October is Family History Month, a time when we and our families should celebrate our family heritage. This means sharing information about our ancestors and commemorating their lives and accomplishments. Most of all, this should be a family affair, and with that in mind, I would like to devote this week's "Along Those Lines . . ." column to suggesting five projects for you and your family for Family History Month.

Storytelling Nights
When I was a child, I enjoyed spending the night at the home of my aunt and grandmother. We would convene after dinner in the living room, dim the lights, and I would say, "Tell me about when you were little girl." The stories I heard helped me get to know my aunt and grandmother as real people, and details helped bring history to life for me.

A great project for Family History Month is a family storytelling night. Declare a night each week throughout the month, and set aside an hour when no television, telephone or other interruptions are allowed. Gather in a comfortable area of your home, and encourage the sharing of stories about yourself, your parents, your grandparents, and other ancestors. Try to couple the stories with times, places, and historical events to help bring history alive.

Photograph Project
Family photographs are excellent reminders of people, times, and events. Most of us, however, probably have loads of loose photographs in boxes or drawers that need to be labeled and organized. A great project for Family History Month involves getting your family together, sitting down with your photographs, and working together to organize them. Find a place where you can spread out your materials—make sure it accommodates the group. Examine photographs, and label them as appropriate. Passing around the photographs and sharing stories about the people, places, and events helps involve everyone in the project. Discuss and agree upon an organizational scheme that allows you to sort the photographs and then place them in some order. This project may take several sittings, depending on the number of photographs you have. However, it can be an enjoyable experience for every member of the family, and it can also promote good preservation skills for everyone.

Family Cookbook Project
Most of us have family recipes that have been passed from generation to generation. They may have been jotted down on scraps of paper or clearly typed out on index cards. A great project with recipes can involve gathering them together, sorting through them, and transcribing them into a family cookbook. If you want to transcribe them into a word-processing document, one person can read the recipe while another types it into the computer, and still another person can be responsible for editing.

In the process of working on the cookbook, you and your family can prepare meals using the recipes. You might want to consider establishing a "family recipe" night each week on which the main dish or even the entire menu consists of special family recipe items. This involves each person as either the preparer of ingredients, the chef, and/or the consumer.

"I'm My Own Grandpa" Party
One way to involve your children in learning more about their ancestors is to host a theme party. Children love to play dress-up, and they love to make up stories. You might consider an "I'm My Own Grandpa" party. This event involves urging the children to learn something about an ancestor. It doesn't have to be a grandfather; it could be a grandmother, a great-grandparent, or some other ancestor. Encourage them to gather facts about the person's appearance and their life, and to construct a short story about a particular event. They can also be encouraged to create a costume so they can dress for the part. Set a time for the entire family to gather together, and let the children present their stories in costume. Serve cake, cookies, and other refreshments appropriate for children's parties.

Visit Sites of Family Interest
Another way of commemorating family and celebrating family history is to visit places that have some meaning associated with your family. A visit with other relatives at their homes might make a nice trip, especially if it is an old family home where grandparents and/or other ancestors lived. If you want to learn more about your ancestors' place in history, a visit to a museum, the historical society, or an archive might be appropriate. A visit to the cemetery where relatives and ancestors are interred also makes a good trip and can be combined with cleaning, maintenance, reminiscences, and storytelling. If you have a Civil War ancestor, you might consider a trip to a battlefield at which he fought or to a memorial site.

Making It Fun
All of the projects above are intended to involve all members of the family. It is especially important to involve children so that they gain knowledge about their family and an appreciation for the pride and family values you already have. These projects are actually events and can become family traditions as well.

Genealogists and family historians often work alone, but here is an opportunity to share some fascinating information and stories you've gathered with other members of the family in a fun and exciting way.

Enjoy Family History Month!

Happy Hunting!

George

Are you looking for the perfect winter getaway? Join George and others on Genealogy Cruise 2001: A Family History Odyssey! We're headed on a cruise from Tampa Bay to Key West and back on February 1-4, 2001. Along the line, we'll enjoy the pleasure of oceangoing sailing and have five on-board genealogy workshops. There will also be lots of time in Key West for shopping, touring the famous cemetery, visiting Hemingway House and Audubon House and more. For complete information, visit the Web site. Space is limited and the ship is filling up fast!

George G. Morgan is a proud member of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors, Inc. He would like to hear from you at atl@ahaseminars.com, but due to the volume of e-mail received, he is unable to answer every message. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual research. Visit George's Web site for information about speaking engagements. George is also the author of The Genealogy Forum on America Online, which is available in the Ancestry Online Store.

© Copyright 2000, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved.