Peggy, My niece called with the same request. I don't think it's that the teacher doesn't understand genealogy, but rather with today's families being so far from extended family and divorces; she figured most kids would be lucky to know their grandparents. When I started genealogy, my MIL knew only her parents and grandparents. Her grandparents were easy. Mammy and Pappy Crick and Mammy and Pappy Keith. She had no clue what their real names were. Now she does. <G> For my niece, I sent her a PDF of her ancestry and told her about the family's castle. Sure they lived in it about 10 generations ago, but she still thought it was cool. We just have to remember, that the teacher wants this done in a weekend, and most of us have been doing this for years. And unlike many of the children in her class who can tell you why their ancestors came to America, because they came in the car with them, my niece's ancestors had more complex reasons why they came 6 or 7 generations ago. ;) And many of them I haven't even traced back far enough to find them before they were on this continent. (Which at that time, I hesitate to call America.) Teresa Ghee Elliott --http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rutherfordcemetery/ > > This past fall I got a call from my grandson in Illinois saying that his > teacher had assigned the class to tell where their ancestors had come from > and > why they came to America. Then they had to find out about the native > dress, > diet, etc. of these folks. When he asked me where his ancestors came > from I > was a little surprised and said, "Which ones?" It sort of bothered me > that > the teacher didn't understand that each one of those children had > hundreds of > grandparents. On his dad's side of the family, I could go back far > enough on > one line to tell him when they came to America and why. They actually > were > Quakers who settled in New Jersey and were very well documented in the > Minutes > of the church. I'm not able to participate in the daily life of my > grandson, so I was really happy that he called me to help him with > homework and he > was really proud to be able to report exactly when, where and why one set > of > grandparents came to America. > > Peggy M. T. >