Whether you’re teaching in the classroom or through remote learning this fall, Ancestry® now offers free resources to inspire educators with new ways to engage students. 

We know this is a challenging time, and we’re here to help by providing free tools to make this school year a little easier. Ancestry has a long-term commitment to education, and we’re proud to assist educators and parents with their focus on finding new and unique curriculum topics and to foster more personal connections to important moments in history. After all, research shows that family history research is a powerful tool for building resilience, connection and understanding for all ages. 

For Teachers Doing Distance Learning

Ancestry announced today that for the first time, it will provide K-12 teachers across the US a free 6-month World Explorer subscription to access billions of historical records, providing support in lesson development and project creation for the school year ahead. 

The free subscription will give teachers the tools to help students make connections to their ancestors, historical places, and events throughout time. By pulling records around historical events to contextualize chapters in history like WWII and the Civil War, teachers can bring their curriculum to life in relevant and exciting ways–which is especially important for keeping students engaged during virtual learning. 

The World Explorer subscription includes:

Unlimited access to most records on Ancestry, including more than 3 billion international birth, marriage, death, census, military, church and other records
Access to all public family trees on Ancestry
Access to Ancestry Hints® regarding the records included in this membership
Visit here for more details on what types of records are included

Starting August 20, up to 10,000 teachers can verify their credentials on Ancestry.com/BacktoSchool through September 30. 

For Parents, Tutors and Educators Teaching Virtually

To help parents, tutors and educators teaching virtually, remote access to Ancestry Library Edition may be available as a genealogy research tool. For library patrons of over 2,100 libraries that subscribe to Ancestry Library Edition, the offering will provide instant free access to a wide range of resources for genealogical and historical research. Distributed exclusively by ProQuest and powered by Ancestry.com, the program grants card holders access to billions of records in census data, historical photos, plus local narratives, oral histories, indexes and other resources in over 30,000 databases that span from the 1500s to the 2000s. 

In addition to the wide availability of resources obtained through Ancestry Library Edition, parents and educators also have access to an intuitive search interface, detailed search indexes, and helpful Learning Center tools, making Ancestry Library Edition an indispensable resource for education this school year. This program is available now through the end of September. 

To access this database, contact your local library to ask if they participate and for more details.

For Schools and Students in Classrooms

For nearly a decade, Ancestry® has been offering its AncestryK12® services, a no-cost program for K-12 schools and teachers in classrooms nationwide that includes access to content from the U.S. collection of Ancestry, Fold3.com and Newspapers.com. 

Family history projects for K12 students allow them to build powerful inquiry skills, while the sources and documents found on Ancestry gives students across the nation the opportunity to make connections to their ancestors, historical places, and events throughout time. Their research journey will provide powerful insights into their own family and bring their curriculum to life in relevant and exciting ways. 

The lesson plans Ancestry created target a number of core subjects, with educational topics ranging from the American Revolutionary War to the 1940 U.S. Federal Census. They have been written by teachers according to the History Standards administered by the National Center for History in the Schools at the University of California, Los Angeles under the guidance of the National Council for History Standards. Schools and teachers can apply for the AncestryK12 Grant here.

For more information on additional back-to-school resources and creative solutions for teachers and parents, please visit www.ancestry.com/backtoschool.