The Provincial Office of the Ontario Genealogical Society has recently developed Family History Lesson Plans, to be used by Ontario elementary and secondary school educators as educational resources for their classrooms which integrate family history into the Ontario Provincial Curriculum. With the generous support provided from the Archives of Ontario, each lesson plan includes primary resources for students to work with and learn from.

Eight lesson plans have been developed to align with the provincial curriculum. These lesson plans will increase awareness of and interest in genealogy and family history through student-driven learning with historical thinking concepts. Where grade appropriate, social media and online curation tools have been included, as well as communication activities that encourage students to make connections to current events, and their own family histories.

These lesson plans are cross-curricular in nature, and aim to increase knowledge and curiosity of social provincial history in Ontario to students with a wide variety of skills and interests. Creating learning environments where students can explore the histories and importance of where they live, and how their personal histories contribute to our history making, will ultimately provide students with the tools to be empathetic and active historians.

The family history lesson plans are available on the Ontario Genealogical Society’s website at These lessons can be downloaded in PDF format for free and used by teachers in classrooms across Ontario.