1.  You can learn about the past in different ways.
 A primary source is something written or made by a person who saw an event happen.  Photographs, oral histories, artifacts, and letters are primary sources.  

A secondary source is written or made by someone who did not see or experience an event.  Biographies, reports, social studies or history books, science books and other text books are secondary sources because the writer did not experience the events firsthand (themselves).
 

2. An artifact is an object made long ago. It can give clues about a families history.

3. Oral history  is recorded information from a person who experienced an event.  It comes from someone telling a story about their own life.  Families can trace their history by listening to adults telling stories about their own life to children.

4.  A biography is a book about a person's life written by someone else.

5. A family tree is a drawing or diagram that shows family member's names and how they are related.