This site was created as a model for my 8th grade students at Congressional Schools of Virginia, where I am a 7th and 8th grade English teacher. Our school has had a long-standing tradition of having our graduating class conduct a family history research project as part of the cross-curricular focus of gaining greater self-awareness. In the past, this project was a purely pen-and-paper assignment. in 2010, however, I thought I would use the school's 21st century resources to give the project a technological facelift. The result is a family history website: each student is conducting research to build a family tree in an Excel spreadsheet; add comments on individual family members; map and explain locations of family significance; create slideshows of family photographs and documents; and gather personal accounts through interviews.
As I built my own website in an effort to forestall my students' technological roadblocks and finalize my updated concept, my own family's history has become a source of profound interest to me. Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers were avid genealogists, and their work provided a rich foundation for my research. I am proud to honor their legacies in the creation and continued building of this family site.
Below is the most up-to-date version of the Murray-Smith family tree.
As I built my own website in an effort to forestall my students' technological roadblocks and finalize my updated concept, my own family's history has become a source of profound interest to me. Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers were avid genealogists, and their work provided a rich foundation for my research. I am proud to honor their legacies in the creation and continued building of this family site.
Below is the most up-to-date version of the Murray-Smith family tree.
murray-smith.xlsx | |
File Size: | 106 kb |
File Type: | xlsx |