A free introduction to discovering and preserving your family’s story.
Who It’s For
The Family History Starter Pack is designed for families who want to begin discovering and preserving their family’s story together. Through simple activities and conversations, learners of all ages can explore family connections, record meaningful stories, and begin building a lasting record of the people and places that shaped their family’s past.
What Learners Will Do
Learners begin gathering stories, interviewing relatives, examining family keepsakes, and organizing the information they discover. The activities introduce the foundations of family history research in an engaging and accessible way.
What’s Included
• 50+ page printable PDF with guided activities to begin exploring family history
• Interview prompts for collecting family stories
• Family tree template for organizing family connections
• Activities for mapping family locations and migrations
• Parent & Teacher Guide with suggestions for leading the activities
Delivered instantly as a digital download.
Go deeper with the Family History Explorer Toolkit
The Starter Pack introduces the foundations of family storytelling and personal history. Families who want to go further can continue with the Family History Explorer Storykeeping Toolkit, which expands these ideas into a deeper investigation of family history.
FAQ section
You've got questions. We've got answers.
The Starter Pack is designed to be flexible for learners of different ages. Activities can be adapted for younger students while still providing meaningful research and storytelling opportunities for older learners. The Parent Guide includes suggestions for adapting each experience for learners across grades K–12.
The Starter Pack is designed to be flexible rather than tied to a strict schedule. Most families complete the activities over a few weeks. The materials are designed so learners can work at their own pace.
No. The Starter Pack is designed for families with little or no genealogy experience. The activities introduce simple ways to begin exploring family history through conversations, family stories, and basic family tree building. The goal is to help learners start asking questions, gathering information, and discovering the people and places that shaped their family’s story.
No. The Starter Pack focuses on the information already available within your family. Learners begin by talking with relatives, exploring family stories, and recording what they discover. Historical records can become helpful later, but they are not needed to begin exploring your family’s history.
Yes. The activities work well for homeschool families as well as co-op or group settings. Many groups use the Starter Pack as a meaningful way to begin the school year, inviting learners to explore their own family stories while introducing the idea that history is connected to real people and places.
The Starter Pack is designed as an introduction to the Roots & Routes approach to family history. Families who want to continue can go deeper with the Family History Explorer Storykeeping Toolkit, where learners begin developing stronger research habits and storytelling skills while creating a short biography of a chosen ancestor.