My favorite family history possessions are personal histories: Oral Histories, Autobiographies, and Biographies--in any shape or size. They can be handwritten notes or stories; they…

Introducing family history mind maps. The solution to planning genealogy research and storytelling projects without ripping out your hair.

Family History Ideas for Children and Teens A collection of over 270 articles and blog posts with ideas for teaching, doing, and sharing family history with children and teens. To contribute more i…

Write for the NAfME Blog SEARCH & FILTER Search Category Subscribe to NAfME Notes Subscribe to NAfME Notes, our biweekly e-newsletter, to receive highlights from the blog and other NAfME news in your inbox. Subscribe Now Write for the NAfME Blog Interested in sharing your experience with the music education…

Follow this quick tutorial to record and save your family history interviews on your smartphone.

Are your relatives not interested in learning about your shared ancestors? Discover four reasons to write your family history anyway.

Fill in your info below to get the 5 minute storytelling scripts There are 6 pre-written scripts to use and share!

Integrate ELA and Social Studies with this reading passage and writing prompt about Ancient Mali storytellers (also called griots). This reading passage is a short excerpt from "The Words of the Griot” by Mamadou Kouyate, which is written from the perspective of a griot. After reading the passage, students will answer six comprehension questions. This excerpt would be a great passage to dig into together as a class or in small groups. It may be too challenging for students to comprehend on their own, depending on your the levels of your students. The writing prompt asks students to record one of their family stories. This is a great way for students to connect what they're learning to their own lives. I hope you enjoy this resource! TERMS OF USE - © VA SOL Superstars This item is a paid digital download from my TpT store https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Va-Sol-Superstars As such, it is for use in one classroom only. This item is also bound by copyright laws. Redistributing, editing, selling, or posting this item (or any part thereof) on the Internet are all strictly prohibited without first gaining permission from the author. Violations are subject to the penalties of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Please contact me if you wish to be granted special permissions!

Stories are powerful. It’s why they are a part of every culture. There are legends and myths, fairy tales and fables, and then there are the most powerful stories of all – the stories t…

As genealogists we know it’s important to record our own life stories, but what if telling your story reveals someone else’s secrets?

Stuck for creative inspiration to bring your family history to life? Check out the 6 primary formats to use and find an idea right for you.

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you t...

Discover how to record stories from grandparents, preserve invaluable family history, and strengthen bonds across generations.

Cycle 1 History Resources for families using the Classical Conversations curriculum. New material added throughout the year!

Weave your memories and the details of your ancestors’ lives into unforgettable anecdotes with these six secrets of successful storytelling.

"The Family Treehouse" is a captivating podcast produced by Storied that brings together family history enthusiasts and skilled storytellers. Each episode

Struggling to get your family excited about your shared ancestors? Try involving them in the fun by transforming the facts into family history game instead.

Kelley Becker and Neal Varner from AncestryDNA shared new genetic genealogy tools at their site! Some are in beta still, meaning they are brand new and still under development and you have to sign …

Lately I am trying to come up with four more speeches for the advanced Toastmasters International manual on Storytelling. I just looked up storytelling at PubMed Central, and found a long, interesting magazine article by Michelle Scalise Sugiyama at Frontiers in Psychology titled Oral Storytelling as Evidence of Pedagogy in Forager Societies. The abstract contained an unfamiliar word to me: ostension, which according to the Oxford dictionary means: “The action of showing, exhibiting, or making manifest; exhibition, display, manifestation; an instance of this.” The article abstract (broken by me into two paragraphs) says: “Teaching is reportedly rare in hunter-gatherer societies, raising the question of whether it is a species-typical trait in humans. A problem with past studies is that they tend to conceptualize teaching in terms of Western pedagogical practices. In contrast, this study proceeds from the premise that teaching requires the ostensive manifestation of generalizable knowledge: the teacher must signal intent to share information, indicate the intended recipient, and transmit knowledge that is applicable beyond the present context. Certain features of human communication appear to be ostensive in function (e.g., eye contact, pointing, contingency, prosodic variation), and collectively serve as ‘natural pedagogy.’ Tellingly, oral storytelling in forager societies typically employs these and other ostensive behaviors, and is widely reported to be an important source of generalizable ecological and social knowledge. Despite this, oral storytelling has been conspicuously overlooked in studies of teaching in preliterate societies. Accordingly, this study presents evidence that oral storytelling involves the use of ostension and the transmission of generic knowledge, thereby meeting the criteria of pedagogy.” In 2011 Michelle wrote a longer review article for the same magazine titled The Forager Oral Tradition and the Evolution of Prolonged Juvenility. The abstract (broken by me into four paragraphs) says: "The foraging niche is characterized by the exploitation of nutrient-rich resources using complex extraction techniques that take a long time to acquire. This costly period of development is supported by intensive parental investment. Although human life history theory tends to characterize this investment in terms of food and care, ethnographic research on foraging skill transmission suggests that the flow of resources from old-to-young also includes knowledge. Given the adaptive value of information, parents may have been under selection pressure to invest knowledge – e.g., warnings, advice – in children: proactive provisioning of reliable information would have increased offspring survival rates and, hence, parental fitness. One way that foragers acquire subsistence knowledge is through symbolic communication, including narrative. Tellingly, oral traditions are characterized by an old-to-young transmission pattern, which suggests that, in forager groups, storytelling might be an important means by which adults transfer knowledge to juveniles. In particular, by providing juveniles with vicarious experience, storytelling may expand episodic memory, which is believed to be integral to the generation of possible future scenarios (i.e., planning). In support of this hypothesis, this essay reviews evidence that: mastery of foraging knowledge and skill sets takes a long time to acquire; foraging knowledge is transmitted from parent to child; the human mind contains adaptations specific to social learning; full assembly of learning mechanisms is not complete in early childhood; and forager oral traditions contain a wide range of information integral to occupation of the foraging niche. It concludes with suggestions for tests of the proposed hypothesis." An 1866 painting by Carl Gessler titled Spannende Geschichten (Exciting Stories) was cropped from a version at Wikimedia Commons.

Don’t know how to start telling your ancestors stories? Use these 260 family history questions to get started and unlock your stories.

What untold immigration stories are waiting to be discovered in your family history? We share the story of Japanese immigrant, Seito Saibara.

If you’ve ever had the thought, “This would make a great story!” when it comes to your family history, we have some great storytelling tips for you

Brainstorming about childhood friends can bring great stories back to mind. The same questions make great prompts for oral history interviews.

Plus: 3 stories of gratitude and generosity from StoryCorps

How stories from the presidents’ childhoods inspired me to share family history in a way that kids can laugh at and connect with. President elect Trump is taking office in a week and a half. …

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it's not your path. Your own path you make with every step you t...

AARP Family Expert Amy Goyer shares tips on how to share family stories with grandchildren and children, using examples from her grandfather.

Oral storytelling is one of the original methods of sharing experiences and lessons. A well-told story can grab a person's attention and help the listener absorb complex details.

Jerry Quinn discusses proper forms of address and peerage among feudal nobility.

...the learning experiences and adventures of a God-fearing, newly married, young, fifth grade teacher...

Trello boards are a great way to organise your family history. Try these 16 great board ideas to say goodbye to frustration and overwhelm.

Our female ancestors’ stories can be harder to tell. Read tips and ideas for writing about the women in your family tree.

Journaling is an art that should never die. It provides your legacy with an honest glimpse into your soul. Eating healthy and exercising do not dictate a long life, just as smoking and years of sunbathing do not mean it will be short. Even when our minds have forgotten the faces of our loved ones, […]

Writing your family history? 3 easy-to-action to start doing today so it feels like your ancestors' stories are writing themselves.

Are you struggling to write your family history? Try these three techniques to help non-writers start writing their ancestors’ stories.

Free Scottish archive and family history society directory and parish records guide listing all the historic counties of Scotland with links to the relevant archives and family history societies along with a guide on how to access parish registers.

A review and comparison of 5 free cloud-based graphic design apps to use for creating family history books to share your ancestor's stories.

Follow this process to write about the marriage of your ancestor.

‘The Covenant of Water,’ the decade-spanning new novel from the author of ‘Cutting for Stone,’ traces the story of India, medicine, and three generations of a strangely afflicted family.