Matthew Moss ‘Family Tree Project’

Steve and Nancy Hwozdyk with their daughter Lucy. After looking into their family history the Hwozdyk’s are planning a family holiday to Ukraine so that they can discover more about their ancestors

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Throughout November and December last year, Year 8 learners from Matthew Moss High School visited the Local Studies Centre at Touchstones Rochdale where they researched their family tree as part of an eight week My World faculty project.

Members of the Local Studies staff were on hand to assist the students using original sources such past census returns, old maps and newspapers.

To celebrate the end of the project 12 of the very best family trees have been placed on display in the Local Studies Centre. A special preview of the display was organised on Friday 8 March 2013 for teachers, pupils, friends and families involved in the project including several generations of more than one family!

Janet Byrne, Local Studies Asst. said: “It was fantastic to talk to the learners and their families. The learners had obviously put a lot of effort into researching their family trees. Most of the family trees on display are by learners whose families are not originally from the UK. Many of the learners had used Skype, email and old fashioned letters to contact family members from across the globe so that they could successfully complete this project- there were definitely a few detectives in the making!”

Samia Irfan’s twin daughters, Ayesha and Aamna, were both chosen to exhibit their work. Mrs Irfan said that her daughters: “Really wanted to go into the deep depth of their family history, some of the names I don’t know but I know the stories, they Skyped family members in Pakistan to ask about the stories.”

Steven and Nancy Hwozdyk came to support their daughter Lucy, Mr Hwozdyk was impressed with all of the hard work Lucy had put into the project: “She put a lot of effort into this project, contacting family members in America and Ukraine. We’re now planning a family trip to Ukraine so we can fill in the gaps!”

Hamnah Zahrid said the project was: “Really hard but also really good. I learnt about family members from other countries, including what they used to do.”

Natalie Rhodes, Arts & Heritage Education Assistant said: “It was lovely to hear how excited the parents were about this project. I think this is because it was something they could help their children with and they too were learning things about their families they themselves didn’t even know! One parent even stayed on after the preview to continue researching their family history!”

Teacher Alexis Shea from Matthew Moss High School said: “Visiting the Local Studies Centre and using the resources was a great way to help learners understand the different ways you can research and to develop their interest in researching family histories. The experience of visiting the Centre and working with experts and seeing how things work, helped make this learning more real life and formed an important aspect of the project”.

The small exhibition continues until the Easter school holidays during opening hours Tues-Sat 10am-5pm in the Local Studies Centre.