Photos – An Innovative Way to Introduce Youth to Family History

After all is said and done, passing the knowledge of family history onto ones’ children and grandchildren can be a rewarding experience, however, it is not easy to make family history interesting to individuals of all ages. From interesting stories of ancestors who traveled across the ocean and trekked out to the Wild West or stayed in the east and started a whole town or built bridges, the lives of ones’ ancestors can be brought to life when interwoven in the historical facts of a history lesson. In order to do this, one needs to know who their ancestors were in the context of the world they lived in.

To help individuals remember who is who in a photo, try making a puzzle out of the picture with Jigsaw Puzzle Lite(See Note 1). Once you download and install the program, you can upload your photo which you would have scanned. The program will then take the photo and break it up into electronic puzzle pieces. You and your children can put the pieces together as you talk about the individuals in the picture. Another great idea is to make a coloring picture out of the photo. Using the program Kodak EasyShare(See Note 2), you can take the same picture and make it into a coloring page, print it and again talk about the family members as the coloring takes place.

Of course organizing photos from an old shoebox into a nice photo album can also be a fun time for all involved especially when you add the stories behind the photos! Once scanned you can take advantage of Flickr(See Note 3) or Picaboo(See Note 4), upload them and share them with other family members or create a memory book which you can have printed. Knowing your roots can be a source of pride, self-esteem and a heritage that can be passed down generation after generation with the help of some of these new innovations.

Additional Family History Youth Activities

Notes:


 * 1) KraiSoft Entertainment, Jigsaw Puzzle Lite,&lt; http://wwwkraisoft.com &gt;, accessed Feb., 2008
 * 2) Eastman Kodak Company, EasyShare Software,&lt; http://www.kodak.com&gt;, accessed Feb., 2008
 * 3) Yahoo, Inc., Flickr, &lt; http://www.flickr.com/&gt;, accessed Feb., 2008
 * 4) Picaboo Corporation, Create a Photo Book, &lt;http://www.picaboo.com&gt;, accessed Feb., 2008