalities, especially between students who are sworn enemies!
But commonalities will be there if one looks hard enough.
Related Activity: Ask students to write an essay on what each
student has in common with parents, siblings, or friends. Let the
student choose. Stress finding as many commonalities as possible.
Resources

No specific resources are cited for these lessons and units. The best resources
for beginning genealogists are other people. Family members, relatives, and
friends of the family are a great place to start. The very best resources for your
students are their family members and/or caregivers. Information gathering begins
with conversations. Classroom resources are culture dependent. For example,
the definition of “family” has many variations, as do families themselves.
Caregivers are the best place for a child to begin, no matter what the age.
Sometimes gathering information from student records can be enlightening
for you. The school social worker can provide insight regarding the general
familial make-up of the student population. Check the local library for books
explaining families or books giving examples of family activities. Not all
families are made up of biologically related individuals. This does not mean
genealogy cannot be a topic. It is possible to investigate the history of anyone.
If you encounter a situation where genealogy with family members, biological
or otherwise, is not advisable, it is still possible to learn about investigating family
history. Use a well-known person or persons from history. Although students will
not be able to have personal conversations, they will be able to research individuals
known throughout history. If each student or small group of students selects a
different person, results can be shared and compared with
relatively the same curricular goals. Conversations
with caregivers can center around what that individual A complete unit
knows or remembers about the person in history. or individual lessons
For those students in middle and high school who
are doing more detailed genealogical research, the in basic genealogy
Internet is a readily available resource. Caution should
be given regarding sites that charge for access as a can be integrated into
student should not need to pay for anything he or she a variety of curricular
may wish to do. Of particular interest online may be
city directories (for places ancestors lived); census subjects.
records (for locations, family members, occupations, and
ages); birth, death, and marriage records (for places as well as people involved);
and church records (for individuals involved in religious ceremonies). Standard
Internet search programs can also provide geographical and cultural information.
Searching the Internet can even provide locations for long-lost relatives. School
yearbooks are another good source, as are records from elementary and middle
schools. Cemetery records—both information on tombstones as well as office
records—can often provide data and information about family members.
Once students become more involved in genealogy and have gaps

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