I created a family tree so that I could learn more about my family. I interviewed some family members to use in my tree. I interviewed my siblings, parents and grandparents. By creating this tree, I learned about my family members and my life was impacted by some of the interesting things I learned.

One of the things I learned was that my Mom, Grandma and Grandpa all babysat for their very first job. My dad said his first job was being a paper-boy. They all said that they enjoyed these jobs, so after hearing their opinion, I might want to try one of those jobs. They all took on different first careers as well. They had careers like field engineers, secretaries, commercial banking and retail. My grandpa was a field engineer and he kept that job for a long time. He said that it was a fun and challenging job and hearing that has made me think about becoming one.

I have many interests and hobbies that I found were very similar to my family members. Some of those hobbies were things I learned to do from my family members and some of them I was inspired to start doing because of them. For example, when my Grandma was a kid, her hobby was sewing. One of my hobbies is sewing because she showed me how too. Now we both share that hobby because she inspired me to try it and taught me how. Some of the other interests and hobbies that my family shares is enjoying the outdoors and creating artwork. I learned a lot about my family’s hobbies and interests during this project.

An interesting thing I found was that almost all of my family members were born in Cleveland or grew up in Cleveland. Also, my entire family with the exception of a few people live in Ohio today. I had originally thought that my grandparents had been born in different states and had come here for college. Actually though, pretty much all of them were born in and grew up in Ohio and went to different states for college. My mom had been born in Bethpage, New York and I had thought that she was the only born in Ohio, but she was born in a whole different state and moved here as a kid.

Each of my family members went to a different college. My Dad went to John Carroll University, my Mom went to Kent State, my Grandma went to Tri-City, and my Grandpa went to 5 different colleges. He attended Cleveland State, Balton Wallace, Michigan Tech, Tri-City and John Carroll University. They all said that each one was great, so I would probably attend any of them. I think I would go to the college closest to my family, which is Cleveland State.

After interviewing my family and creating my family tree I learned so many interesting things about my family. When I learned about their hobbies as kids I was persuaded to try some of them and really enjoyed them. I learned about where they were born and where they grew up and found some surprising things. I got to learn where they went to college which has given me an idea of where I might go. Lastly, I learned about their first jobs and careers which were interesting thing that I would like to try. All in all, learning this new information about my family has encouraged me to try new things and it has taught me more about my family.

Click here to view my virtual Family Tree!