by Lorinda K. F. Newton
With the holidays approaching, Christmas catalogs have landed in my mailbox. One catalog, Personal Creations, captured my attention. This company will imprint a name of my choice on Christmas ornaments, stockings, and various housewares that they sell.
People enjoy personalized gifts. Such an item has special meaning to the owner because it bears his name.
Similarly, you can make history lessons more meaningful and memorable by personalizing them with family history. By doing so, your children will remember more, have a better understanding of their own heritage, and discover their place in the scheme of history.
To do this, you need to gather your family history, sprinkle some into your history curriculum, and discuss how we all fit into the big picture of history.
Gathering Family History
Some people like me belong to a family that has saved, recorded, and shared family history. Growing up, I knew my mom descended from Scottish, Irish, and English settlers who arrived in America during the colonial period. My paternal grandmother told stories about her family’s Austrian background and my paternal grandpa’s German heritage.
If you know or have access to your family history, you’re ready to personalize your history curriculum. Simply go through the material or jot down the knowledge you have and put it in chronological order. Next, look at your history or cultural study curriculum to find where you might include some of these family accounts. Add these notes to your lesson plans, and you’re set.
Digging for Your Roots
Many people, however, are unfamiliar with their heritage. If you don’t know much about your family history, here are a few ways you can go about finding it.
1. Start with your family historian, if your extended family has one.
I am privileged to have had one on both sides of my family. My maternal grandfather started researching his family, and then my aunt has continued the search. She records her findings in a genealogy software program, of which I have a copy.
My paternal grandmother loved photography and scrapbooking. I inherited both her passion for family history and her extensive collection of photo albums, boxes of slides, and family papers and memoirs.
Who in your family collects family stories and photos?
2. If your family has no historian, you and your kids can take on that role.
Family gatherings during the holiday season offer a great time to start. Have your kids interview their grandparents and other relatives about their lives. Perhaps these relatives can also share information about relatives that have passed on. Ask them to bring along old photo albums, scrapbooks, and other family memorabilia. These items can jog memories and illustrate some of the stories they tell.
If you aren’t meeting with your family, you can interview family members via email or video conferencing. For a couple of years, I exchanged emails with my maternal grandfather, who lived in another state, and asked him about his childhood and other events in his life. Later, I compiled these stories in chronological order and shared them with my extended family.
However you do it, make sure you record your oral interviews with a smartphone or another recording device. It’s easy to forget what is said. Visiting my paternal grandparents’ house as a child, I would often drag out one of my grandma’s photo albums, and she’d tell me about the people and events illustrated in it. I wish I had a recorder back then. I’ve forgotten much of what she told me.
3. If you develop a keen interest in your heritage, you can do some genealogical sleuthing.
Visit your local genealogical or historical society for suggestions as to how to start or visit a genealogical website such as ancestry.com. Occasionally, local libraries or senior centers will offer workshops on how to dig up family history.
Warning: genealogy can become a time-consuming hobby.
How to Use Family History
Once you have gathered some family history, arrange it in chronological order or by culture. Next, decide what information should be filed under American History, World History, or Cultural Studies. Then either you can choose only to include your ancestors on a timeline, or you may want to incorporate their personal stories in a particular history lesson, especially if they were connected to a significant historical event.
Timelines
Timelines provide a graphical overview of history in a way that a book can’t. They show connections. On your timeline, you can place your ancestors in wars they fought, the date they immigrated, moved, got married, or started a business. Choose whatever personal account that adds dimension to a history lesson.
For example, I have three maternal ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War. We have stories about only one of them. For the other two, we just have their military unit information. For these, I created timeline figures using a picture of their home colony (state) and typed their names with their life dates below the graphic. Then we posted them on the timeline near the famous men of the American War of Independence.
For more information about timelines, see Homeschool in the Woods and my review on their timeline figures.
Personal Accounts
When we studied the American colonial era, particularly the Great Awakening, the Revolutionary War, and the migration to the Midwest, I mentioned my ancestor John Wallace. Born in Virginia in 1754, he worked as a Methodist Episcopal minister, served as a private in the militia during the War of Independence, and as a pioneer founded a church in Davies County, Indiana, as one of the first pioneer families in that area. John Wallace’s grave lies in the churchyard. Even though we only know a little bit about his life, this sound-bite sized piece of information creates a personal connection to this historical period.
Seeing the Big Picture
The study of history should help students understand their place in history. Our lives are not solitary events. How we live and the choices we make often have ripple effects on those around us and on those who come after us. After reading the book, The King of Prussia and a Peanut Butter Sandwich by Alice Fleming, I connected one piece of my family heritage to world history.
In 1750, the first member of my father’s family to be born on the North American continent was Samuel Funk. His Mennonite parents had emigrated from Germany. Although we don’t know their story, we have assumed that as members of a religious minority, they fled persecution in Europe.
At the same time that the Funk family immigrated to the New World, many Prussian Mennonites relocated to southern Russia to avoid conscription into the Prussian military. This story caused me to wonder whether my Mennonite ancestors moved to America not only for religious freedom but also to avoid military service. What if they had chosen to move to Russia instead of America? Where would I be now? Would I even exist? My ancestor’s decision to emigrate changed the course of my family’s history.
This account serves as a reminder that some of the choices we make today will impact future generations.
History as a God’s Story
In conclusion, not only does this piece of family history add a personal touch to a history lesson, but it also connects my family to our spiritual heritage. We are descended from a couple who believed that their freedom to practice their faith was worth risking a dangerous ocean voyage and starting a new life in a foreign land. Knowing this should encourage us to bravely face life’s challenges and trust that God will care for us, just like Samuel Funk’s parents did.
Discover your own heritage and share it with your children. Allow these stories to add color and depth to your history lessons, and may they teach your children that we are all part of a bigger story of which God is the author.
Lorinda K. F. Newton began homeschooling her children in 2004, and her family joined Academy Northwest in 2014. Her family lives on beautiful Whidbey Island north of Seattle, Washington. She writes about faith, culture, and governing from a biblical worldview at Lorinda’s Ponderings and Lorinda’s Ponderings on Facebook.
