The Study of Family History

Research Projects in a Senior Seminar

Abstract

This paper is about the study of family history and its value as a tool in developing skills necessary for students who want to acquire an insight into the nature and methods of history. My findings are based on my teaching experiences over a ten-year period as a member of the history department at Niagara University.

Niagara University is a liberal arts university founded by the Vincentian order in 1856 in upstate New York. It has an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 2,200 students and an additional 500 students in its Graduate Divisions. Its History Department consists of six full-time and four part-time members and serves about thirty history and social studies majors. The culmination of a history major's study is his performance in a senior seminar which is designed to test the research, writing, and analytical skills in a major historical research essay.