Genealogy Lesson Plan – Introducing Students to Genealogy (Middle or High School)

“He who does not research has nothing to teach.” - Unknown

National Standards for United States History:

Standard 4B – Obtain Historical Data

Standard 4C – Interrogate Historical Data

This lesson plan may work for middle school or high school students. It is meant to serve as a basic, short introduction to genealogy research.

During one five-day week, students will build a small family tree. Each day they will learn about a new feature of the website FamilySearch. They will save these records and keep a journal to reflect on their work. At the end, they will create a small booklet with records and family tree information.

First have students create a free account on FamilySearch.com.

Prior to the activity, students will interview parents and grandparents to gain background information (the names of grandparents, dates of birth, etc.) to have a starting point. Students who are unable to research biological family may choose to research a family in the community or a celebrity’s family.

Day 1- Have students create an account. Then, demonstrate to students how to ‘add’ people to a family tree. Have students add themselves and enter their information (birth date, place of birth) and each parent and their siblings on the tree first. Then, they may add the names of grandparents and dates and place of birth. Students will then have time to write in their journal to reflect on the lesson.

Day 2 – Students will begin searching for their great-grandparents. Today’s lesson will involve teaching students how to use the search feature on the FamilySearch website to find a birth record for great-grandparents. If students are not able to find a birth record, then they may use another record which has the date of birth on it (such as social security death index records, public records index, etc.) Students will save the records to their family tree. Students will reflect in their journal

Day 3 – Students will continue to explore the lives of their great-grandparents through studying records. Today students will be taught how to find census records and will be challenged to find at least 3 separate census records and save them to their great-grandparents on their family tree. Students will write in their journal and reflect on the information they uncovered in the census records.

Day 4 – Students will return to the census records from the prior day and will search the names of the parents of their great-grandparents. The lesson for today will be about how to find a county death record on FamilySearch. Students will be expected to save a death record for each great-great grandparent if they are able to find one. Then, students will reflect in their journal about the information they found in the death records.

Day 5 – Students will be taught how to find marriage records on FamilySearch and will try to locate marriage records for their great-great grandparents. Students will also be given time to search and find 2 additional records of their choice. Time will be given to reflect in their journal.

Post-Activity – On a separate day students will print out the family tree pedigree that they create, along with records that they have found. They will create a small booklet and use the reflections from their journal to add captions to the records they will put into their booklet. They may write about discoveries they found interesting, that were surprising, or if the information was just as they expected.