4. My family tree

Do you know who your great-grandfather was? And your great-great-grandmother? Have you got any famous relatives that you don't know about? If the answer is that you don't know, then maybe you'd be interested in family history, also called genealogy.

 

book

 

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You are going to listen to an interview with a genealogist. Look at the questions below. Predict what type of information you are going to need (numbers, dates, names, etc).

 

He has been involved in genealogy for years

He has information about people in his family from the th century in the of England

His father's surname was .

To get information you need to look at church and official and nowadays there is information

A man called Tirell killed king William saying he thought it was a .

There is more information available about the and the .

Write W (Wales), E (England) or S (Scotland)next to these names:

Taylor   Evans   Campbell Stewart 

 

Now listen and complete the gaps

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eyebrows

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Look at the title and the first paragraph of the newspaper story. What do you think happened?

headlineheadline

Read the text below and put the paragraphs in order.

 

1

paragraph

 

paragraph

paragraph

 

paragraph

paragraph

paragraph

 

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Find word(s) in the text which mean(s)

became an adult

brother or sister

stopped work because of age

find someone with difficulty 

possibilities

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words

Match the descriptions with the correct word

man whose wife has died                                               

woman whose husband has died                                     

woman who has married a man who already has children   

boy whose father or mother has remarried                        

girl whose father or mother has remarried                        

boy who shares one biological parent with another child     

girl who shares one biological parent with another child      

your grandfather's father                                                

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Look at the family tree and answer the questions.

Who is a widow?

Who is a widower?

Which couple are divorced?

What relation is Nick to Millie?

What relation is Megan to Nick?

What relation is Thomas to Nick?

What relation is Millie to Thomas?

What relation is Thomas to Hank?

What relation are John and Nick?

Conocimiento previo

“What’s in a name?” asked Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Actually, quite a lot of information. When people began using surnames in Britain, they adopted patronymics (like Watson -son of Walt or Walter, Fitzwilliam - son of William, or MacDonald -son of Donald), occupations (like Archer, Taylor and Baker) or places near their homes (Churchill- near the church on the hill,Bush- near the bush ). For some, names are an opportunity to stand out. Famously long names include the British army officer killed in World War I called Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache and an admiral,Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfulry Plunkett-Ernel-Erle-Drax . For others, names prove embarrassments and need to be changed. When World War I started, the British Royal family began to call itself Windsor instead of the German-sounding Battenberg. One man named his daughter after his favourite football team, Liverpool FC. Her full name is Paula St John Lawrence Lawler Byrne Strong Yeats Stevenson Callaghan Hunt Milne Smith Thompson Shankley Bennett Paisley O’Sullivan. Sullivan was the surname- there are 15 names because it includes the manager, coach and trainer! Apparently she didn’t take after her father - she showed no interest in football and changed her name.

And there’s not just the question of having long names but also knowing how you pronounce them. Guess the pronunciation of these names, then listen and check:

Cholmondesley:

Featherstonehaugh:
Marjoribanks:         

Menzies:               

Bagehot:                 

 bush

George Bush

Imagen de jurvetson en Flickr bajo licencia CC

 What about you? What does your surname mean?

Are you named after someone in your family? Do you take after them?