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Archiver > IAALLAMA > 2000-04 > 0955265669


From: "camilla5045860181" <>
Subject: Re: [IAALLAMA-L] genealogy and kids
Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 02:34:29 -0500
References: <v03007801b515a16105db@[144.92.181.123]>



----- Original Message -----
From: Roxanne Barth <>
To: <>
Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2000 11:01 PM
Subject: [IAALLAMA-L] genealogy and kids


> I volunteered to speak at my grandchildren's elementary school about
> genealogy on Thursday. I've had computer problems and haven't been able to
> organize my presentation, so, I am asking for your help. Would you answer
> some of the questions below, please? Consider your own family when
> answering the questions:
>
> 1. Why study genealogy? What is it you get out of it? Has it changed
> your perceptions of your family or of the country?
>Its the same old story with me, Mother died and I discovered letters and pictures which needed to be organized and preserved.
> 2. Where did your ancestors come from?
>Sweden, Scotland, Ireland
When did they immigrate to?
some in the 1600's, the Swedes in 1700's
> What professions did they follow before and after migrating?
>before? Farming at first, (they had to clear the land to eat!) Ministers, teachers, legislators,

3. Why did they immigrate?
>The Quakers fled religious persecution. I don't know why my Swedish ancestors left.
> 4. What hardships did they experience before immigrating?
>Don't know. But your question opens another avenue of study. All we have to do is use the dates of immigration and go to the history of the country our ancestors left and read about it ! I am ashamed that I have not done that.

What hardships, if any, did they experience after arriving here?
In the 1600's? You have to be kidding! >

Did immigrating change their social status? If so, how did it change?
>I doubt it.
>
5. How did immigrating change your family and/or family culture? Please
> consider things like language, vocational skills, cooking, celebration of
> holidays, funeral rituals, clothing, etc.
>The English Quakers and Scotch-Irish probably did not change much. Neither would the Swedes. Families came with families and settled in sections of our country where there were others of the same race and culture. It is the same today. Emigrating families send for relatives and they settle in groups with like people. It is the succeeding generations that move about and assimilate.

I used to teach American History. And one of the questions I asked my students was, would you be willing to move by yourself to another country? (As many of our ancestors did. They did come to settle with relatives usually, but my husbands great-grandfather arrived here when he was 12 years old, worked, saved and sent for his brother. >And one or the other of them left Germany to escape having to serve in the Army, and could never go back because he would have been arrested)
But to go back to my students, I described what it probably was like to leave home and family, sail for months on a dangerous ocean, come to a wilderness or later, just to a place where noone spoke your language except the few relatives you were either with, or were in the place you finally stopped. Then I suggested to them that their ancestors were people of great courage, that they were truly special. The timid ones stayed home! "And you are special, too" was the implied message.

I am not expressing this very well, but I did then, when I was teaching, because they all got wide-eyed and really thought about who they were and where they came from, and expressed respect for those who paved the way for them to live in this wonderful country.

I'll share my outline when it's done.
>
We'll be glad to see it. And thanks for all the help you have given us who are still getting it together!
>
Camilla Harris

Roxanne Barth
> IAGenWeb Project
> Allamakee and Clayton County Coordinator
>
>
>
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