Empowering the Next Generation of History Makers

AncestryClassroom provides educators with access to classroom resources, professional learning tools, and Ancestry® historical record collections at no cost to help students find their personal place in history.

AncestryClassroom materials are designed to help students learn more about themselves, navigate the world around them, and become more resilient.

Billions of records at no cost

Are you an educator or school administrator? Apply for access to all the original and primary documents of Ancestry's World Explorer Collection, Fold3 and Newspapers.com.

Ancestry.com

Ancestry® has the world’s largest online family history resource, home to billions of historical records, millions of family trees and much more.

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Fold3® provides convenient access to US military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served.

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AncestryClassroom provides K12 educators with access to content from Fold3®, Newspapers.com and the World Explorer collection of Ancestry® for free.

AncestryClassroom Sign-up

AncestryClassroom offers free access for three years to all the original and primary documents of Ancestry's collections for use in curriculum.


Resources

Through leading educators from around the country AncestryClassroom has developed lesson plans targeting a number of core subjects. Download lesson plans in PDF format here.


Testimonials

"Family history projects for K12 students build powerful inquiry skills. The sources and documents found on ancestry.com have allowed my students to make connections between their ancestors, historical places, and events in time. Their research journey has provided powerful insights into their own family and has allowed their Social Studies curriculum to come alive in relevant and exciting ways."

— Kristen Ziller, Library Media Specialist, Pine Hollow Middle School, Raleigh, NC

"Key to our success is engaging youth with our shared heritage and we could not do this without our wonderful relationship with Ancestry.com. Without your support and expertise, students around the region, and soon the nation, would face greater challenges in their work as they attempt to research soldiers from their community who fought and died in the American Civil War. Indeed, I doubt they would become engaged at all. Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping our educational programs, which bring history alive for all."

— Cathleen (Cate) Magennis Wyatt, The Journey Through Hallowed Ground

"As a New York City educator, I’ve found the extensive resources on Ancestry.com to be an invaluable teaching tool."

— Tamara I., NYC Dept. of Education

"'Never forget.' Over 2,500 plaques dedicated to individuals, ships, or units that served in the Pacific during WWII line the walls in the Memorial Courtyard at the National Museum of the Pacific War. It is heartwarming to see children and school groups reading and remarking on the different plaques that have been put up in honor of those brave men and women who fought in WWII. Many times I overhear them getting excited over these personal histories and their desire to look them up on the Internet and find out more about them. Thanks to ancestry.com this can become a reality. Ancestry.com enables these young minds to become passionate not only about the history of their own families, but that of the courageous men and women who stepped forward to do their duty in WWII because they were patriots and knew that they were all that stood between their homeland and those who would destroy it. Thank you, ancestry.com, for helping to enable the younger generation to experience a personal connection with 'The Greatest Generation.'"

— Stephanie Hagee, Director of Memorials and WWII Genealogical Society, National Museum of the Pacific War, Fredericksburg, TX

Leveraging resources from AncestryClassroom, high school teacher Keira Murphy created a meaningful genealogy curriculum that helps students at St. Edward’s in Vero Beach, Florida, find their personal places in history. With support from AncestryProGenealogists, St. Edward’s students learned the basics of genealogy, including how to search and cite historical documents. They gained lifelong interpersonal skills, such as how to interview relatives and local community members.

"I believe teaching genealogy research skills to young students is critical to their development as a curious and conscientious student. AncestryClassroom resources provide excellent readings, lessons and webinars to enhance genealogy or general history discussions in the classroom. Ancestry’s K-12 resources have helped me inspire my students for many years.”

— Keira Murphy, St. Edward’s Teacher & JumpStart Genealogy Founder