Teaching History through Genealogy
Has anyone out there used Genealogy as a teaching tool to get students turned on to history? In my U.S History classes I often use stories from my own ancestors to make history more real to my students. It is interesting to trace the life and death struggles of real people in the early U.S. , especially if the students actually have a connection to them. If you can help students trace their own roots back to a time, say in the mid-1800's and follow the life of one of their ancestors through census records, marraige records, death records, etc., it brings history to life for them. As we talk about migration patterns in the class, I tell my students about how my ancestors ended up in New Mexico by tracing their migration from Pennsylvania and Ohio to Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and finally New Mexico. As I read the old newspaper clipping of how my gggrandfather was killed as a train engineer in a head-on collision with another train, they are fascinated. If all they do is learn about the lives of their own grandparents and great-grandparents they will learn about historic events through the stories that their living relatives can tell. The possibilities are endless.
posted by _ at 10:24 AM
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I don't know if all of you are aware but you can access the U.S. census through Heritage Quest Online. You need a library card for the Davis County Library and you can go into the Davis County Library site and click on the "Online Databases" in the left menu and enter the bar code on your library card. The census records before 1850 are quite difficult to use and understand and don't give nearly as much information as the 1850 and later. Part of some of the census records are incomplete because a fire destroyed the records many years ago. Another great search tool is www.rootsweb.com. If you search within the "Family Trees" tab you will find tons of records that have been done by other people. There is no need to pay for a membership to any of the genealogical sites because all of the records are available for free in other places. A great field trip for your class (if they still allow such things)would be to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. The amount of data that is available there is overwhelming but it is so interesting. Genealogy has enhanced my teaching and the learning experiences of my students tremendously.
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