I recently read a great post on Lisa Louise Cooke’s blog about getting your children more interested in family history by talking to them about their own early years. You can read the post here: Family History for Kids Starts WITH the Kids
As a father of 2 children (aged 3 and 1), I’m really keen to capture their early years so they have a record of what they were like growing up. I don’t remember much about my early childhood (my earliest memory is probably around age four) and – although my parents have lots of photos from that time – I’ll never know the details…
- How did my older brother react when I was born?
- Who was at my first birthday party?
- What gifts did I get?
- Where did I go on my first family holiday?
- How did I react when I was given my first bike?
I use Twile to capture these moments for my children on the same timeline as our family history.
I have hundreds of photos and stories of my children growing up in the last few years, but can also scroll back in time to see my own childhood moments – and then go back even further to see my parents, aunts and uncles as children. And of course my timeline continues back to the early 1800s where I can explore my great-great-grandparents’ lives.
Right now, my children are too young to really appreciate any of this, but I love the fact that their own early years and their wider family history will be so easily accessible to them as they grow older.
I think that recent family history is a great tool for getting children interested in their ancestors, or at least giving them more awareness of the family that came before them.