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ENEALOGY is about connecting with the past--the past that produced you.
And it's never too early to start following the threads back to the stories that shaped who you are. The sooner you start, the more memories are still alive.
That's why Christina Carlton volunteered to teach a Spotsylvania County Parks and Recreation class for children on how to find out who's hanging on the family tree.
Carlton, 28, has been researching her family history since she was a teenager in North Carolina.
Spotsylvania resident Kelly Smith thought the class sounded like it might be fun and asked her son, Charlie, if he'd like to take it.
"He got very excited," Smith said. "I think it was the disposable camera on the list of things they needed" that hooked him, she said.
Charlie's older brother, Sam is interested in history, Smith said, so she thought genealogy would appeal to him as well.
Charlie, almost 8, and Sam, 9, arrived the first Saturday morning of the six-week class proudly carrying their ancestor-hunting kits--zip-up loose-leaf binders, highlighters, magnifying glasses, paint brushes and the aforementioned disposable cameras.
Running the class on Saturdays has restricted what Carlton is able to do with the boys. Courthouses, where tons of records are stored, are closed on Saturdays. But there are lots of cemeteries handy. And the Central Rappahannock Regional Library's Snow branch, located in the county's Marshall Center where the class is held, has computers the boys can use and librarian Thena Jones to help them.
The Internet has made genealogical research much easier, Carlton said, particularly for those whose forebears were scattered around the country.
On the first day, Carlton assigned the boys to research their own family tree.
She asked them to put down the full names of all the relatives they knew--brothers, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents--and to ask their parents to fill in as many blanks as they could. In the following weeks the boys were assigned to find out dates and places of birth and death for those relatives.
The final touch would be putting photographs with the names.
The class hasn't been all sitting in a classroom or at a computer. Carlton has taken the Smith boys to Spotsylvania County's Confederate Cemetery and the Fredericksburg National Cemetery.
Tombstones are great sources for names and dates, but Carlton also had the idea of teaching the boys something about the area's past.
"I want this class to be more than just genealogy," Carlton said. "I want them to know about where they live now as well as where they came from. I want to build up their interest in local history."
She's given the boys another assignment--taking pictures of the silver highway markers put up by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources that they will put in a scrapbook.
Carlton said many people these days don't have a lot of connections to past events in the communities where they live. They grew up elsewhere, their family roots are in other parts of the country, there just aren't a lot of links.
That was one reason the Smiths encouraged their boys to take the class.
"Our family is across the country, so we talk a lot about family, family history," said Chris Smith, the boys' father. "It's especially important nowadays, so many people are from someplace else. You have to work a little harder" to make the connections.
Carlton is new to the area herself, coming here from an assignment in Italy with the Navy. She's career Navy, an E5 information system technician. She and her husband have lived in Fredericksburg since the beginning of the year.
Kelly Smith said the boys were enjoying the class.
"They seem eager and willing to work on the family tree. They like the field trips, really being out where things are."
Carlton said another purpose of the class was to teach the children how to keep records, mentioning how helpful family scrapbooks and diaries are to genealogists.
As examples, Carlton showed the Smith boys letters her father had written from Vietnam, and newspaper clippings and party invitations her grandmother had kept.
This is the first time Carlton has tried teaching genealogy.
"The idea kind of popped up," Carlton said.
Her interest in exploring the past was sparked by her mother's efforts to trace their family history.
Carlton said she'd like to keep teaching genealogy, maybe developing a class for young teenagers.
To reach LUCIA ANDERSON: 540/374-5405 landerson@freelancestar.com
