Family History Activities for Youth: 12-?

Curiousity is part of human nature regardless of age. While learning about one's environment and history is accomplished through traditional schooling, discovering one's family heritage can be a fantastic, fun-filled journey made together over time. The following links, charts and exercises can make this journey even more interesting!

Your Place in History



 * Curious about what was happening in the world on the day you or an ancestor were born? Just enter the appropriate dates and you will learn just that!
 * Over the years, decades and centuries, events happened that determined where people lived, what they did to support their family, and even if they were able to attend school. Using Ask will aid you in learning about the events that occured during the life time of an ancestor.
 * Becoming an expert can be a challenge in any subject, however, with a little bit of research and reading you can be the expert on the locations where your ancestral families lived by using Wikipedia. Each article will have a section on "history" of the location. It is very important to read it as you may learn about borders changing and many other interesting facts.
 * Timelines are a great way to organize and see the bigger picture in a person's life time and it helps to make sure you haven't missed a major event in their life. This online versionholds places for 6 events in a person's life. Microsoft has a download that allows you to increase the number of entries, it is available here.

Your Genealogy



 * Enter the information on you and your family into a family group sheet.
 * Enter information into a tree, print and frame it or start your own database using a software of your choice. There is PAF, Ancestral Quest, Legacy and Roots Magic which are all certified by FamilySearch, you will need to download the program of your choice to begin entering the data you have collected. To see or learn about other programs certified click here.
 * Visit a relative and conduct a Family Interview.
 * Locate new ancestral information from various databases. Our main site at FamilySearch, RecordSearch, our test beta site and RootsWeb for just beginning.
 * Look for your ancestor in the 1880, 1900 or 1920 census records. Once you locate them you can easily print it for your records or save it to your hard drive or a flash drive.
 * You may want to see if an ancestor's grave is up on the web or if someone has written an article about them. Many people upload photos of tombstones to Find a Graveand various biographies can be located either in a book about the family or in various other online wikis. Be sure to use a search engine like Google to check online.
 * As a sideline, you may wish to help others through the FamilySearch Indexing Program. Check it out and see if you'd like to join.

Making Memories



 * Create an e-card and send it to a friend or a family member.
 * Visit family and collect photos or ask your own family for ancestral photos, put together in a book and share.
 * Help your family plan a Family Reunion, here are some tips from About.com.
 * Create an account in Flickr and share with family.
 * Create a collage of your family photos.




 * Work on the Young Women's Personal Progress.
 * Work on the Young Men's Duty to God.
 * Boy Scouts Genealogy Badge.

Write or Find Personal Journals



 * Create an online journal- make it private or share it.
 * A personal journal you can download, print and use.
 * Locate biographies and family history of your ancestors.
 * Check to see if a family history has been scanned through the Internet Archives.
 * Create a blog with Blogger or WordPress and share a story about an ancestor or start writing stories about your ancestors to share online adding photos that you can collect from other family members. Here are a few examples of what others have done. MyWebAncestors, Who Will Tell Their Stories?, or Biographical Wiki.
 * Create a Family Website
 * Publish a book about your family with Lulu
 * Record your experiences about family history and submit them to FamilySearch - Youth and Family History

Help Others With Their Genealogy

 * Help others add photos and documents to their family tree: Watch a Video
 * Help others find records by indexing: Watch a Video
 * Register for indexing on indexing.familysearch.org

Fun and Games



 * Create a puzzle with a scanned photo of your ancestors with Jigsaw Lite. Download and install this software to your computer, then upload a photo and watch it break it into pieces you can put together! Note the link brings you to a number of downloads, look for Jigsaw Lite. It is about the 10th item.
 * Enjoy the Fun Activity Booklet created by Scott Simkins. Open it up, print it and enjoy!
 * Match the country with the flag, this is definitely a challenge!
 * Do you like mysteries? Here is a link to Mystery Case Files  - see if you can solve them.
 * If you are physically in the Family History Library, here are some "Ancestor Hunt" activities for you:
 * George Careless
 * Henry Grow
 * Joseph H. Ridges: Bio and Activity
 * Joseph John Daynes
 * Ralph Ramsay
 * Design your own Crossword Puzzle with the names and places of where your ancestors lived
 * Curious as to what day of the week you were born or an ancestor was born on? Check out this Perpetual calendar and find out for yourself.

Online Games

 * Kings and Queens through time
 * America's Story from America's Library
 * Do you like maps? Here are a number of different types of maps and gamesto go with them.
 * Our America: 1607-1945
 * You be the Historian
 * Who Am I???
 * Jubilee Quiz
 * Can you answer the questions for US Citizenship?
 * Genealogy Fun-See if you can sort this out?
 * Sudoku Jigsaw
 * Regular Sudoku

Additional Family History Youth Activities in this Wiki

 * Have younger children? Check out our 3-11 Fun and Games Section here!
 * Family History Activities for Youth
 * Involve Children and Youth in Family History
 * FamilySearch Kids Camp