Kinship Assignment
Overview
This is a fun assignment for Cultural Anthropology students. They can research one or both parents, and/or step parents.
Cultural Anthropology
For the assignment, you will work on 2 kinship sheets (one for your mother’s side of the family and one for your father’s side). You will NOT turn in these sheets, but try and fill in as much as you can and keep for yourself and your family.
You will turn in a 1-2-page, typed-written summary of your findings (12 font with 1” margins, double spaced). This should include how you found the information you did, what, if anything was a surprise, and any other interesting facts about your family history and your research experience. You should cite at least 2 internet or library sources.
If you have step parents, just pick which parent to research: either biological or step.
Helpful information for you to trace your ancestors:
There are several free ancestry sites where you can find information.
Ancestry.com lets you have a 2 week free trial.
LDS website
https://www.familysearch.org/search/
If you know the county where a family member lived, go to the county genealogy page. There is no charge for this information. These sites are usually run by volunteers and are kind of hokey-looking, but they are good sources. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
http://genealogytrails.com/tex/pineywoods/madison/
Also, the Houston and San Antonio libraries have huge genealogy sections and the people there are very helpful. There is a lot of information in genealogy books and town history books in the library that cannot be found online.
Don’t worry if you can only get back to your grandparents or great grandparents. If this is the case, you should find out as much as you can about them such as siblings, occupation, etc…It should be fairly easy to get information on these generations.
In order to obtain as much information as possible, you should consult the older members of your family. Write or record all they tell you—names, dates, locations. However, names are not all you need. Lead them to tell you family stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. Sometimes recalling these stories will trigger memories. Inquire about military service of any family member. Ask them about old bible records, letters, or other documents in the possession of your family. Copy any pictures that they give you and WRITE DOWN who is in the picture.