The Sharing of Family Secrets : Exhibit: The Gene Autry Museum Children’s Discovery Gallery, due to open in September, will help people understand the past through hands-on history.

History is not as clear-cut as it sometimes seems in textbooks. Reconstructing events involves a lot of picking and choosing among bits of historical evidence, and that’s the lesson at the Children’s Discovery Gallery at the Gene Autry Museum, due to open in September.

The gallery will give even young children a clue to the complexity of understanding the past. The 1,550-square-foot exhibit is still in the design phase, but it will revolve around a re-creation of a Southwestern family’s attic.

Given the architecture of Los Angeles, the first question children might ask is, “Mommy, what’s an attic?” They’ll soon discover--by poring through replicas of family mementos--clues to the fascinating history of the Ruelas family of Tucson, Ariz.

This is hands-on history, thumbing through an antique-like family album, looking at copies of old maps and fingering a handmade riata , the rope that ranch workers often braided by the evening fire. The children can also handle copies of documents, replicas of clothing and ranching equipment.

“There’s just this mystery of creating a setting where children can poke through and ask, ‘What is it? Who used it? Why?’ ” said Mary Ann Ruelas, assistant director of programs at the museum and a member of the family under study.

The goal of the exhibit is “to tell the story of these other voices that have been left out of the story of the West,” Ruelas said. The staff decided to focus on one family because it helps participants put aside minority stereotypes, she said.

Choosing a family related to a member of the staff for such public scrutiny was not an easy decision, and it is not a vanity project, said Cathy Burton, assistant director of education. For the exhibit to work, the staff needed to find a well-documented family rich in oral history, and the staff connection to the Ruelases made access to the information somewhat easier, she said.

But museum staff have assured family members that they are not expected to reveal every family secret.

The Ruelases were a ranching family who eventually moved to a Victorian house in town--providing a view of both lifestyles. They were active in the area’s political life, mining, mercantile and education. With the family’s interests and involvements, there are enough controversial events and tall tales to make the family study fun and fascinating, Burton said.

For example, Ruelas’ great-grandfather, an entrepreneurial rancher, participated in the so-called “Camp Grant massacre,” an attack by Anglos, Mexicans and Papago Indians (now called Tohono O’odom) against the military encampment, said Cynthia Harnisch, museum director of education and programs.

The court records on the great-grandfather’s indictment and many newspaper articles on it are available for high school students to study in kits that they can check out.

There are also anecdotes and family legends represented, such as the time Ruelas’ great-grandmother died, leaving her great-grandfather with seven children to care for. Her grandmother, Cleofe Mendoza, feared that she would be forced to leave school because she would be stuck at home with the chores, so she cooked the family’s entire stock of beans to get her work over with all at once. Her great-grandfather was horrified, the records show, and ended up taking all the beans around to the neighbors, knowing that they would spoil before the family could eat them.

Part of the family history brings up questions about Western society that have not been thoroughly studied. Some of the Ruelas family may have been Conversos, secretly Jewish but outwardly adopting Christianity, Ruelas said. The researchers have only oral history to go on at this point, but know that post-Inquisition Conversos were living in the area at the time.

Many Mexican- and Latin-American immigrants in Los Angeles come from ranching backgrounds, and thus may find the exhibit especially interesting. Children may go home and ask their relatives to talk about their days on the ranch, the tools they used and the issues they confronted, the staff said.

In addition to the attic area, the Children’s Gallery will include a formal explanatory exhibit area and a space that will be conducive to discussing the children’s own family histories.

The gallery should be open at least Monday through Saturday, Ruelas said, adding that a museum guide will always be on hand to help the children with the attic experience and to answer--and ask--questions.

“We want to help the children feel a sense of pride in their own background and have a tolerance for others,” Ruelas said. The exhibit also may help participants understand that American history did not start only on the East Coast, but has strong roots in the West, she added.

At the very least, children should get a chance to learn how to put together a historical puzzle, take pieces from the past and find out what they mean. And perhaps children will also be able to imagine what they might find in their own attic--if they have one.