Lesson Plan: Community Family Tree

Rationale: It's important for students to be able to own their place in history by understanding their family tree. This lesson plan explores the lifestory of families and communities in terms of their ethnic origins.

Materials: Pencil, paper, tape recorder (if available), Polaroid camera (if available)

Timeframe: Three to ten hours (depending on level of activities); work outside the classroom is required.

Methods:

1) Become the family historian!

Interview family members to learn about your family tree. What are their stories? What about their aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents - when they were born and how long did they live, where did they live and what they did for a living, whom did they marry and what were the names of their children? There are a LOT of questions you can ask, so be sure to keep track the answers on notepaper; even better, ask if you can tape these conversations. When you prepare your final report , why not build a "timeline" tracing your family history, or if you have photographs available of your family and relatives, create a visual family tree. Don't let all your work be forgotten - consider giving a copy of your work to the local library or historical society. Your story is an essential part of your community's history.

Things to keep in mind:

  • Be patient. It may take time for people to remember family stories.
  • Be creative. How do you want future generations to remember you and your family?
  • Be committed. Remember that this exercise is just the start of a life-long conversation about who you are and where you came from. Resources:

There are many sites available online to provide you with ideas about family history research. Click HERE for some suggestions!

 

2) Documenting Your Community's "Family Tree"

You can use many of the same strategies to document the cultural heritage of your community : researching information in libraries, interviewing friends and interested community members, and developing timelines of your community's cultural history. Because this is a much larger project, it's more effective to do this as a team effort, so be sure to assign different responsibilities to your group members.

Suggestions:

  • Work with your teacher, local public library, historical society and genealogical society to identify community members who would be interested in taking part in a community genealogy project.
  • Ask if there are similar projects are already underway or available for you to study.
  • Think big but focus, focus, focus! You can't study everything! Decide what you want to research - a particular period of time (e.g., 1900-1945), or a specific area of your city or town, or perhaps one or two cultural or religious groups. Be sure to study what interests you the most!
  • Ask if you can use a tape recorder (or video camera), when conducting interviews. These tapes will be an invaluable part of your community's oral history. If allowed, take a photograph of the person you are interviewing.
  • Consider sharing your final report, tapes and photographs with a local public library, historical society or genealogy society. The work you do now will be invaluable to others in the future.