Above: Photograph of Dr Nick Barratt - Genealogical Consultant (Sticks Research Agency).

Dr Nick Barratt has acted as the genealogical consultant for the award winning BBC series Who Do You Think You Are, and lectures on aspects of personal heritage including how to preserve oral history, family memorabilia and memories so that we reach a better understanding of our recent past. In particular, he is building a national online resource, Nations' Memorybank, which aims to become a people's archive.

One of the key aspects of my work is demonstrating that the lives of our ancestors are vitally important if we are to understand the world in which we live - a sense of identity, both at a personal and community level, is best gained by examining the people that shaped our lives, and the role they played within our communities over the decades and centuries.

Being able to ask questions about who we are and where we fit into the modern world is an important part of developing our identity. It is also an important element to understanding our relationships with the communities we live in and engage with. However, having the time to focus on that development and being given the assistance to consider the difficult questions of what it means to have multiple identities, what impact our families, or location have on who we are, what it means to feel British or to be called British, is important.

That is why I am delighted to be involved with the schools initiative of Who Do We Think We Are? That project is led by the Historical Association and the Royal Geographical Society along with lots of other stakeholders, such as the National Archives, The British Council, The Association for Citizenship Teaching and funded by the DCSF. It is a project that supports the development of lessons, discussions and learning about Who We Think We Are. This website has space for teachers to find out more, access resources and share ideas. Most importantly there is a whole section on the website for young people to discuss ideas, talk about projects and get involved with events. http://www.whodowethinkweare.org

The project is focused around the week starting the 23^rd June, but projects supporting the week have been building up for months with some events carrying on into July and the next academic year. There are a range of exciting projects and ideas as well as lessons and activities on this website.

I think this is a great idea, and gives people the chance to see that we all have a story to tell or contribute, no matter how small or seemingly irrelevant. Combined with the contributions of our friends and neighbours, our voices matter and will help us to make our communities better places for the future.

Written by
Dr Nick Barratt
Historian, Broadcaster & Genealogical Consultant
Sticks Research Agency (SRA)
Website: http://www.nickbarratt.co.uk/

DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed in the article featured above are the writer's own and do not represent the views of either the Who Do We Think We Are (WDWTWA) consortium of partners (Royal Geographical Society with IBG, the Historical Association and Citizenship Consultant Paula Kitching) or the project's funding body, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

If you would like to comment on the content of this article, please send a response via the WDWTWA Blog (Have your say), or email wdwtwa@rgs.org.