kidzgen 9764 951228 Teaching Genealogy To Kids! +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ Teaching Genealogy To Kids! by Lauren B. Eisenberg Davis +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ A JewishGen InfoFile I was recently asked to do a presentation in conjunction with a family history unit at the Hebrew School at my synagogue. I accepted the challenge, but was concerned about how to maintain the interest of two classes of twelve year olds. My previous experience working with children reminded me that success is dependent on knowing your audience and being realistic. It is impossible to consider teaching kids how to do ancestral research, particularly in a one hour slot. My goal was to capture their interest, and let them see the possibilities, as well as the importance, of genealogy research. I presented a 'genealogy sampler', a smattering of related topics that somehow captivated these kids. Both sessions were a rousing success. My preparation was identical for the two classes, but due to the interactive nature of my plan, they varied with the individual personalities of the children involved. I was not only able to hold their interest, but several children waited after class to ask additional questions, and I've had children approach me at shul with questions as well. Since many people are hesitant to teach this topic to children, I will share my experiences in hopes that more people will be interested in awakening the search for roots in Jewish youth. I opened my presentation with a transparency showing my very favorite family quote, by my great-grandmother, Feige Dobre Rutman Mandel: "Our family is like a book... don't let the pages scatter like leaves in the autumn wind." I stressed the fact that she died many years before I was born. My next slide was my ancestor tree, or at least the portion of it I could fit on a single viewgraph. The print was very small and unreadable, but it gave an idea of the enormity of the project, and the success that is possible. At this point, I asked the class: "Why do a family tree?". I stressed that it is more than just a collection of names and dates. You can learn about yourself, your family, and society as a whole; it is a snapshot of history. It can serve as a tribute to the memory of those who have passed before us. In addition, we can get to 'know' people whose life spans do not intersect ours. I discussed three distinct areas of research: 'contemporary', people of the last several generations, whose history is likely to be documented through oral interviews and such; 'ancestral' research, through official documents and likely in other countries; and the holocaust (briefly), which I feel is a category of its own. What are we hoping to learn? Who are they, where did they come from, and how/why did they get here (or anywhere)? We discussed reasons for immigration: financial opportunities, religious freedom, and in my case (all my branches) avoidance of military obligation. It was also necessary to point out that many immigrants are unwilling to discuss that phase of their lives, having fled in order to escape it. Most of the kids believe that everyone entered the United States through Ellis Island, hence I introduced a few other ports of entry, such as Galveston, Texas. Name changes, particularly surnames, came up in conjunction with the immigration theme. It seems to be a fairly common belief that officials at the ports of entry changed all the ethnic names at the time of arrival. I stressed that this was not typically the case, and gave the following examples: 1) My father's family, both maternal and paternal, arrived with their names phonetically intact: AJZENBERG to EISENBERG and CUKIERMAN to ZUCKERMAN. (The kids had a hard time with AJZENBERG!) 2) My mother's family DID experience a name change at the time of entry. The original family name was MANDELMAN. As the story goes, the official told my great-grandfather that one MAN in his name was enough and he would henceforth be known as MANDEL. 3) My husband's family settled in the US with the name DAVIDOWITZ. It was changed to DAVIS/DAVID (different family branches) through assimilation. This led to a tangential discussion of assimilation, which held nicely with the festival of Chanukah! At this point in the lesson, I read a story written by my mother's cousin, about HER mother's experience with the simple task of purchasing apples her second day in the US, at age 7. It really illustrated the incredible adjustment that people had to make, even in trivial everyday things. Jews were latecomers to the use of surnames. What happened before that? The kids all agreed that people were simply known only by their given names. I asked: what happened if you were Shmuel, and you lived in a town with a hundred other Shmuels? How would people know which one you were? This stumped them for a bit, so I gave a hint about how people are called in shul, on gravestones, etc., hence leading into the topic of patronymics. I then opened the topic of time travel. I asked the kids which direction they normally think of traveling in. One class voted 100% for future, the other was mixed. I told them we would be visiting the 'good old days', namely 19th century Poland. I put up a transparency itemizing some fairly common occupations of the period. I had to clarify that these were English words. A few samples were: glazier, stoker, chandler, tanner, and my favorite, the barber-surgeon. I then gave them some time to figure them out. This was a very popular activity, but of limited success, as far as their 'guesses' went. It was necessary to discuss mortality. I have some data I've collected on a tangential mortality study i'm doing from the Polish LDS records. Basically, what I've learned from my limited sample is that nearly 50% of all deaths recorded were children under age 5. I made a transparency of a pie chart for Checiny Poland 1827-1832, showing the percentages of varying age ranges at death. Fortunately, the projector wasn't focusing too well and they couldn't read the age ranges. One big slice was 40%, which was obvious just from the graphic. I asked the kids what age they expected to be a common age for death. They all agreed about age 60. I asked if that was young or old. They all agreed that was young to die. I agreed that by today's standards that is indeed true, but not for the period under discussion. They inched down five years at a time, until they hit 40. At that point they refused to go further. I supplied the magic age: 0-5 years. Horrified, they argued with me, insisting that there must be some artificial event affecting the graph I showed them. I agreed that indeed there was. 1831 was an anomaly, with almost no young deaths reported at all [I've found this to be true in every town for which I have information. I know there was a cholera epidemic and an uprising, but I can't justify how that affects the statistics]. So I put up a new chart, excluding the 1831 data. NOW the 0-5 year old children accounted for 50% of all deaths. They wanted to know the reason for this horrifying phenomenon. I had to confess that cause of death is not listed on most records, and that I haven't got a medical background. However, my guess would be diarrhea class diseases, based on third world conditions even today. I then displayed a transparency containing a segment of a birth index from an LDS film. I'd highlighted the birth of: Hudes Blima Groyser, born to Dawid and Hudes Blima Groyser. I asked if they could explain this entry. They were very confused why a Jewish baby would be named after its mother (even for Sephardim). [I did not introduce the possibility of clerical error to the kids]. They were able to draw the conclusion that the mother died in childbirth. Then it was time to move on to an example: is it really possible to construct an ancestral tree? I used two case studies, because one is so clever and compact, bringing my paternal line back to 1765, and touches on family legends and how to sqeeze information out of family elders who seem not to remember what you are asking ... and the second because it is so HUGE it is staggering. In conjunction with the second example, I projected a photograph of my great-great- grandmother, who was born in 1842. The children were incredulous that photographs exist for such ancient people. One of the kids asked how to figure out degree of cousin and degree of removal, so we did that in one of the sessions, and I will work it in for any future presentations I do. It's an important concept, along with the definitions of maternal and paternal, which many of the students did not know. The grand finale (realize that I was dealing with 12 year olds) was one I knew they would love: my grandmother's brother's description of the toilet facilities in 1900 Poland. I hope this helps you. Mercifully, I was able to squeeze this all into an hour. We kept the pace fast and interactive, which helped maintain their interest. --- See: _Do People Grow On Family Trees: Genealogy For Kids and Other Beginners_ The Official Ellis Island Handbook, by Ira Wolfman. ISNB 0-89480-348-4. $9.95, soft cover. Workman Publishing NY. [Ed. note] --------------- [21Dec95lbd]bik Provider: Lauren Davis +----------------------------------------------------------------------+