6 New Family History Blogs in 20 Minutes!

On May 25, 2023, I presented a virtual webinar sponsored by the Allen County Public Library in Indiana entitled “Using Blogs to Share Family History Writing”. The audience was one of the largest I have addressed on this subject.

Earlier that day, I made the decision to offer a complementary blogging workshop with the intent to help people create new family history blogs! It is my belief that blogs provide an excellent platform to share one’s research and family history stories.

Attendees who were interested in the workshop were asked to put their emails in the chat log. Twenty four people did so.  Among those, fourteen people filled out a survey created to gather their ideas and thoughts about why they wanted to create a blog and what/who would their blogs be about. The final workshop count got reduced to six participants, who were all eager and aspirant to be new blog authors. 

And now they are! After a demonstration on Zoom, the participants were given twenty minutes to create their new blogs using the Blogger platform. I am very happy to report that all six participants were successful. The world now has six new family history blogs to be shared in the manner these new authors so choose. 

Some of the motivations shared from the survey include:

1. Blogging appeals to write bite size pieces of family history with pictures and vignettes.
2. I'm hopeful it will be a good way to engage family members in the stories of our ancestors - and might also make it possible to find family members! I also want to document some of the heirlooms and family documents I have.
3. I've been wanting to write a blog about my family for cousin bait and to use in a family book.
4. I need a trusted non-social media tool to share and gather family stories/histories. I feel a blog is that tool. I think a blog would ignite interest and help record family stories. 

New Bloggers: Gail, Julie, Elaine, Kristal, Shellie and Danette

Congrats to our new family history bloggers! Using the Blogger platform is relatively easy to get a blog up and running, but the real work comes in writing the stories that emerge from each author's research. 

The content and topics of the six blogs are shared below:

    Gail's title:Tarry-A-Bit: The Trubshaw-Vilter Family Blog

    https://tarryabit.blogspot.com/
     I have a few albums of postcards my grandmother collected as a young girl that I would like to scan and share. I think it would be good material to start with. The postcards are from around the world when her father traveled for his business at the turn of the century. They are beautiful and many of the messages are fun. It would be an opportunity to document what I have and tease out the stories behind the images, locations, and messages.

   Shellie's title: My Grandma's Journey

    https://mygrandmasjourney.blogspot.com/

    “Lottie’s Trunk” will likely be my first focus. My great grandmother was born in Sweden in 1864 and immigrated to the U.S with an older brother in 1876. She died in 1934. Her daughter inherited the family home and in it was Lottie’’s old trunk containing some old newspapers from home, etc. I never got to see the trunk and I don’t know it’s whereabouts now. I think a blog would help with this mystery and that we could have fun getting to know Lottie better.

    Julie's title: Forebears and Bears

    https://forebearsandbears.blogspot.com/ 

    Barnstable County related people and stories, Cape Cod ancestors genealogy but also branching out to      New England (including migration topics/Midwest).

    Kristal's title: Ancestors in Common

    https://ancestorsincommon.blogspot.com/

    My GG Grandfather who fought in the Civil War. I have his 127 page pension papers.

     Elaine's title: Trace Your Roots

     https://ukrainiancanadiangenealogy.blogspot.com/                 

     Ukrainian Canadian Genealogy    

      Danette's blog is currently set to private readership only, but here is her content information:

     My central focus will be my maternal grandmother. It’s where my genealogy journey began. She saved letters written to her when her children moved away and started families of their own. My topics will have different themes based on seasons, holidays, special events, home activities like cooking and quilting, and family reunions.

Designing and delivering the Blogging Workshop sessions was a very enjoyable experience. I think I have created a very effective model to offer more blogging workshops in the future!

Using Yearbooks as a Genealogy Resource

Recently, I attended a presentation on Yearbooks by Star Pelsue at the monthly meeting of GPCofMGS (Greater Portland Chapter of the Maine Genealogical Society). Star spoke on the topic of yearbooks as being an valuable source for genealogy research. 

She discussed the history of the first yearbooks being traced back to the East Coast schools of the late 17^th century. One interesting fact for me was that the earliest yearbooks (before the invention of film) used silhouettes for the images of the students. The first formal yearbook was printed in 1806 at Yale College.

A wealth of information can be gleaned from yearbooks besides student-specific details and photographs. You can get a sense of a student’s personality from the information shown in the yearbook. For example, my Dad was on the photography staff of the Yearbook committee which was no surprise since he chose photography as his lifelong hobby and career. A few things I did not know about my Dad’s school life was that he had participated in three sports: football, tennis, and skiing; of which he carried tennis and skiing as passions into his adult life.

Source:  Westbrook HS 1943 Yearbook, Westbrook, Maine

Yearbooks provide a goldmine of data for using the FAN method of genealogical research as these books document friends and relatives who attended the school. The advertisements in the rear of yearbooks capture a review of local businesses in the surrounding community of the school. The image above shows the advertisement of my grandfather’s business called “The Men’s Shop”.

War Theme of the 1943 Deering High School Yearbook

Many yearbooks are designed around a central theme. My junior high school yearbook had the theme of the Bicentennial. The yearbook’s theme from my Dad’s freshman year (1943) at Deering High School (Portland, Maine) was “Portland at War”.

Where to Get Access to Yearbooks

Star offered these resources for finding access to the yearbooks of our ancestors: Classmates.com, Cyndi’s List, AccessGenealogy.com, and the Internet Archive.

The Benefits of Life Story Writing

Life Story Writing is a form of memoir writing. There are too many benefits to fit into one blog post. As reported in Psychology Today, research shows that even brief autobiographical storytelling exercises can have substantial impacts on psychological and physical health even months after the storytelling. The two angles to focus on here are the internal benefits and external benefits; from the perspective of the writer and from the perspective of the recipient of the writing. Several references to selected research are included in this blog post. 

Proven by research, there are many benefits of writing life stories for the writer. Besides the obvious benefit of preserving memories, writers who invest in the experience of expressive writing can see gains in their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral health especially if their writing is shared in real-time. Shared experiences and connectedness are innate to human nature. The sharing aspect of Guided Autobiography (GAB), the format used in my life writing classes, is transformative and empowering to the writer who shares with the same small group over several sessions. According to Rappaport (1995), "listening to people's stories and creating settings that value and support their narratives should be considered as an 'empowering activity'." 

Life Story Writers: Steve, Karen, George, and Sal

Two self benefits of life writing are improved self-concept and increased self-awareness. Carmen Nigro, in an article she wrote in 2015 for the New York Public Library, connects personal history with putting perspective and purpose in one's life. "You begin to understand yourself better than you ever have.”  There is a reflective aspect to life writing often with a strong focus on personal perspective.  Camille Geraci, a life writer from one of my recent courses, came to understand the meaning and value of her chosen life's work as she weighed the expectations her father had for her:  

I realized, my life’s work was not to be among high fashion elite teams of people in NYC watching my designs grace the runway. I now actually think I would’ve hated that world. But instead, I believe my life’s purpose is to inspire others. Not just to inspire people to make, but to inspire people to pursue their passions no matter what they are.

Besides leaving a legacy for current and future generations, what value does writing one's life story have to others?  Harvard Medical School released a report about the cognitive benefits of writing your life story. The report also spoke to the impact life stories have on future generations:  "Sure, you'd like to leave behind money or personal items to your grandchildren, family, and friends, but the gift that literally can last forever is your personal history. Besides sharing your stories, your memoirs can be an opportunity to pass along specific wisdom and life lessons." And, as expressed by Deborah Wilbrink at Perfect Memoirs, preserving your life story leaves a meaningful legacy that provides intergenerational connectedness. An obvious point but it is easier to be inspired by your grandfather's story when that story has been told, recorded, and shared.

Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of writing and sharing one's life story is that it helps the writer to find meaning and the reader to find wisdom. Based on research done by Jerome Bruner (1991), he has the view that "the narrative mode of thinking is a fundamental tool of human meaning-making". Stories provide reflection but also inspire others! 

Generations: Creating Connections

Preface: This blog post reports on a special program begun at my school in the Fall of 2018. My inspiration to create this club was my passion for wanting to connect our young students with seniors in the community. Three students and three seniors volunteered to be a part of this endeavor. It was very gratifying for me to see how much the students and seniors bonded during the three visits we had to the Peninsula Regent Retirement Community in San Mateo, CA. The experience gave a real "in the community" opportunity for our Stanbridge Academy students to practice their communication skills and spread their goodwill to strangers who became friends almost instantly.

The founding members of the Generations Club  

The students prepared for meetings with the seniors by practicing the art of reflective listening in mock interviews with each other. Students also practiced interviewing a grandparent or other older person at home between club sessions. A short final project is completed by the students to share what the club experience meant to them.

Club advisor Craig Siulinski, who has experience as a personal historian and genealogist, believes the club is important for providing students with an experience that goes beyond themselves such as what happens when students are involved in service learning projects. The club was designed with two main goals in mind. First, the club aims to help students have a better understanding and respect for senior citizens. Second, the club aims to improve students communication skills, particularly listening and speaking.

Generations Seniors: Karley, Delores, and Barbara...all former teachers

Interviewing seniors provided our students with opportunities to listen intently and reflect on what they are hearing. The idea is for the interviewer to elicit life stories from the senior by having the encounter play out like a friendly conversation. One way to allow for this to happen is for the student to share their own stories by answering the same question that they are asking.  Another way to encourage storytelling during the interview is to allow for “going off the script” as one question leads to another or provides a branching point to another topic. This video clip shows this process well and it provided the inspiration for me to offer a club like Generations: Watch Here

There are many benefits in providing intergenerational experiences to young students in particular. Among the benefits are: 

• an appreciation for senior citizens
• an awareness of the larger community
• hearing a sense of the past and gaining an understanding of how things used to be
• increased confidence in communication skills from the practice of preparing for and delivering a life story interview

Here are some samples from the interviews held at the Peninsula Regent in November 2018:

Owen asked Delores: What words of advice do you have about living a long life?  Dolores responded:  "Get plenty of sleep, get regular exercise and have a spiritual component in your life because that helps. Life isn’t always easy. " 

Muriel asked Karley: What would you say are the major values and principles that you live by? Karley responded: “Caring for people is at the top of the list; caring for everybody…even sometimes when I don’t like them, I care about them. Also, being honest with people. I think that’s important.  How about you?” Muriel responded: “I’m concerned about other people when they get hurt. I care about people too.”