Hi! I'm Josie!

My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother was Josefina Montoya. She lived with her family on a rancho near the town of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Now Santa Fe is a big city, but it wasn't very big in 1824. You can read about her and her life in the books from the American Girls collection.

I'm interested in learning about my family's history, and I'll show you how I do it! Maybe you can learn about your own family or other families like yours.

Have you ever wondered how to find out about what peoples' lives were like long ago? One way is to look at the old things that they used, like their houses, or their clothes, tools, and toys. You can find objects like these in museums.

Is there a museum or a historic house in your town? You can go there and take a peek at the past! Your school librarian or someone at a historical society near you will be able to tell you where you can go.

Another way to learn about long-ago times is to read things that people wrote. Josefina could remember her mother's song because Tia Dolores wrote the words down in her book. Reading and writing are very important in finding out about the past.

Here's another question: Is the modern world part of history, too? The way we live is changing every day. Your world is very different from the way it was when your parents and grandparents were growing up -- ask them about how many things have changed. You'll be surprised!

If you write your memories in a diary or a journal, the things that you write down today could be a wonderful source of information for someone years from now -- maybe your own children, or even a historian a century in the future! What kinds of things could you write about that would let them know what your life is like?

Here's an example of a magazine that prints stories from modern Hispanic people who live in the area where Josefina and her family lived so long ago. It is their way of preserving and sharing their memories and their history. It's called "La Herencia del Norte: our Past, our Present, our Future, documenting history on the Camino Real."

Everybody's story is important, because everybody is part of the history we all share!.