Last month, my company redesigned the PDF edition of our popular Genealogy Kit for Kids using fillable PDF fields. This means kids and grandkids can type into the PDFs using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader app on a PC, Mac, or iPad, and print out the results.
Many family historians, ourselves included, were bitten by the genealogy bug when we were young. It often starts with simple questions:
- Why do we have this last name?
- Where was grandma born?
- Why do we celebrate certain events?
- Why do we eat special foods in our family?
- How is this cousin related to us?
The Kids Genealogy Kit taps into this natural curiosity with interview sheets, simple ancestry charts, and maps to trace global origins. It really encourages children to talk with their parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents in order to better understand family history, origins, and cultural traditions. For instance, it includes maps covering every inhabited country that kids can mark up with ancestors’ home regions, and includes interview sheets that children can use to talk with cousins, siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives about family history and traditions.
These conversations is where some of the best learning experiences can take place, revealing stories and clues that can become the foundation of family history in the years to come. It also helps to build family bonds through personal conversations.
When we officially unveiled the Genealogy Kit for Kids at the RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City a few years ago, we got a LOT of positive feedback. Some attendees liked the fact that it wasn’t yet another screen-based activity for children. A few educators were excited about the possibilities of including the kit in classroom activities.
Last year, the following review really touched us:
I bought this for my 12-year-old niece, who has recently begun asking questions about her heritage and family history. It has made a wonderful introduction to Genealogy, and a great guide to asking the important questions of their older relatives. This Kit has passed the time at family gatherings and on car trips. It has gotten everyone involved in collecting and recording a gold mine of family information, stories, and anecdotes.
However, this same reviewer also had a request: Would it be possible to make fillable PDFs so her daughter could type the information using her iPad on long car trips? It took some time, but the fillable PDF set is finally here. You can learn more about kids’ genealogy PDFs on the EasyGenie website.
