Let's Do Some Family History Projects
Let’s Do Some Family History Projects
While we’re hunkering down, staying at home and trying to keep ourselves, our family and others safe, there are family history projects we all can undertake. Some may have been nagging you for a long time, others not so much. And they can be fun – really.
First and foremost, start a diary about this time and how it is affecting you and your family. Younger generations are going to ask and what you actually recall may be pretty sketchy. Thanks to the Historical Society of Haddonfield [NJ] for doing the explaining for me.
“Start writing down your experiences. You can do this in any way that feels right for you: as a letter, as a diary or an activity log, as a string of sentences. The key is to make it easy enough that you will keep doing it.
“If you don’t want to write, document your experiences in whatever other ways feel right for you: photographs, artwork, audio or video recordings, etc.”
This interview with a University of Virginia professor explains the value of such an effort to the individual and others. https://shar.es/aHcDMb
The North Hampton Historical Society has several families’ diaries from roughly the turn of the twentieth century, and they truly help give us a sense of place, daily life, and even flesh out the image of a person.
Speaking of images, how about all those print and digital photos that are accusing you of neglect? It’s a perfect time to dig out the print ones and begin to identify, organize, and share them. Scan or take a photo and send off to family or friend who may help you i.d. a person, event, place, and date. The more “5 W’s” -- Who, where, what, when, and why? -- you can answer about a photo, the better. If you nail at least three, it’s a photo with a story.
Don’t overlook all those digital photos. Your camera or phone may give you the when and maybe the where but how about the who, what, and why? Figure out which ones deserve to continue to occupy storage space. Do you have criteria in your head about what you delete and what you keep and, if keeping, have you tried to group them? Random photos don’t necessarily tell a story.
And what could be better than a story? Once you’ve made some progress with the photos, you can start using them to jog your own memory about what you remember about that person, event, day. Maybe start a conversation with a friend or family member whether miles away or sitting beside you, and record using your smart phone. The Vermont Folklife Center provides lots of the how to’s for remote as well as in the same room recording; even how to ask questions. Its “Listening in Place” initiative is only for Vermonters but you can do your own with your family.
https://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/audio-help
https://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/remote-recording
https://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/interviewing-advice
https://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/prompts
Recently a college classmate contacted me on the anniversary of the moon landing. She was visiting me at the time fifty years ago, and remembered watching it with me and my dad. Truth be told, I had forgotten my friend’s presence entirely.
What I remember of her visit is my first and only car accident happened when the wife of the Presbyterian minister rear ended me on North Avenue. (Note: North Avenue has been front page news recently because this one is in New Rochelle, NY, my hometown, where a quarantine area around the Wykagyl section was put in place to stop the spread of COVID-19).
Another group of family materials that can be shared are letters from the time when people actually wrote letters. Keep in mind cursive is no longer being taught in some schools. In fact, it’s difficult enough to read some people’s handwriting anyway.
Consider transcribing those letters. Save the typescript to a searchable PDF and you have something. Send to others who may be interested or perhaps have letters of their own so that it’s possible to actually read the exchange between two correspondents. My mother and her sister corresponded regularly, every other week, for nearly fifty years, one in the U.S. and the other in Bermuda. I only have one side.
And lastly, if you’ve got the time, begin your family quest. Give genealogy a try if no one else in the family has already traced everyone back to wherever. The husband of one of my cousins did all lines of the family with some arriving in Bermuda as early as the 1630s. (Bermuda was founded via shipwreck in 1609).
I worked on my father’s side and got back as far as the 1750s for one line. Fortunately for my search, that ancestor was in the militia during the American Revolution and lived long enough to get a pension in 1827. His affidavit about his uneventful wartime service gave info about where he migrated to within Pennsylvania after the Revolution. See, it’s easy to get hooked.
By this time, after working on the family photos and the family interviews, you will already have learned a lot about your family that you may not have known. Much genealogical information is available online but some at the price of a subscription. Ancestry.com offers a 14 day free trial. The Library has the library version of Ancestry; if you have a library card, see if staff can help you gain access. Heritage Quest also is available, using your library ID via the Library website. Check out the Library website for online resources and contact info during its COVID-19 closure and get a library card if you don’t already have one! https://nhplib.org/
Time to get busy.