Thanksgiving: Tips for the Holiday

This Thursday, everyone across the United States will be celebrating Thanksgiving. One of the busiest holidays for travel, people from all over return home to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones.

While feasting on your Thanksgiving meal this year, take this opportunity to involve your relatives in your family history research. And perhaps create even more lasting family memories!

Here are some tips for working family history into your celebrations this year:

• Before the big day, ask relatives to bring old family photos to share. This would also be a good time to gather any unidentified photos too. You never know who at the table will recognize a face!
• Encourage each person to share a story of an ancestor. Your older relatives will have lots of stories to share about past generations.
• Set up some quick interviews with relatives to get them to share some valuable genealogical information. Or have the children do quick interviews with older relatives. It’s never too early to start getting interested in genealogy.
• Prepare family history games to help get the children involved. Ever tried playing “Guess the Ancestor?” Trivia contests and memory games are a perfect way to share your knowledge of your family’s history.
• Print out your family tree to share with your family. They will be surprised to see how far those branches reach!
• At the end of the day, collect all the photos, stories and recordings and put them together. You can produce a family album to be shared with all your guests!

Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving from Geni!