In response to a post from Carmel Reynen on Facebook recently. Lisa Vassallo in a comment said "I would like to know what people are doing to keep it all going." The conversation was all about our family history research and passing it on.
My lengthy response was along these lines (I have edited and formatted it since I posted on Facebook).
Interest waxes and wanes. With 16 descendants I hope someone inherits the geneabug. My children all follow my blog and are most interested when I share an ancestor story.
I let grandchildren enter data into my family history program (after I have backed it up) and I let them search it. They love looking for people with their own forenames or funny names, those that share a birthday or seeing how many people come from a certain town, country or village.
The kids have enjoyed looking at my family website and creating the ancestor and descendant charts available there.
Two of my children and two of my teen grandchildren have done DNA tests. They enjoy hearing about the results after I have done the hard slog of working out the matches..
Ancestor and old photos are another turn on, I have them all digitised and sit at computer with kids and go through them. I find anything we can do together at a screen piques their interest.
We have obtained three grandfather clocks made by an ancestor. These are each in a family home and are a constant reminder of the kids' heritage.
We willingly lend precious artefacts to grandchildren to take to Show and Tell at school (it's always a relief when the items are returned).
Stories of our 10 naughty convict and other black sheep ancestors give them a giggle. They are also impressed by the few famous cousins in our tree.
Sharing family snippets from Trove gets a response.
I try not to bore the socks off family members but to create an environment that provides opportunities for them to learn about their heritage.
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink!
My lengthy response was along these lines (I have edited and formatted it since I posted on Facebook).
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| A favourite picture of my Mum |
Interest waxes and wanes. With 16 descendants I hope someone inherits the geneabug. My children all follow my blog and are most interested when I share an ancestor story.
I let grandchildren enter data into my family history program (after I have backed it up) and I let them search it. They love looking for people with their own forenames or funny names, those that share a birthday or seeing how many people come from a certain town, country or village.
The kids have enjoyed looking at my family website and creating the ancestor and descendant charts available there.
Two of my children and two of my teen grandchildren have done DNA tests. They enjoy hearing about the results after I have done the hard slog of working out the matches..
Ancestor and old photos are another turn on, I have them all digitised and sit at computer with kids and go through them. I find anything we can do together at a screen piques their interest.
 |
| Clock made by an ancestor |
We willingly lend precious artefacts to grandchildren to take to Show and Tell at school (it's always a relief when the items are returned).
Stories of our 10 naughty convict and other black sheep ancestors give them a giggle. They are also impressed by the few famous cousins in our tree.
Sharing family snippets from Trove gets a response.
I try not to bore the socks off family members but to create an environment that provides opportunities for them to learn about their heritage.
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink!
They are terrific tips thanks, Jill. I'm going to try some of these with my oldest grandson.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I don’t have a collection of people that might want my reasearch, at this stage anyway, so I think blogs and Pandora are a great alternative for me.
ReplyDeleteHi Jill, sorry it’s me posting again. I am trying to get comments in blogger to not take up my old G+ profile. The comment above will disappear in a few days, apparently. And if people click my name it will go to a dead link where G+ used to be.
ReplyDeleteSo here goes again.
Great post. I don’t have a collection of people that might want my reasearch, at this stage anyway, so I think blogs and Pandora are a great alternative for me.
Hopefully works this time.
Great post. My Miss 18 asked questions, when we were in Hong Kong and asked for family details to be given to her. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteSounds promising Lilian. Fingers and toes crossed.
ReplyDelete