Ancestor Cards: Intro Post

Ancestor cards are a fun way to play with your family!

Two quick disclosures:

• I am not the first to suggest this idea for getting family history into your family members’ hands. But I do believe that my process and final product differ from many others, so I will share. I hope interested readers will tweak this project and make it their own!
• This post will only introduce the idea. Check back soon for posts with templates and full instructions!

I am always looking for ways to help my children, nieces and nephews take an interest in their ancestors. I believe that I first heard of making ancestor trading cards in a podcast, then searched the phrase on Google and found various instructions and ideas for implementation. A brilliant idea, I thought! Kids of all ages get into collecting cards with sports heroes. Why not cards memorializing family heroes and heroines?

I could not wrap my head around the idea of trading cards though. Would I only “release” a small set at specific family events like reunions and hope that my “collectors” would feel heightened anticipation as the next event and set approach? Would I distribute them randomly to encourage family members to engage in trading?

I was not keen on the idea of “worth” being discussed as with traditional trading cards (i.e. certain cards are deemed more rare or otherwise more or less desirable than others). And by far my biggest worry was: beyond collecting these cards and storing them in sleeves to be pulled out once a year or less…what would my family DO with these ancestor cards??

After mulling it over a while, I took this idea and my concerns to a super-creative development team: my family.

My family helped me to blend elements of trading cards and standard playing cards so our “Ancestor Cards” cards can be used to play a plethora of games!

“Family history meets Pokemon meets playing cards” more or less!

Our cards are like standard playing cards in that they are divided into four suits, each a different color, and they have a number 1-13 in the upper-left corner. (We found it convenient to divide ancestors by grandparent-lines into the four suits).

They are like trading cards because they are jam-packed with awesome “stats”: a photo, full name, birth and death date, FamilySearch ID number, a flag to represent the country in which they were born, special symbols if they were an immigrant or served in the military, and the most fun element: “flavor text!”

Because I saw youth as my prime audience for this card set, I tried to choose youthful photos and write “flavor text” that was relatable to the kids in my family. This did not always pan out, of course, but it was my ideal. In the absence of photos, I used a related image. For example, John Alden got a Mayflower image, and a Prussian immigrant whose occupation was listed “schäfermeister” [German for master shepherd] got an illustration of a shepherd (drawn by one of my own kiddos :))

Ancestor Cards are now multi-purpose! They can be saved away in sleeves or used for trivia games or conversation-starters at reunions. But they can also be used to play just about any game that you might play with a standard deck of cards! Go Fish, Solitaire, Hearts! If two decks are brought together and all of one suit/color are pulled out, siblings or cousins can play Memory.

I have told my family that I would much rather see these cards worn out or lost due to heavy use than see them carefully preserved (i.e. ignored).

After all, it is just too much fun to play with family!