Lesson 5

Become a Detective

In the previous lesson we learned the importance of documenting your sources. In this lesson you will begin to gather the clues to unlock your past. Many families keep track of major events such as births, marriages or deaths. Many individuals keep diaries or journals. Most families take pictures to capture the memories of family events. Whether or not your family has a system of keeping and organizing family records, there is a good chance that some records exist. Even a scrap of paper with a few dates and names can be the clue that leads you to more information about your family history. So where do you begin. The first place to look is at your own home.

ACTIVITY 1

Go home and play detective. Look for clues to your family’s history. Consider anything that has names of family members on it, birthday cards, pictures, school records, anything with dates or places where members of the family may have lived or worked as a good clue. You may want to find a shoe box or some other container to use to hold your documents. You can decorate this box if you would like.

USE CAUTION! Many of these items may be old and delicate. Touch old photos on the edges only. Be careful when handling old books or papers. If your parents or relatives are worried about your handling these items, ask them if you may photocopy them or look at the items together and write down the names, dates and places you find. Remember to document your findings on your research log.

Check out the following sites for more information about the types of artifacts that can help you.

Collecting and Preserving Family Heirlooms

Looking at Our Family History through New Eyes

ACTIVITY 2:

You may want to look for more clues from other members of your family. Call or write your grandparents, aunts, or uncles and ask what they might have at home. If your family has one person who keeps most of the family history information, contact that person first.

Arrange for a visit, if the person lives in the same city or town. If not, ask the person to itemize some family history information they’ve found on family artifacts and send it to you by letter or e-mail.

As you search for artifacts and records that list events, places and dates, you’ll probably find that your Mom or Grandpa or Aunt will want to tell you family stories. As a good detective, you’ll recognize that these stories contain more clues to your family history, so you’ll want to gather these stories the way you would a newspaper clipping or an ancestor’s diary. How do you "gather" a story?

ACTIVITY 3:

In this activity you will learn how to conduct and interview with a family member. When you talk to your relatives about family history artifacts, think about which one of them might have the most family stories to tell. Usually, this is the oldest relative, because they have lived through more family events than anyone else has.

Choose a relative to interview. Write a letter or call the person and set up a place and time for the interview. Explain what you want to do and why you want to do it. Before you go to the interview you need to have a set of questions that will help guide the interview so that you can get the information that you need. Use the following links to find out how to conduct and interview and the types of questions to ask.

Conducting an Effective Interview

Interviewing Mom or Grandma

Getting Noisy with Aunty Rosie

DEVELOP as set of interview questions that you will ask during your interview and type them into your word processor.

SAVE the question to your portfolio and print a set for your interview. After you conduct your interview write a report in your word processor on your . SAVE this report to your

Portfolio. When you are finished you will have an opportunity to share the results of your interview with your classmates.

Questions to Consider

1. What questions were most helpful in your interview?

2. What events seemed to be most important to the person interviewed?

3. What new information did you discover about your family in the interview?

4.In what way did the interview help you to discover more about who YOU are?

Self-Assessment

Use the Interview Rubric to assess your report. CREATE a document entitled Lesson 5 Interview

Self-Assessment. Record the grade you would give yourself and SAVE the document to your portfolio.

What I have Learned