Project 13: Solomon's Family Tree

To coincide with a visit from his grandparents, Solomon explored his family tree.

We started the week by discussing some of the different sources for finding out about your ancestors, from asking people, through looking at books and newspapers, to official government records. We looked at some of the pictures in his great-grandmother's autobiography (pictured below), his great-great-grandfather's entry in Who's Who, and stories in national newspapers.

'Today Not Tomorrow' by the woman with the croaky voice.

He asked his grandparents a number of questions about who their mums and dads and brothers and sisters were, and we looked at how this information could be put into the family history software Gramps.

We also visited the local library and explored census records on Ancestry.co.uk (available for free in the library). Luckily someone had already created an extensive family tree that included some of his ancestors, so we could see lots of additional photographs and how big and complicated a family tree can quickly become.

Finally Solomon created his own self-portrait, to reflect on how all his ancestors have contributed to the creation of him.

Solomon's self portrait

The project also coincided with the first heavy snowfall in a couple of years, so there was also a new family member!

The family's snowman

Next week's project: Programming in Scratch!