Series Revamped into a Workshop!

For the past 3 years or so, I've been offering classes in genealogy research in a variety of venues.  Usually, I set up 4 or 5 one hour sessions spread out over 4 or 5 weeks.  It works very well and I've been invited back to all who have had me.

I was thinking about this year's first fund raiser for out church.  As a matter of fact, that's how I got into conducting these sessions.  I was with my wife at a church meeting where the discussion centered around funding. Towards the end of the meeting I asked my wife if she thought that I could conduct some classes for a small fee, most of which we could contribute and turn it into a genealogical fund raiser.  Although I'm not an official "member" of this congregation, I attend regularly with my wife and I'm no stranger in the relatively small church community there.

It sounded like a good idea to the committee so I began putting together a power point presentation that broke down the basics and advertised it for what it was, namely, a fund raiser. That first year, I held 3 separate events.   Each time there were approximately 14 or so attendees.  The program got better as time went on as I added certain elements and removed others.

So now, what can I come up with this year that could be unique? The answer came from Nancy, the office manager at the church.  She happened to mention to my wife that she would love to take the class but she couldn't find the time to attend evenings when I had usually scheduled past events.  She mentioned that there were probably lots of others with a similar problem. She said that she's like to see a one day, 4 or 5 hour, get-it-done-in-one-shot event.  She said that she'd even provide lunch!  Free lunch?  I'm in!!!

Now I'm in the middle of consolidating about 150 slides in a variety of presentations to make this happen.  In case you'd like

[caption id="attachment_3204" align="alignright" width="103"] First Church in Ludlow, Ludlow, Mass. Est 1774[/caption]

to attend, we're going to be getting started at 10 AM on May 31, 2014 in the "Parlor" at First Church in Ludlow.  Why is it called "First Church in Ludlow"? I was hoping you'd ask!  It's because it was the first congregation established in the soon to be established Town of Ludlow, Massachusetts.  They were both incorporated in 1774.  On top of that, I discovered that my own 4th cousin 6 times removed was the first minister!  Talk about coincidences.  Pelatiah Chapin and I are common descendants of Deacon Samuel Chapin, one of the original settlers of Springfield, Massachusetts in the early 1640's.

 

 

In the past several weeks, I've "met" many cousins who also descend from Samuel who live all over the country.  The Deacon is the ancestor of many famous people including Harry Chapin, President Taft, Marion Mitchell Morrison and others.  Oh, Marion changed his name as he was starting his career in Hollywood.  He became John Wayne....Good thing he changed it!  Anyway, here's the statue that another of Samuel's descendants, Chester Chapin, had erected in 1898.

[caption id="attachment_3206" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Deacon Samuel Chapin[/caption]

The full sized statue sits on a pedestal with his name and dates.  Of course, it's a representation of what Deacon Chapin may have looked like.  Many people believe the face was modeled after another infamous Springfield resident, John Brown. And yes, "THE" John Brown of radical abolitionist fame.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="350"] Daguerreotype of John Brown (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

OK....sorry for the diversion.  I'm hoping that revamping 4 or 5 sessions into this new "workshop" is successful.  It seems that more people may be willing to participate for a number of reasons: 1) All in one day, Saturday; 2) Workshop atmosphere; 3) The successes of previous classes; 4) It's happening before "vacation" season and, most importantly 5) Free lunch! (I hope she makes egg salad with chopped olive sandwiches...)

 

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Old Bones on TV??? Old Bones on TV!!!

For the fourth time, I was asked to be interviewed for the Ludlow (Mass) Community TV program. Lillian Genthner is the host. Her husband had been a Shriners clown for many years performing under the name "Buttercup". So Lillian adopted the name "Mrs. Buttercup." Initially, her programs were mostly arts and crafts or story telling. But in the past year or so, she's been "branching out"!

Since she's been researching her own family for several years, she became very interested in the "Introduction to Genealogy and Family Research" that I conducted at the First Church in Ludlow where she is a member. She attended my first series there. After the last session, she asked if I'd like to be interviewed for local TV. I was very interested and so far we've had 4 sessions. I could go on and on about what we've talked about. But it's probably easier for me to just offer you the link to the last program. All the others are archived at this site, so you can certainly go back and watch the others.

Here's the link to the latest interview of Old Bones Genealogy at Ludlow Community TV.

I'd love to hear your comments (be nice!) or feel free to contact me directly about this or any other post!

Thanks!

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Old Bones on LCTV---Interviewing Relatives

Here's the video of my interview with "Mrs Buttercup" for Ludlow Community Televisoion. I'm describing the value of contacting relatives for the purpose of learning about their childhood, where they grew up, what their family life was like, what games they played as children and dozens more questions. All of this in the interest of making the cold dry facts of genealogy research come to life by "putting some meat on the bones", telling a real family story, give your family history some color and make it interesting.  Click this link and take a look: Old Bones on Interviewing Relatives for Family Research.  The sooner a good family researcher gets to their family members, the better the chance to capture the treasures of their memories.

Questions are tailored to trigger those memories.  Here are some examples: "Did you go to your grandmother's for special dinners, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc?", "Do you have pleasant memories of the aromas in her kitchen?", "Can you still "smell them at times?", "Did your family eat dinner together at the table?", "Did everyone have their own place to sit?".  These questions should elicit more than a one word response; they should be the foundation of stories as the person you are interviewing begins to remember their childhood and how they interacted with their family.  Good or bad, you're sure to get some great stories.  When I interviewed my Great Aunt Sarah, we got to talking about some of the mischief she was involved in.  She admitted to me (and I was the first to hear her "confession"!) that she was the one who painted the neighbor's cat blue when she was about 7 years old.  She never really liked that cat!!

If you're going to take on this as a project and get some interviews, I strongly recommend using a digital recorder.  Get permission to use it in the interview.  Some people can be very intimidated by a recording device and small digital recorders can just sit on the table without microphones and other recording technology.  Very soon into the interview, everyone will just forget that it's there.  After you get permission, ask AGAIN after the recording starts.  You may be getting along just fine today, but you want to make sure that the person's voice can be clearly heard agreeing to taping the interview .  Not that you're going to publish the recording or put it in the public donain, but it's a good idea to get approval!  Take your time...you're probably not going to get this done in one session.

I'll be hosting some classes in the interview process and possibly record a "lesson" to post on YouTube wich I'd link here.

Stay tuned!

Old Bones on YouTube!

Great news...I think!  I've finally figured out how to get my debut performance on Ludlow Community TV uploaded to YouTube.  Click here http://youtu.be/3GqKT2WEov4 to view. This one is about basics. But I just recorded the second session where we talked about interviewing relatives as a part of your family research.  I'll be uploading that one later this week.  Comments are welcome!!  And don't forget to visit www.oldbones.co where I try to keep up with all upcoming programs.

Introduction to Genealogy Sessions will continue at First Church in Ludlow

The fundraiser for the First Church in Ludlow that just completed was a very successful program. I believe that all the participants learned at least something and most picked up a lot of information regarding doing their own family research.  In some cases, the participants have asked me to help them along, which is, of course, my business!!

We covered a great many topics from simply getting started.  How?  Just write what you know.  The easiest tool to keep track of that data is a pedigree chart.  You start with yourself and build generations back as far as you know.  Names, dates, births, marriages, deaths, locations….whatever you can remember.

Then the verification process begins.  Did Uncle Fred come to the United States in 1893 or 1898?  Was great grandma married once, twice…or three times!!

In a nutshell, we filled 5 weeks with an enormous amount of information.  Everyone took notes and everyone left with more than they expected, I believe, because I tried my best to give everyone their own packets consisting of their own family’s census records, draft registration cards, birth, marriage and death records…whatever relevant documents I could find pertaining to each person.

So, now we begin again.  I’ve requested the opportunity to conduct another series of classes and the Church has given me the green light.

Who do you know that would be interested in spending about an hour and a half on Monday nights to learn about becoming a genealogical detective?

Contact me directly at dave@oldbones.co or check out the web site at www.oldbones.co.