School Workshops and Community Group Presentations

Genealogy: Discovering Family History

Discover family history through the holdings of the National Archives by examining records documenting the point where the lives of private citizens intersected with the functions of the federal government. Census records, passenger arrival lists, military service records, and land records are pieces of a puzzle composed of other non-federal records that illuminate the story of family over time. Learn what these records reveal about the people and the lives they led.

IN THIS WORKSHOP OR PRESENTATION THE PARTICIPANTS WILL:

  • Determine how and why individual and/or family history may be contained in federal records.
  • Examine various types of federal records that contain individual and/or family history.
  • Engage in a document analysis activity featuring relevant records from the National Archives.
  • Become familiar with the history, location, holdings, education and volunteer programs of the National Archives and Records Administration.


This workshop meets the following curriculum standards:

  • DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA GRADE 7-12 STANDARDS
    • Grade 11
      • Content Standard 1: Students understand chronological order and spatial patterns of human experiences, by placing the stories of people and events in the context of their own time and place.
      • Content Standard 4: Students understand how the origins, evolution, and diversity of societies, social classes and groups have been affected and changed by forces of geography, ideology and economics.
  • MARYLAND GRADE 7-12 HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE STANDARDS
    • History
      • Indicator Statement: Evaluate the influence of industrialization and technological developments on United States society
      • Indicator Statement: Analyze patterns of immigration to the United States
  • VIRGINIA GRADE 7-12 HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT STANDARDS
    • Reshaping the Nation and the Emergence of Modern America: 1877-1930s
      VUS. 8 The student will demonstrate knowledge of how the nation grew and changed from the end of Reconstruction through the early twentieth century.

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