Write a letter to a relative of yours or to your child or a child you envision having one day. For a week write in the letter every day both about memories you have, about what is happening in the immediate moment as you write, and about what you imagine the future holds for yourself and for the person to whom you are writing. You may decide to keep the letter for a child or for a child not yet born. Or you may decide to mail the letter to the relative to whom it is addressed.

Get the full names of your parents, your grandparents, and your great-grandparents. For all of these ancestors, see if you can determine the year and place of their births, and if they are deceased, the year and place of their deaths. Now interview family members...