Ideas for Family Trees

• If the literacy group’s oral history project is about family histories, they may want to share the information with the whole community in the form of family stories and family trees.
• Group members could work in small family groups to produce a family tree. (Brothers and sisters, cousins and other relatives can work together.)
• Involve Elders and older family members to get all the information correct.
• The facilitator could create opportunities to use the phone or e-mail to contact family members in other communities for information.
• Look at different ways of finding out information about family history – archives and church records.
• The family tree could be done on the computer (there are computer programs to help make family trees) or by hand on large sheets of paper.
• You might like to add digital or scanned photographs to the family tree. (See the example following this section.)
• You may want to produce copies of the family trees for all family members or you may decide to produce a large wall display that community members can look at during a special event. You could leave the wall display up in a public place where people can take their time to study it.
• Include any family stories that the group members write. You may want to produce the stories and family tree in booklet format. If you do the family tree as a large wall display, post the stories beside the family tree.
• Laminate the family trees if you can.
• The facilitator teaches mini-lessons on the writing process, syllabic keyboarding, grammar and any other topics as they come up.
• Listen carefully and record traditional vocabulary that you may not be familiar with. Try to use it in your family stories.
• Group members could do presentations about their family tree or about one particular family member. You could invite family members to hear the presentations.

Family Tree Templates

Family tree templates are available on the internet. At the time of writing this manual the following web sites offered family tree software for sale or free downloads. These web sites change, so may no longer be available when you read this. But you can try an internet search for Family Tree Template.

• www.family-crests.com/free-downloads/family-tree/family-tree.html
• www.familybookmark.com/family-tree-template.shtml
• www.storytree.net/free-family-tree-template.shtml
• www.thetreemaker.com/samples/family-tree-template.html

Example of a Family Tree

On the next page you will see an example of a family tree from Angalik’s family prepared by the Department of Education for their Kinship and Relationships Module of the Inuktitut Language Arts Curriculum. Thanks to Nunia Qanatsiaq for sharing this resource.