Playing The Genealogy Board Game - What Fun!

Last month I started making a Genealogy Board Game for my grandchildren. I create a new Genealogy activity for them every year and this year was my biggest challenge and my biggest activity!

You can read the first 4 parts about how I created this Genealogy Board Game at Children's Games. A few days ago I explained how I created the UH-OH, CONGRATULATIONS and TRANSPORTATION cards.

Well, the big day came. We played the game!! More than once!! My 10 and 12 year old grandchldren loved it so much that they asked to play it again. And again. They offered suggestions and ideas. They laughed when another player had to take an UH-OH card and go back spaces or pay money. They whispered to the dice "please please, 3,3,3,3,3!" as they looked ahead at the board squares and realized that a roll of 3 would land them on a TRANSPORTATION square and they could move ahead.

After discussing the game with them, I made changes. I tweaked some items by moving some of the squares. I created more cards with negative consequences because they complained that the game ended too soon the first time we played.

My grandson asked for more death cards. Amazing how young children are so macabre. I had only created one death card which related the death of an ancestor and required the player reading the card to return home and start their journey over. Why? Because they too died with the ancestor! I didn't make any more than that one, thinking that it might be a bit too weird or morbid. But they loved it, especially since Grandma (me) got it!

So at their urging I created 10 more death cards, each one relating an ancestor's actual death. I confess I tried to find the more lurid and bizarre deaths so as to appeal to their young and morbid minds. I made the consequences such things as "Go back home and seek immediate medical attention" The card stated they too had been bitten by the same dog that bit their ancestor who died a few days afterward. I know - oddly macabre but they loved it.

They wanted more squares on the board to make the game last longer so when hubby and I create the final version (this one is a prototype) we'll make the squares smaller to accomplish that.

They liked my one detour through the forest of New York with their Loyalist ancestor so I will add one more for the final game board version.

With our new cards and with our rules semi-established, we played another round. Here are the rules we've come up with so far:

* Players in turn roll the die, player who rolls the highest number goes first
* Players roll one die and take their turn, moving ahead that number of spaces
* If two players land on the same square, they have a duel (their word, not mine) and whoever rolls the smaller number moves back one square
* If players land on a War square (the 4 corners are squares representing a war an ancestor fought in), they must either sit out 2 or 3 turns to participate in the war, or they can pay the bank $100.00 and not lose any turns
* Players can only get Home by throwing the exact number required to get into Home Circle. So a player might end up going back and forth several times on the Home Path before actually reaching Home Circle
*  First player Home receives $100.00, second player $75.00, third player $50.00 and fourth player $25.00. The winner is not the player who got Home first, it is the player with the most money once all players have completed their journey (Their rule, not mine)

We still don't have a name for the Genealogy Board Game. We've tossed around "Journey with your Ancestors" "Ancestor Journey" "Memory Lane" and other ideas but nothing has made us say "Aha! That's it!"

There was a lot of laughing, joking and teasing each other when we played. It really was a lot of fun especially when we realized that Grandpa couldn't keep track of how many turns he'd missed when he had to sit out in one of the War Corners. So we could tell him he hadn't missed all his turns yet when in reality he had!

All in all it's been really fun playing this game with the kids and I'm excited to make the final version and get it laminated, then try it out on my other seven grandchldren.

A Genealogy Board Game for Children: Part 4 - Transportation Cards

I've been busy creating a Genealogy Board Game for my grandchldren this summer. In A Genealogy Board Game For Children Part 1 I explained how I created my Game Board with squares. Part 2 discusses the creation of the actual game board and Part 3 illustrates the UH-OH and CONGRATULATIONS cards I made.

Now to show you the Transportation Cards I created. When a player lands on a Take a Transportation Card square, they choose a card from the pile. Each Transportation Card is about a journey or trip that an ancestor made.

For example, there are cards that talk about ancestors sailing to the New World on specific ships on specific dates. Some cards focus on planned trips or trips that my ancestors made. I tried to be creative in thinking about what constituted a "trip". All the "trip" had to do was feature some type of transportation - horse, car, boat, bungie cord, raft....

Each card has a picture to represent the journey and the explanation below. Transportation cards allow the player to move ahead so many squares.

This is a Transportation Card about the voyage of my Bradt ancestor from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in 1637.

This Transportation Card is about the record setting jump from the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge made by my great-grandfather's brother in 1867.

This card is different again, featuring the proposed trip to visit his mother in Illinois mentioned in a letter dated 1839 written by my great-grandfather Levi Peer.










After creating all the Transportation Cards (I only made 10 for now) I printed them on heavy yellow card stock. I didn't want them to be the same colour as the UH-OH and CONGRATULATIONS cards which I printed on beige card stock.

Next step is to actually play the game! It's still in prototype stage but my grandchildren are with me this week so they are going to be my focus group. We'll play the game and talk about what I can do to make it better, more fun, etc. I want their input and ideas and they've already indicated they are looking forward to playing. I fact they've asked several times since arriving Sunday night.

After we play I can tweak the game and work on the final product. More on that in my next post!

A Genealogy Board Game For Children: Part 3 The Cards

I've talked about creating a Genealogy Board Game for my grandchldren this summer. In A Genealogy Board Game For Children Part 1 I explained how I created my Game Board with squares. You can also read Part 2 which continued discussing the creation of the actual game board.

Today I want to talk about how I created cards which players draw from 2 piles on the game board. The cards are drawn when the players land on squares marked with a ? or Take a Transportation Card

The ? pile consists of laminated 3x4 1/2 inch cards. These cards are either an UH-OH card or a CONGRATULATIONS card.

Each card describes an event that actually happened to an ancestor. Example: the marriage of Alex McGinnis and Harriet King.

The ancestor's relationship to my grandchildren is noted, as in "Your 5th great grandfather...."

Each card requires the player to do something - the UH-OH cards require that a player give up money or lose a turn or both. The CONGRATULATIONS cards allow a player to receive money or move ahead a certain number of squares.

The top half of each card has a photo or drawing of the event or the ancestor. For example, the card I created about the will of Jacob Peer in 1815 has an image of the will. The card for the marriage of Alex and Harriet has the marriage certificate. The card for an event about my grandfather has his photo.

A strip of text between the top and bottom has the name of the ancestor and his/her birth and death years and locations

The bottom half has the event and the consequence. I describe what happened (the event), give the year and ancestor name, then a logical consequence.

For example a wedding could be an UH-OH Card. The player might have to pay to buy a wedding gift, or a new suit. They might have to miss a turn to attend the wedding. It could also be a CONGRATULATIONS card - perhaps the happy couple is celebrating and giving family members money!

Let me give you some examples of the cards I created:

UH-OH CARDS

It is circa 1912. Your great grandfather Charles Henry Fuller has just joined the Kent Buffs in England. His job is to ride his bicycle along the cliffs at the Ocean and watch for Germans. Your must miss a turn to go with him.

It's 1857. Your 4th great grandfather Joseph McGinnis is the tavern keeper of Speed The Plow near Guelph. Pay him $10.00 for a cold drink then continue on your journey

Your 11th great-grandfather Hendrick Vrooman is living in Schenectady. When the French and Indians from Canada attack the village, he and his sons are killed. Go back 5 spaces

CONGRATULATIONS CARDS

What Fun! Great-grandma Joan is taking an ostrich ride in South Africa. She wants you to try it too. Because you stayed on the ostrich for 5 minutes you collect $50.00

It's November 3, 1849. Your great great grandpa Alex McGinnis is being baptised in Church of Our Lady in Guelph. His parents Joseph & Fanny want to give you $20.00 to celebrate the birth of their first son

Your 11th great grandfather Cornelis Van Slyke sailed from Holland to New Netherland (New York) in May 1634 on board the ship De Eendracht. Two years later he was given the job of plantation manager. He wants to share his good fortune by giving you $50.00








These are examples of the 50 ? Cards I created. They go face down on the ? square in the middle of the game board. I'll describe the Transportation Cards and how the game board has developed to final stages in my next two blog posts so be sure to check for it in the next few days.

A Genealogy Board Game For Children: Part 2

I've talked about creating a Genealogy Board Game for my grandchldren this summer. In A Genealogy Board Game For Children Part 1 I explained how I created my Game Board with squares.

The next thing I did after making my blank squares was to think about what text I would have on those squares. What would happen when a player lands on each square? Would they have to pick a card from a Reward/Punishment pile? From a Transportation Pile? Or would there be text printed right on the square with some action they had to take?

I had some ideas for the squares along the outside edges but wanted to also figure out what to do with the 4 corner squares. Would I create a type of detour, sort of like the sliders in Sorry? Or would I create physical detours, a path that diverted from the main squares and had something to do with an ancestor?

As an example, I could create a path with stickers (little footprints)  called Northern New York Forest Trail. It would be the path taken by their ancestor Mary Vollick during the American Revolution when her home in northern New York was burned by the Americans and she and her 10 small children were marched into the woods and left there to make their way to Canada or die. So a player landing there would have to detour through this path to go with Mary and her children to safety in Canada.  I played around with this for a bit but didn't create it. Instead I decided that each of the 4 corner squares would require the player (if he/she landed there) to join an ancestor in a War.

You can see the 4 War Corners here as well as the War Areas where the player sits out a few turns.

So one corner square is the American Revolution which three of their ancestors fought in on the Loyalist (British side) and one on the Patriot (American) side.  The square says

"The American Revolution has broken out. You enlisted with Isaac Vollick in Butler's Rangers. Go to their barracks to get your uniform and miss 2 turns then return to this square"  

Kitty corner in that corner is a bigger square I created with a picture of a  Loyalist and a brief title

American Revolution

Butler's Rangers Barracks

1777

 The other 3 corner squares represent War of 1812 (another ancestor fought in that one), WW1 and WW2. All of these saw our ancestors fighting and so each square talks about something specifically related to that ancestors. The War of 1812 square allows the player to make a choice - either miss 2 turns to join Stephen Peer at the Battle of Chippewa in 1814 or pay another player to take their place.

I thought this would add an interesting twist to the game. Here the player who landed on the square can negotiate with other players. They will want to offer money to get another player to sit out 2 turns in the War of 1812 square. It should be interesting to see the bartering that takes place!

WW1 states "It's August 1918. WW1 is raging. Edgar Peer is off to France. Join him at the Battle of Amiens. Miss 2 turns"

WW2 is about my father who was a Lieutenant in that War. Again, the player who lands there has to miss 2 turns.

Each corner square has a respective larger square turned kitty corner to the War Square. It contains a photo of the soldier in that specific war or representing that soldier, as well as a brief descriptive title. That is where the player sits out their turns while waiting to rejoin the game.

There's still much more to do on my Genealogy Board Game so please keep watching here for the next blog post. Meantime if you missed it, you can have a look at A Genealogy Board Game For Children Part 1

A Genealogy Board Game for Children - Part 1

Well it's that time of year again. Every summer my two oldest grandchildren (ages 10 and 12 this year) come for a week's visit. And every summer for the past 5 years I have come up with a new Genealogy activity for them.

We've done a Genealogy Cemetery Hunt) (looking for a specific ancestor's tombstone that I know is in the Cemetery). They love that one!

We've done Ancestor Cards for Children. In this one I created a deck of playing cards with ancestor's photos and brief biography on each one. They seem to love that one too.

We've done lots of other genealogy activities such as Making a Genealogy Time Capsule part 1 and creating a Genealogy Remembrance Garden,  but this year I needed something new. A few weeks ago I decided to make a Genealogy Board Game. I'm really pleased with how it's progressing and want to share it with readers. You might want to create one for your children or grandchildren too.

Because this Genealogy Board Game is a work in progress I'm going to start at the beginning and guide you through my thought processes, my brainstorming sessions with hubby, and my trials and errors. So over several blog posts I'll walk you through and show you photos of my progress. Of course ideas and suggestions from readers are always welcome!

The first thing I did was decide what I wanted to happen during the Board Game. How could I work Genealogy and learning about their ancestors into throwing dice and moving a token around a board of squares? What would the objective (end result) be? What would happen along the way? What would I call the game?

First things first. After a few days of brainstorming and thinking I decided that the game would consist of moving a token around the board (easy part!) and every square landed on would require that a card be taken. Cards would have either a postitive (move ahead, collect money, etc) or negative (lose a turn, go back, pay money) impact on the player.

Pretty basic standard board game procedure so far. But I would be applying a genealogy twist. Every card would have something to do with our ancestors. For me, the cards were the easiest part of the game! I knew exactly what types of penalties or rewards I would have on each one. So I confess that I created my cards before I created the board or decided on the method of moving around the board or the end result.

I don't want to get ahead of myself so let me pretend that I created the physical board first (I didn't, it came much later in my thought process). I bought 2 big pieces of white bristleboard. One is for my board prototype. The second piece of bristleboard (if I use white - who knows, I might switch to a coloured piece of board) will be for the finished product which will be carefully glued or fastened down and then laminated.

I wanted to create squares for the board but ended up creating rectangles for no reason other than ease of creation and room to add text. I tried several methods for square creation. Remember this is trial and error!

I created squares with text. I created blank squares. I created squares of different colours. I created identical squares. In short, I tried at least 10 types of squares before deciding to start with blank identical squares. I would create my text squares later after getting a visual feel for the layout of the board.

Using a very old program called PICTURE IT! I created blank squares that look like old scrolls. I chopped them with my paper cutter and started taping them down. They didn't fill the white bristleboard evenly but no problem - I cut the edges off the bristleboard to make it even with the end of the squares.

Here is a photo of my squares and the start of taping them to the bristleboard.

Next I decided where HOME would be. I then created a HOME logo, cut out four identical ones and taped them down on the board.

Next came four small squares for each HOME area, leading from home to the outside edge of the game board. I used four different colours and will eventually have four tokens matching those colours. So each person playing the game will have their own colour.

In order to decide on physical placement of items on the game board I quickly cut out (using my paper cutter) coloured card stock to represent the two piles of cards I will be creating. These cards as you can see from the next photo, will go in the middle. I will explain what these piles are in another blog post when I talk about the actual cards. But for now let's concentrate on the game board which was a really interesting evolutionary item to create.

I use the term evolutionary because I changed the layout several times. I ended up keeping these squares (but added squares with text which you will see later) and so far I've kept the HOME logos (although I have a feeling I'll change those). But I changed the small coloured squares leading out from HOME to the game board squares. You'll see what I did in another post on this topic.

I have slightly over two weeks to finish (gulp!) so I have quite a bit to do and may have to take a few shortcuts but I'm pretty sure the grandchildren are going to love this game. And boy are they going to learn a lot about their ancestors! I call it Genealogy brainwashing and I'm not ashamed to use it.

Hint: That's where the Reward or Punishment cards come in. I'm not calling them Reward or Punishment of course, but I'm not going to tell you yet what titles I came up with. I'm very excited about this Genealogy Project and I'm having way too much fun making it! So stay tuned for Part 2 of my Genealogy Board Game for Children