Telling the stories of the living
For the April 12, 2023 meeting of the Family History Interest Group, Larry Rudnick and Vicki Gaylord shared how they have worked with living family members to gain more information and insight into their family trees. Gaylord and Rudnick explained the processes they used and gave great examples.
Telling the stories of the living
Wed, Apr 12 2023, 10am
UMRA members Vicky Gaylord and Lawrence Rudnick will share presentations on “Telling the Stories of the Living” for the next meeting of UMRA’s Family History Interest Group (FHIG) from 10 to 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 12, via Zoom. After their presentations there will be time for questions and discussion.
Vicki Gaylord describes her presentation as follows: “As we explore our families’ histories it’s important to not just focus on past generations, but also to do what we can to ensure that the life stories of those living today are gathered and preserved while there are still opportunities to do so. This presentation will share the experience of gathering and preserving a family member’s childhood stories in the midst of a health crisis that created the need to move quickly to record his memories. It will include strategies that can help other family historians navigate the urgency and challenges of saving the stories of relatives whose aging, illnesses, or other circumstances make their futures uncertain, and for mentoring other family members in the story-gathering process."
Lawrence Rudnick describes his presentation as follows: “‘He escaped being sent to the front in the Russo-Japanese war by stowing away on a train.’ ‘She never asked for anything for herself.’ ‘L? He's too light for heavy work and too heavy for light work.’ Such snippets formed the bulk of our family's history; clearly, more was and is needed. I will describe my attempts to assemble a fuller history, still very much a work in progress. My main tools have been taped interviews (some going back many years), assembling a cousins’ group where we share stories, and putting together a quite amateur history, using Google Docs, to at least capture the various pictures and stories people come up with. I'm just hoping the kids and grandkids appreciate it as much as I do!”
The Zoom link for the meeting will be emailed to all UMRA members the week of April 3rd. We hope you can join us.
—Lynn C. Anderson and Craig Swan, Family History Interest Group co-chairs
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