Summertime is the perfect time to bring family history alive for your children. Check out my first post on “Bringing Your Ancestors to Life” HERE. I want to walk you through my process to give you some ideas and to help you get started.
Step one:
Look up a particular ancestor on Family Search or in a family history book, journal, etc. If you don’t have any stories of deceased ancestors, then ask your living parents (or grandparents) about their own lives.
Step two:
As you read about their life, just jot down little bits about them. Did they have any particular hobbies? What was their profession? Did they like a particular food? Were they from another country? Did they have a certain skill set or talent?
Step three:
Take those pieces of information and brainstorm some ideas for how you could tangibly re-create those experiences for yourself and your children.
I’ll give you an example from how I put this process into action a few months ago. I read in a family history book that my great-great grandmother, Bothilda Pehrsdotter, became expert in carding wool, spinning yarn, and knitting (among other things) when she was a young girl.
When I read this bit of information about her, I decided that it would be fun to learn those skills. I bought some wool (straight off the sheep), some wool carders, and a drop spindle. Over the next 6 weeks or so, we carded the wool, spun it into yarn, and then knitted (with the help of a loom) a hat for each of us.
Before starting this process, we had no idea what we were doing… but with the help of youtube videos, we figured it out. 🙂
Not only did we come away from this project with some new skills, but also with a deeper connection to Bothilda.
Is there something from one of your ancestor’s lives that you could use to create a tangible experience for your children? It doesn’t have to take multiple weeks like this example I shared. Any little thing that brings your ancestors to life for your children is a win and helps to link generations together.
