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June 27, 2007

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Patty McCormack

Thanks for this article. It's important to involve our young people and I have several passenger lists on my website transcribed by elementary school children under the supervision of their teachers. Under her grandmother's supervision, another young volunteer started transcribing for us at the age of 13; she is now entering her first year of college. Genealogy is a wonderful way to make history come alive.

Jay Harper

I started off fairly young, being fortunate during my childhood to spend many school holidays (vacations) with my grandparents, very hospitable people at whose home there were always family and friends coming and going. Grandma always told me who they were ("That was your Dad's cousin Mary, aunty Kate, uncle Walter, etc") and so I got to know many of the extended family that my siblings never met. So while still in primary (grade) school I stated recording these on a large sheet of paper, adding to this as I sorted out who was who. Then I did the same for my mother's family even though I hadn't met many of them. It was a source of great pleasure and fascination for me and provided foundations I built on much later. I've always been grateful for giving me that first encouragement from Grandma. Maybe more youngsters would benefit from that sort of interaction, learning to see themselves within the big picture.

Ronald Nicely

I have not read the book Roots for Kids but I agree with the premise presented. I have been doing genealogy for the last 9 years and my focus was not just on the names but also the stories. One of the stories was about the Indian captire of a 5 year old brother of my 3 Great Grandfather in 1775. It was an interesting story but i could not put a final note on the story since he never returned home. We did know he was alive in 1825 and had children and had been raised as an Indian. Several years ago through a series of unusual circumstances his decendants found me and we had a reunionof the two families 228 years after the capture. They are members of the Seneca tribe in Oklahoma. Getting to the point about children, I work as a docent at an 1800 restored stagecoach inn and we have a lot of children visit to hear about the 1800's. On several occassions there was some extra time and to help keep the children occupied I told them the story of the cature. The director of the inn and the teachers all commented on how quiet and attentive the children were listening to the true story of a child from the area where we live. They asked very good questions when I was finished and many have asked how I was able to find all of this. The curiosity is there and the next time it happens I will let the parents and teachers know there is a book available that will help them learn more. I wrote a book on this captire and I find that children are very interested in reading it. The interest in genealogy is in them it just needs to be developed and I like that the author indicated about learning the stories. I tell people I never had a real interest in history until i realized history was about me and my family. We all have a story to tell and you may be surprised at what you find. Your ancestors come to life in the stories.

Bev Anderson

Thank you for sharing this info! :-)

I got interested in genealogy as a result of a genetics project in biology class when I was a sophomore in high school. Genealogy was a detour at the time, but it's now relevant again because of inherited medical problems like allergies and degenerative arthritis.

If I had known back in grade school (50 years ago) what I know now about my ancestors and the roles some played, history would have been a much more interesting topic to study, because it would have become personal, not a bunch of abstract details I couldn't connect to much of anything...!

Besides the obvious satisfaction of knowing one's own roots, one can tie the activities of one's own ancestors to the dry details learned in history classes, learn old medical terms, geography becomes pertinent as one follows the moves of ancestors, math becomes relevant, especially when the calendars changed... et cetera and so on and so forth. Genealogy research becomes a practical application of knowledge acquired in school. I have arrived in my senior years with a head full of "trivia" (much of it related to genealogy research one way or another) and since acquiring my first computer my research has taken a whole new turn thanks to research in foreign countries and being part of genealogy lists, and my 'network' of genealogy correspondents has become international. Because of genealogy, I learned how to make web sites, and only last week I heard from a "new" relative (common ancestor about five generations back in Norway).

On the whole, if there's a kid with an inordinate sense of curiosity (and a low threshold of boredom), genealogy research is one way to positively channel that curiosity, and it's an invaluable learning process on multiple levels because it keeps the mind occupied with how to solve problems, find and analyze data, and put it into context.

I may need to pick up Beller's book and give it to some of the younger members of my family (along with the info and copies of documents I've acquired through the years) and see if they want to pursue my research to areas I have not had time to pursue yet....

Happy Dae

Beller's book sounds like a solid investment for all our research files to persist into the future. I'll see if the Library at Fort Worth has a copy this week-end.

It is great to have our children and grandchildren involved in the family history.

Happy Dae.
http://www.ShoeStringGenealogy.com/ssg1.htm

Jeff Wright

This book is available on-line at Amazon.com.

Karla Nurnberg

Thank you for this book review of "Roots for Kids". It should be worth every penny. I recently copied Family Group
Sheet Forms and Pedigree Chart
Forms to have my ten year old granddaughter begin research on her Dad's Family. This book should help us get her started.

Laura W. Carter

Make sure you order the 2nd edition. The first edition came out in 1997.

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