One of the reasons I love dolls is their ability to teach us history through their stories and fashion. Today’s sponsor, A Girl for All Time, is a doll company in England who is using dolls and their stories to educate and entertain us with history from the United Kingdom. One of the things you often learn when going through the history books is that while many of the major events are different and the day to day routines are different, the basics of human relationships with family and friends are the same. Knowing where you came from can really help you know yourself and why you are who you are. Did you inherit your Mother’s height? How about your Father’s smile? Did that quick temper come from your Great Grandmother? Or a myriad of other answers to how you got to where you are.
Do you see the family resemblance between Matilda, Your Tudor Girl and Amelia, Your Victorian Girl? In the stories from A Girl for All Time, each of the dolls is part of a maternal family tree of Marchmont women, and each lives in dramatic time in English history. Matilda is from the early 1500s and Amelia is from the late 1800s.
For today’s 100 Days of Doll Play activity, explore your own family tree – you may have to ask a parent for some help with this, or create your own family tree based on your doll collection. For example, in our doll family, Chrissa (AG GOTY 2009) is the sister of McKenna (AG GOTY 2012) and Julie is their aunt and Kit is their Grandmother.
This is Matilda’s Family Tree. Click here to download it as a PDF file so you can actually read it. The family tree of Matilda is accurate up until the decendants of Jane Leigh. A Girl for All Time has inserted fictional characters from their books at this point.
And now, here are some frames you can print out and then group on a new sheet of paper like the example above. Again, you can make one set for your family tree and then get creative and make one for your dolls!
Download the printable family tree frames as a PDF file.
Bonus use for the frames, you can glue your favorite photos in them and use them as decoration in your doll’s space!
I hope today’s activity inspires you to learn more about your own history or inspires you to pick up a book and read about a time period from long ago. What is different and what seems to stay the same?
Oh how cute is this!! Jennifer made a family tree of her dolls! Love it!!
awesome!! and firstie!!
Secondie! Cool!!
Thirdie!
I love learning about ancestry and history. It is my favorite subject.
My best friend Elysia (Eh-li-see-ah) is somehow related to the British Monarchy, and she lives in Australia!
Amelia’s late 1800s, not early 1900s.
I’ve been meaning to make a family tree for my own character dolls for a while, this kinda jump starts the process…
aww now the dolls are really one of the family!
Love the historical joke about Matilda wondering about little Elizabeth’s future husband.
Thanks for catching that Lena. I fixed it.
cool!
Cool!
Char~ i found a list of all of the ag bdays its really cool!!! if you want me to show them to you then here you go!: http://www.mypinkplanet.com/Articles.asp?ID=244 i just wanted to tell you that……but you prob. know them all anyway……;)
Not all my characters have family tree’s except for too. Carys was a modern girl, from Cardiff Wales. When she came home with me, she decided that she liked being in the 1900′s better. When Cora came to live with me, she looked similar to Carys. But Cora is modern. So they are related. Carys is Cora’s distant cousin.
Thanks Megan. There are a few places online where they are listed.
oh yourwelcome char!! always glad to help!!!!!
So wait matilda is related to Elizabeth 1 when I was doing my report on her I didn’t find that one out!
i’m going to the american girl store next week do you think I should buy a doll or clothes and accessories
i love this craft you could also print out dolls you do not have or cut them out of cataloges or doll magsines
This is kind of hard, because I’m still trying to decide whether my two doll are sisters, or just friends, or both…
Guys I need help. I can’t decide from American Girl Felicity Brand New or Noelle from BFC Ink. Your probably thinking go with American Girl Felicity, Why do you want Noelle from BFC ink.? Well Noelle is beautiful and I have been talking about her for a long time about how much I want her. But I am afraid that I might never get a chance to get Felicity again. What should I do?
Going stictly by quality, I say Felicity. The BFC dolls are pretty, but the hair becomes a tangled mess right out of the box.
Thank You Lena. Does anyone else have an answer. I really need to know. I love Noelle so much but I always wanted Felicity.
That’s so cute! I love it!
Ahsly- look up BFC INK Yuko she is beautiful!
Pretty Irish AG – It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all…
Char- I sent my pic of Artsy for the showcase.
I know, right? But I’m not feeling like well, me.