As someone who loves everything genealogy related, I sometimes find it difficult to get other people (especially my husband and my siblings) interested in their own family history. While I don’t expect them to ever be as fascinated as I am, I would like it if they were a little more aware of the people I like to tell them about.

One way I have found to encourage my loved ones to be involved is to memorize their eight great-grandparents. Getting my relatives just to know the names of their eight greats and where they fit into the basic family tree is very effective in helping my family members understand who I’m talking about. Instead of telling my brother about our ancestor on dad’s dad’s mom’s side, I can tell him the ancestor is on Genevra’s side. Of course, the ancestor may be Genevra’s great-uncle, but at least I’m a little closer to helping him understand where on our vast tree that ancestor is.

For my husband, the best way to learn his eight greats was in the car. As we’d drive places, I would go through each of his four grandparents and ask who the parents were for each person. Other people may find it easier to carry an index card in their pocket and pull it out to study when they are in line at the grocery store, while waiting for a meeting to start or during a lunch break.

Remember when you are helping somebody learn his eight greats to start small. Don’t expect him to know dates or places – just focus on the names. In my experience, doing that is not too daunting, and it gives the person the feeling of being involved, at least in a small way, in the family history.