Teaching Genealogy to Kids

 

Teaching Genealogy to Kids

By Debra L. Karplus

For several years, I had the privilege of being asked to teach a Sunday school class to groups of about half a dozen middle school preteens.  I had a tremendous amount of fun and satisfaction getting to know these highly motivated delightful youngsters and sharing my passion for genealogy with them.

The first of the five weekly one hour classes was introductory; though most of the students knew each other, I didn’t know them, and I asked them to share why they chose to be in the class and what they hoped to learn.  The responses were mixed.  Class two was about interviewing techniques with living relatives and writing family stories.  In the third class, we discussed and displayed different types of genealogy charts, pedigree, ancestor, family group, and so on.  On week four, we learned about online resources.  The last class was a wrap up of the first four and unanswered questions were addressed.

I received very positive comments on my class, and to the best of my knowledge, nothing negative. 

But personally, though admittedly my standards are often higher than is reasonable, I felt disappointed in how I taught this class.  Essentially, I made the mistake of bringing computers into the class on the second of the five weeks.  Preteen kids tend to be electronics “junkies”.  The kids were more inclined to “play” instead of do any real research. 

And truly, most of my students missed the mark on how databases are to be used for genealogical research.  One child sitting at the computer raised his hand and asked me “why can’t I find my dad on the database, I want to learn more about him”.  I impatiently snapped at him “your Dad is sitting a few feet away in the lobby, don’t research him, ASK him”. 

I emphasized with the class that now is the time to get stories from their living relatives, particularly their older ones, and many happily still had at least a few living great grandparents.  The genealogy databases are useful for researching data about family members that are no longer around.

As most teachers will tell you, like the students, I learned so much from my experience teaching genealogy to young people.  If asked, I would teach a class like this again, and it would be even better!