{"id":3382,"date":"2013-04-17T15:23:32","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T15:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=3382"},"modified":"2024-05-29T11:59:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T15:59:49","slug":"what-about-the-kids-researching-your-family-trees-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/what-about-the-kids-researching-your-family-trees-children.html","title":{"rendered":"What about the Kids? Researching Your Family Tree\u2019s Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega writes about the family history challenge of researching your ancestors\u2019 lives when they were children. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.<\/span>\u201d
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

My sons have had the opportunity to visit more cemeteries and hear more genealogy presentations than most family historians. They\u2019ve been a captive audience as I give genealogy talks to conferences, societies, and libraries. They even have a few of my genealogy presentations memorized. Unimpressed by the family history topics I cover, my youngest always asks: \u201cwhy don\u2019t you ever talk about researching kids?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"old<\/a>
Old photo of children, from the author\u2019s collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a fair question considering that all of our ancestors started life as children. My guess is that most family historians would reply that children don\u2019t leave a record trail, or that their lives aren\u2019t as documented as adults\u2014and that is why genealogists don\u2019t spend much time researching their ancestors\u2019 early years.<\/p>\n

But there are instances where children do<\/em> leave a paper trail. A visit to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library<\/a> in Springfield, Illinois, reinforced this fact to our family when we viewed a photographic exhibit of Civil War soldiers. Boys as young as 9 years served in the Civil War, and some of them were photographed.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photo: Unidentified young Civil War soldier in Union uniform and forage cap. Credit: Library of Congress.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From: Library of Congress. Flickr, The Commons. Accessed 23 March 2013.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/library_of_congress\/5229153190\/<\/a><\/p>\n

While children are too young to leave the type of documentation reserved for adults, they do leave behind records. A birth record<\/a> or church christening announcement may start your search, depending on the time period. School records<\/a> are another choice for researching kids. Don\u2019t forget the variety of articles found in a local newspaper.<\/p>\n

Obviously the era the child grew up in will determine what mentions could be found in the newspapers. But some ideas include:<\/p>\n

Organizations<\/strong><\/p>\n

What organizations or clubs did the child belong to? By learning more about the history of the place your ancestor was from, you may identify groups that they may have taken part in, including organizations that were social, educational, ethnic or religious in nature.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Lexington Herald (Lexington, Kentucky), 25 September 1910, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although far from comprehensive, here is a list of some groups from the 20th century:<\/p>\n