Help with a presentation of our family tree?

Question

my sister has to do a presentation of our family tree and ties it to major events in American history. Any creative suggestions?
By the way we don't have much time its due on Thursday.

Answer 1

Perhaps a timeline format could be of more general interest than an individualized all-inclusive tree-style, with a brief biography and description of how he or she is related to your sister, and one to another. Don't leave out the women and girls just because they weren't the soldiers - daughters and wives and grandmas are to capture attention of the other 50% of the audience.

Answer 2

You don't give us much background, such as how far back in history does the tree go? If you have a copy of it, look for the major events in history and figure out what was happening in your family at the time.

Here's how I would do my presentation:
I was a born a week before the assassination of a president. Were I doing a presentation, I'd be talking about my mother driving home from the hospital with a brand new baby and listening to the horror of the live reports from Dallas...how my dad brought the tiny black and white TV into their bedroom and they laid there together...torn between the joy of a new baby and the reality that someone killed the president they adored.

My husband descends from the last man killed for witchcraft in North America...and his wife and daughter were also convicted, but the governor commuted their sentences. I'd definitely weave that into the story of our family.

He also descends from John Howland, a servant on the Mayflower who fell overboard during a storm and managed to grab a rope and pull himself back onto the ship. Imagine retelling the story of the Mayflower with your personal family stories.

So what could your sister do?
If you have soldiers in your family from any of the wars, tell the story of your family through their eyes. Why did they go fight in the war? Was he doing it for the honor...and safety...of their family. Talk to your parents and grandparents to see how they feel about the war and your ancestors' roles. Were any injured? Did someone become the first to go to college because of the GI bill? Was someone killed during the war? How did the family change because of that?

Another idea:
Ask your grandparents about the things they lived through in their lives and their parents' lives. Were they affected by the Great Depression? WWII? Korea? The Cold War? VietNam? Where were they when Kennedy died? What were their impressions of the Hippies? Were they hippies themselves?

My personal favorite:
Talk to your aunts and uncles about what they lived through. You could look at the things that have developed in the last century, from the stove that replaced the fire cooker and the refrigerator that replaced the ice box (and the ice delivery guys)...to the microwave, the remote control and color TV. Your presentation could talk about GGrandma Flora who was born on the farm. Her mother, Ida, cooked their meals on an old wood stove and there was no thermostat to regulate the heat. She had to know from smell, taste and touch when her food was done right. But when GGrandma Flora was 8, her parents got an electric stove. Talk about how the electrician came to run a special wire so that the stove would work. Then stories about how they had to learn to cook all over again with this fancy new stove.

Move it forward to your grandma who was the first to get a microwave oven. All new cooking technique meant she had to learn that eggs aren't great in the microwave...that popcorn is perfect...and hamburgers might warm well in the microwave but they cook better on the stove or the grill.



It doesn't matter which angle you take, just use one theme and build the presentation around it. The world changed so much in the time of your family tree. What changed and how did your family change because of it? Who were your immigrant ancestors and why did they come? Or has your family been here so long that you could become members of the DAR or the Mayflower Society?

Whatever your family's story, tell it through their eyes. The real purpose for most of us getting into genealogy is to find the stories of our ancestors and to write them down so that they're not forgotten. That's what your sister's teacher is after...getting your sister to find out who they were and why they made the decisions they made...and then to see how the family changed as a result.

Answer 3

Depending on the size of the family tree and details you want with each member But a scrap book with photos and colorful backing sheets is one way if large family tree with a lot of detail would be a chart with major events depicted with speacil detail, a photo collarge is another idea,

Answer 4

If your grandparents are still alive, have your sister ask them what it was like to live through the depression or the McCarthy era. She could ask your parents or aunts/uncles what it was like during the moon landing or the Cold War or where they were when JFK was shot or when the Challenger blew up. It might be cool to take one of those events and talk about different family members' whereabouts and reactions to it.

Answer 5

i suggest doing a literal tree, starting with your sister as the basic trunk, then going up to branches and limbs, as you write in the family on the branches, you could have little branches going off with history facts, or even leaves (make them large enough to write in)
ps: do this on a large poster board, make a list of family members first, and also history from each generation, you could look up the decades, such as "main events from th 1970's or the decade of the 50's etc "