Son looking at large family tree
The other day while working on some genealogy for a friend, my 16 year old asked if there were any "developments" in his father's genealogy. I was honest, and admitted that I hadn't really worked on that side of the family in quite some time.
I corrupted all three of my children young, with my love of history. But my 16 year old seems to be the one who is into genealogy as much as I am. He loves to find out about amazing, and sometimes nutty people in our family tree.
So, I took a break from what I was working on, and we jumped into Ancestry to work on the Bateman/Keene side of the family. We actually managed to add quite a bit of information. I use MyHeritage software on my desktop, so after adding the updated GEDCOM, we took a look at what the tree would look like if I printed it out using our home printer. "Wow, that would be cool to print!" said my son. I agreed and looked at the number of pages it would take.....54.
For some reason, this morning I decided to do it. I have added a few more people since then, and it ended up being 72 pages. It takes up nearly one whole wall of my bedroom and took three of us to hang it. It is only held up with scotch tape, and I sleep on an air mattress at the moment right below it, so it may well end up on top of me eventually, but for now it works.
I have always shared what I find with my kids.....I want them to know where they come from. But this year we are trying to incorporate some of the family into our homeschooling. We just recently studied the Puritan period, and we have Deacon John Blanchard in our family who was in that area during that time period. My hope was to find some of his sermons to see where he stood on major issues of the day, but unfortunately I didn't. But being able to put our own family in the various time periods is amazing to my children. It makes history and learning a little more exciting.
And on the nutty side of things....you can read about the "Seige" of Cedar Island in 1896. The kid's roots on their dad's side of the family go all the way back to the very beginning settlements on the Isles of Shoals, and we found this story funny as all get out.
Do you involve your children in your research?
I corrupted all three of my children young, with my love of history. But my 16 year old seems to be the one who is into genealogy as much as I am. He loves to find out about amazing, and sometimes nutty people in our family tree.
So, I took a break from what I was working on, and we jumped into Ancestry to work on the Bateman/Keene side of the family. We actually managed to add quite a bit of information. I use MyHeritage software on my desktop, so after adding the updated GEDCOM, we took a look at what the tree would look like if I printed it out using our home printer. "Wow, that would be cool to print!" said my son. I agreed and looked at the number of pages it would take.....54.
For some reason, this morning I decided to do it. I have added a few more people since then, and it ended up being 72 pages. It takes up nearly one whole wall of my bedroom and took three of us to hang it. It is only held up with scotch tape, and I sleep on an air mattress at the moment right below it, so it may well end up on top of me eventually, but for now it works.
I have always shared what I find with my kids.....I want them to know where they come from. But this year we are trying to incorporate some of the family into our homeschooling. We just recently studied the Puritan period, and we have Deacon John Blanchard in our family who was in that area during that time period. My hope was to find some of his sermons to see where he stood on major issues of the day, but unfortunately I didn't. But being able to put our own family in the various time periods is amazing to my children. It makes history and learning a little more exciting.
And on the nutty side of things....you can read about the "Seige" of Cedar Island in 1896. The kid's roots on their dad's side of the family go all the way back to the very beginning settlements on the Isles of Shoals, and we found this story funny as all get out.
Do you involve your children in your research?
