Telling family histories with storymaps
AncestryClassroom (Ancestry.com’s K12 program) offers family history data for thousands of US school districts – and millions of students. The AncestryClassroom licensing however can make it challenging to preform select, highly personalized tasks, like build family trees or get hints about documents for a particular family member.
ArcGIS StoryMaps (free for classroom and youth club instruction) can be a great way to capture and present family history. Whether you want to use the timeline widget or create a map to show the movement of your family over the generations, StoryMaps offers some very flexible tools.
I have used Ancestry.com and worked to build my family history off-and-on for many years. I’m always amazed at what people accomplished, despite frequent tough times. I created a few example StoryMaps in a collection based on my real family data. I hope some of my examples will spur you to consider building something for yourself (consider a personal license to StoryMaps.com) or by your students (using the free ArcGIS School bundle). Teachers: Consider getting a free-tier Storymaps.com account or a personal-use ArcGIS license (includes ArcGIS StoryMaps) at $100 annually. Either account type will allow you to keep your family or personal StoryMap beyond your tenure at your current school.
My example StoryMap collection can be found at: https://storymaps.com/collections/1987bac14aaf4d33af848400cc8f7576
At the time of this blog, I’ve created two demonstrations. The first StoryMap is an overview of the Baker family name-bearers over the past half dozen generations. The second StoryMap is a focus on one particular ancestor. I plan to add a few more examples in the future, largely to highlight features that I believe can be of benefit as you or your students tell your family histories.