American Ancestors Strengthens Family History Education for Teachers and Students

Teacher Training Programs and Statewide Library Database Access Expand Learning Tools for Educators and Students 

BOSTON, MA, Issued August 6, 2026

American Ancestors®, Boston’s national center for family history, heritage and culture, is supporting family history education across the Commonwealth and beyond through initiatives that support both classrooms and libraries. Its family history research databases are also now part of the statewide database collection provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) and the Massachusetts Library System (MLS), making them free to anyone who lives, works or studies in Massachusetts through the Commonwealth’s libraries and placing new learning tools directly into students’ hands.  

Earlier this summer in June, the nonprofit trained 50 Kansas teachers to teach history through genealogy and primary sources in half-day workshops at its Brue Family Learning Center, continuing initiatives to provide learning programs for educators. 

During the Kansas teachers’ five-day professional development and research tour, organized by the National Council for History Education, educators worked with original documents and records and built classroom-ready research approaches they can adapt for their own students. The teachers took a Revolutionary War-themed walking tour through Boston, led by American Ancestors’ chief genealogist David Allen Lambert and senior genealogist Melanie McComb, demonstrating how local history can anchor valuable lessons. The visiting teachers join a growing number of educators nationwide who have brought American Ancestors' family history curriculum into their classrooms. 

Anyone who works, studies or lives in Massachusetts can now research their ancestry online through the Commonwealth’s libraries. American Ancestors features Massachusetts-specific information not available anywhere else and offers unique opportunities to create a family tree or find out about Mayflower descendants. 

These resources are among the many online research databases provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) and the Massachusetts Library System (MLS) to ensure access to accurate online information and learning. Databases are online research and learning tools that provide accurate reliable information, often not available to consumers without a fee, on a variety of subjects. The databases are available for free access 24/7 to anyone who lives, works or studies in Massachusetts and are especially important for schools and students who on average make up 60% of users. 

Both initiatives build toward the same facet in American Ancestors’ mission: to serve, since its founding, as a gold standard for genealogical research. The training deepens teachers' command of family history as a teaching method, and the library databases place authentic research directly in students' hands, together strengthening the curriculum expertise educators bring to the classroom and the opportunities students have to learn. For Massachusetts schools, a single lesson can serve as the launchpad for continued discovery, as students and teachers retain access to American Ancestors’ research databases through their school and local libraries. 

The Boston sessions extend a program that has steadily widened its reach. American Ancestors piloted teacher training workshops on the U.S. mainland in Maine, brought them to teachers in the U.S. Virgin Islands twice, and has now hosted educators traveling from Kansas, a pattern that enriches implementable professional development for teachers with growing student access to family history research tools. 

The program is led by American Ancestors' School Programs and Curriculum Manager Dustin Axe at its Brue Family Learning Center, guiding the workshops across each location. Most recently, on April 18, American Ancestors presented “Genealogy in the Classroom: Bringing History to Life with Family History” to 26 educators on St. Croix at the University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park, in collaboration with the Caribbean Genealogy Library and the Virgin Islands Department of Education and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands. 

American Ancestors offers teacher professional development for schools, districts and states, along with free one-on-one sessions for classroom teachers, librarians, home school educators and after-school leaders. Educators and teacher organizations interested in bringing family history into their classrooms can learn more about teacher and youth education programs at americanancestors.org/youth-education. For more information about American Ancestors, visit americanancestors.org.