How can I teach my children about their Romany heritage?

[ArnoldBee]

I love family history but hadn't bothered with hubby's as I thought they were all boring from the same area and didn't do anything interesting.
It turns out I was wrong of course! Only 120 years ago one of his branches started living in houses. Hubby had no idea about this at all - fractured family relationships and deaths of mothers whilst their children were quite small.
Without reverting to stereotypes is there any way I can educate my children about their heritage?

Honestly it’s 120 years ago. 120 years ago my family were in locations I’ve never been to in industries which don’t exist any more, it’s not my “heritage”. What you’ve uncovered is interesting but if no one in his family knows or cares about it, I’m struggling to see what “heritage” you’ll pass on.

How old are they? If they’re smallish theres a great starting resource here: m.youtube.com/watch?v=1bhBbMrF8Z0

I think it’s just being factual, ie for instance telling them that Great great grandpa etc used to live in X Y or Z.
It really depends how much you want to tell them, for instance my DH is from a country that was oppressed by the Nazis and as a result his family converted from Judaism to Christianity to avoid persecution and death. That is his grandparents generation. Our children know that daddy is from X country and when older they will most likely visit the country- but heritage to pass on- it’s more the factual element of history.

Thanks. I fill them full of my heritage in the places we visit, so and so lived there and had a shop. You know all the stuff they hate but one day might just remember. They are 13 and 8.

How is it more part of their heritage than any of their more recent ancestors? I say this as someone who had a great grandmother who was Indian but I don't feel that it is a particularly relevant part of my heritage as I never met her and her culture is not my culture which was the choice of her descendants (my more recent ancestors). By all means teach them about other cultures though! If we go back far enough we are all descended from a common ancestor anyway :)

There's an excellent European resource available online in English which has all sorts of details about Roma heritage, history and culture. Yes, a lot of it focuses on central Europe but there is some detail on Roma in the UK, and it's particularly good on the persecution Roma have faced. I think if you went over it together with them it would be suitable for 13/8 year olds.
There was also a really good book by an English Roma guy (I think that's how he designates himself) called something like Damien La Bas (not sure of the surname), book called Stopping Places.
romarchiv.eu

Sorry, the weblink is RomArchive.eu and the author of The Stopping Places is Damien Le Bas. His dad had the same name and was a famous Roma artist.

Thank you!

Aren’t people miserable. I’m sure they’ll be some really lovely books out there. I LOVED learning about history and my family when I was a kid. I was really interested in Victorians and the Jaqueline Wilson book the Lottie Project and would have really like it if I knew something about my family going as far back as you are talking.