



How far back can you trace your family?

Almost like Theseus in the labyrinth, I can only follow one small strand back - about 200 years, last time I tried - to the rural south of England. The rest are lost in the archives of other nations, other cultures, other languages.





Despite that, or maybe because of it, I enjoy literary family trees almost as much as I enjoy literary maps. And working from home for the foreseeable future comes with benefits: the ability to think, for starters, without being subject to an incessant stream of random demands, verbally and by email, which you're expected to be able to respond to immediately. Or telling anyone to stop playing with scissors, or to find the lid for the glue!





TIP: ask students to try and find out where their great-grandparents came from. This really helps give insight into identity poems, such as 'Singh Song' or 'Checking Out Me History'.





So here's the first in what could end up being a series, for my Year 10 class and beyond ...





Please let me have your feedback!





You can access an A4-sized PDF here .

A version with a white background is available here .





If you're interested in the technical stuff, I made this using Affinity Publisher, with icons from Flaticon.



















