Getting a younger generation interested is a concern to all of us I'm sure. I know it is for me. We don't want 30, 40, 50, 60 years worth of work tossed in a landfill when we're gone. And I know of a couple cases where that's exactly what happened as no one in the family had any interest in all that junk! It's a delicate subject to broach with an adult child, or grandchildren.
In my case my daughter is somewhat interested in the old photos, documents I've collected as it fits into her passion of scrap booking. My 9 year old granddaughter on the other hand has taken interest in the nuts and bolts of the people involved as it relates to history she studies in her grade school classes. i.e. great-great so-and-so was living when such-and-such happened, etc. And, as a matter of fact she and I are attending an LDS Local Mini one day conference this weekend that she actually expressed a desire to go to and see what I learn at them. (Couldn't have warmed papaw's heart any more than that). She and her mother have visited cemeteries with me looking for burial sites of family members to photograph as well. She has already entered her own family's information into a copy of Legacy on her computer to see how it's done and has done a little presentation on her family for a class project. I think all of us should encourage, and welcome, some kind of format geared to the 20 somethings, teens and even preteens...whether that format be a LUG type thing, a blog or something else. If something of this nature already exists that someone knows about please inform the rest of us that we might encourage our following generations to check it out to foster their budding interest in genealogy without snuffing it out before it becomes a passion with them as it has become with all of us! gc On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:34:13 +0000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: And the important part in your story is that you had a natural inclination and interest. If her grandson has expressed a desire or shown a spark of interest, then she can help nurture it. If he is not interested already then it is difficult to create such interest. If he does have an interest, then the general idea of putting him in contact with other youth is a good one. Since this is mostly an adult forum he would probably not be very comfortable here. What might be an idea to examine is see if there are others in his school with similar interest who might want to form a genealogy club. They could have some adult supervision but socially it would be a lot more comfortable to be mostly a kid-only group. Gary Templeman -------------- Original message -------------- From: "Betsy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I'm not young but I became interested in genealogy (but I didn't know that > was what it was called) at a young age, about 8 yrs old. My grandfather had > a notebook that his mother had put down the info on her family. It > fascinated me esp since one woman had married twice and both husbands had > the same last name. I used to copy the notebook over into other notebooks. > (all the info in the notebook has checked out) Then in 8th grade one of my > teachers talked about family trees and gave us extra credit for doing your > family tree. Just the assignment for a detail oriented person! I found > that another member on the other side of my family had also done alot of > work with our genealogy (again it has all checked out) This is what started > my love with genealogy. Then I started talking ( and writing) to my > grandparents and their brothers and sisters about what life was like when > they were young and just continued asking questions, building on what they > had to say. My son is not interested but my daughter is interested in all > the information I have compiled. I think the beginning is not in the > "Legacy" as such (unless your grandson is interested in computers) but in > the surrounding information. My daughter is fascinated with all the old > pictures, the newspaper clippings of births, weddings, deaths, the pension > papers, the autograph books, war ration coupons, etc. Wish you luck in > finding a grandchild to share your interest in genealogy. It is a great way > to make history come alive! > > Are there any younger members of LUG out there? I'm trying to interest > my grandson. He's 13. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
