Pupils find famous ancestors

From MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com):

Pupils find Famous Ancestors to Add to their Family Trees

* Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Samuel Morse the inventor of Morse Code, a sailor who fought at Trafalgar and died on the same day as Nelson, a relative onboard the Titanic, and many more

* MyHeritage.com to be the Principal Sponsor for the next phase of the Making History project which encourages children to research their family history

Making History has just completed a six month pilot project helping schoolchildren to trace their family history. The pilot had a number of sponsors and partners including MyHeritage.com who helped the pupils to trace their ancestors and also provided the infrastructure on which pupils could input and print out their family trees.

The pupils found famous ancestors and many other interesting connections with history including:
- A family connection to Dame Peggy Ashcroft
- A grandfather in a POW camp in Asia.
- A great grandfather who was a daredevil stuntman who dived into blazing tanks of water and worked once with Evil Knieval.
- A relative who was in the orchestra aboard the Titanic when she sank
- A great grandfather who was a Hussar in WW1.

Pupils used MyHeritage Family Sites to load details of their ancestors. They then added old family photos to make their projects and family trees more interesting. Once the trees were loaded, pupils were then able to easily share what they had found with other family members, and to print out some elegant family trees.

Based on the success of the pilot, Making History is now planning the next phase of the project and has appointed MyHeritage.com as Principal Sponsor.

Colin McFarlane, founder of Making History, said “We are delighted that MyHeritage will be supporting the project as it expands into its next phase, the support from their team has been of fantastic help to everyone”.

“It has been a pleasure and privilege to work with the children, and to help them explore and document their family history” commented Laurence Harris, Head of Genealogy at MyHeritage.com. “Their enthusiasm is contagious and we have all been amazed by the family stories that they have uncovered. We are delighted that our Family Sites software has been selected as the platform on which pupils in the next phase of the project will build their family trees.”

MyHeritage.com has provided each pupil with an Archival document case so that they can keep their family history documents, certificates, trees, photos and other memorabilia, safe and secure.

There will be an end of project showcase event on 14 December at which films of the pupils’ projects will be shown. A number of the pupils will then discuss their projects and interesting ancestors with two family history experts. The “MyHeritage awards for Making History” will also be announced during the event.

For more information contact:
- Kate Miller: kate@making-history.org
- Laurence Harris: laurence@myheritage.com
- John Grubb mjgrubb@btinternet.com

(With thanks to Laurence Harris at MyHeritage)

Chris