Jaime Grasps Her Past
Jaime had fun helping her friend Christopher learn about his family tree. She wanted to know more about research for family history. Her teacher, Miss Bowman loved history and wanted to help.
The teacher explained that the study of family history is called genealogy. Researchers are like detectives who gather facts and put them together into stories of family history. Jaime's teacher told her to reach out and hold onto her family story, or to GRASP her past. By using that phrase, Jaime could remember the important things for her study.
Gather facts and items that tell about your family.
Read all you can find about when and where your family lived.
Ask questions to your family members about their memories.
Sources are where we get our information.
Publish what you find about your family in a book or craft project.
Gather- Jaime was excited to start her search, so she went home and began to organize all the things in her house that helped her discover her family story. She found some pictures of her grandparents and some older pictures of houses where her family had lived many years ago. Maps and documents like records of birth were added to the growing pile of clues. She pictured one of her ancestors saving items to pass on to the family. Even Jaime's ancestors loved family history.
Read- Jaime learned to read all the papers and books that she collected about her family. She looked for facts like names and dates. Sometimes she found clues for where to look next in her search.
Ask- Questions for family members about their story helps researchers know a great many things about a family. Jaime made a list of questions that would be interesting to ask her aunts and grandparents. Where did they go to school? What country did our family live in many years ago? What kind of music was played when my ancestors were young?
Source- A book or person who gives researchers information about family history is a source. Jaime learned that she should write down information about her sources so that she could go back and check on the information again if she ever needed it.
Publish- Sometimes researchers write a book after they study a family, but Jaime wanted to do something to share her research right away with her friends at school. Miss Bowman suggested an oral presentation so that Jaime could explain her study and show her classmates what she found. She later put together a scrapbook that included pictures and recipes that were important to her family long ago. Sharing the research is important no matter how the genealogist puts it all together.
Jaime found more information about family history and genealogy. She learned to GRASP her past. She hoped that all her friends and family would learn about their ancestors and how fun it is to create a family tree.
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