Use these instructional and activity books to help children start exploring family history topics.
In this article:
Genealogy books for kids
Climbing Your Family Tree: Online and Offline Genealogy for Kids by Ira Wolfman (Workman Publishing, $12.95)
Evie Finds Her Family Tree by Ashley B. Ransburg (Indiana Historical Society Press, $14.95)
Family History: A DK First Activity Pack by Chris and Melanie Rice (DK Publishing, $16.95)
The Family Tree Detective: Cracking the Case of Your Family's Story by Ann Douglas (Firefly Books, $9.95)
The Great Ancestor Hunt: The Fun of Finding Out Who You Are by Lila Perl Yerkow (Clarion Books, $8.95)
Genealogy Just for Kids! by Sherrie A. Styx (Styx Enterprises, $2.50)
Kids and Grandparents: An Activity Book by Ann Love and Jane Drake (Kids Can Press, $10.95)
The Kids' Family Tree Book by Caroline Leavitt (Sterling, $5.95)
Me and My Family Tree by Joan Sweeney (Dragonfly, $6.99)
My Family Tree Workbook: Genealogy for Beginners by Rosemary Chorzempa (Dover Publications, $3.95)
My Grandmother and Me (Kids Can Press, $4.95): Fill-in memory scrapbook; grandfather, mother and father editions are also available.
My Great-great-great-great-great-grandfather... Was a Warrior! by Margherita Sgarlata (Lobster Press, $15.95)
One Tiny Twig by Dan Rhema (Mesquite Tree Press, out of print)
Roots for Kids: A Genealogy Guide for Young People by Susan Provost Beller (Genealogical Publishing Co., $16.95)
Through the Eyes of Your Ancestors by Maureen A. Taylor (Houghton Mifflin, $8.95)
Oryx American Family Tree Series (Oryx Press, $24.95): Genealogical guides for students, covering 12 ethnic ancestries.
Who's Who in My Family? by Loreen Leedy (Holiday House, $6.95)
American history books for kids
- Across America on an Emigrant Train by Jim Murphy (Clarion Books, $17)
The American Girls Collection (Pleasant Co., $14.95): The adventures of seven "American Girls" and their families illustrate 19th- and 20th-century history.
Children of the Gold Rush by Jane G. Haigh and Claire Rudolph Murphy (Roberts Rinehart Publishing, $14.95)
The Civil War for Kids: A History with 21 Activities by Janis Herbert (Chicago Review Press, $14.95)
Daily Life in a Covered Wagon by Paul Erickson (Puffin Books, $7.99)
...If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern (Scholastic, $5.99)
...If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine (Scholastic, $5.99)
...If Your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island by Ellen Levine (Scholastic, $5.99)
Inside Laura's Little House: The Little House on the Prairie Treasury by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christina Wyss Eriksson (HarperCollins, $24.95)
Picture the American Past series (Lerner Publications, $22.60): Describes kids' experiences on orphan trains, at Indian boarding schools, on the World War II home front and during the Civil Rights era.
Ethnic heritage books for kids
- American Origins series (Avalon Travel Publishing, $12.95): Traces the "roots" of Chinese, English, French, Germans, Irish, Italians, Japanese and Poles in the United States.
- Annushka's Voyage by by Edith Tarbescu (Clarion Books, $16)
The Peoples of North America series (Chelsea House, out of print): Books detailing the history, culture and achievements of nearly 50 ethnic groups, from The Afro-Americans to The Hungarian Americans to The West Indian Americans.
- Coming To America: The Story Of Immigration by Betsy Maestro (Scholastic Press, $16.95)
Cultures of America series (Benchmark Books, out of print): Books on American ethnic groups, including African, Chinese, Cuban, French, Greek, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Korean, Lebanese, Mexican, Polish and Puerto Rican.
- I Was Dreaming to Come to America: Memories from the Ellis Island Oral History Project by Veronica Lawlor (Puffin, $6.99)
American Family Albums (Oxford University Press, $12.95): Historical "scrapbooks" of African, Chinese, German, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Scandinavian immigrants in America.
Books for parents, grandparents and teachers
Creating Junior Genealogists: Tips and Activities for Family History Fun by Karen Frisch (Ancestry Publishing, $12.95)
Kids and Kin: The Family History Research Vacation That Involves Kids by by Patricia Suter and Corinne P. Earnest (R.D. Earnest Associates, out of print)
Links to the Past Through Genealogy: Curriculum Activities for the Classroom by Midge Frazel (Linworth Learning, $19.95)
One-Day Trips through History, second edition, by Jane Ockershausen (Howell Press, $14.95): Heritage adventure ideas in the Washington, DC, region.
Your Travel Guide to Colonial America by Nancy Day (Lerner Publications, $7.95)
Youth in Family History by Starr Hailey Campbell (Creative Continuum, $14.95)