A Letter From Fred from Green Shoe Studio on Vimeo.
I came across this story via the Your Story Coach and her monthly newsletter so I had to share it here. What a wonderful example of a meaningful story project and all the people who came together to make it happen.
Here is a link to entire story on kuriositas.com
I’ve been thinking for the last few weeks about coming up with a gift idea for weddings and showers etc. Something that would be meaningful and yet not take tons of time or tons of money to put together. My best idea to date is story prompt jars. I haven’t gotten very far on the idea but I thought I’d share what I have so far.
Using the great questions from StoryCorps.org, I’m working on laying them out in sheets that I’ll cut into little cards. Hopefully I can add some color and fun to the sheets. Then I’ll put the cards in to jars. Maybe just a simple canning jar or maybe something a bit fancier. I’ll have to experiment and see what works.
I think any family could benefit from asking each other questions at the dinner table or a more formal gathering. This maybe what I give for Christmas this year. I’ll keep you posted with photos etc. as I progress. I’m thinking I will share a pdf of the finished question cards so you could make your own story prompt jars.
Have you used story prompts? I’d love to hear your experiences.
from familystorytelling.com
When telling your families stories how do you handle the less than honorable ones? I came across an interesting article on Family Storytelling by Valerie Elkins with some very wise advice on how to look at the not so good choices that have been made in all families. Here is her article:
The Fork in the Road and the Road Less Traveled
How have you handled the heroes and the scalawags in your family?
image of the Horizon passenger list
I recently created a Facebook page for the Martin Handcart Company, since there wasn’t one and since my great-great-grandmother was part of that company. I’ve started to gather information about the Martin Company and today I discovered that Mormon Migration website not only has a list of the passengers on the Horizon (the ship that the Martin Handcart Company took from Liverpool, England to Boston, Massachusetts) but they have images of the pages from the ship’s book where all the names where originally record. I’m really excited to take some time and find Mary Taylor and her family.
I love the power of the internet to share images of documents like these. Have you found something similar through the internet in your family history?
One of my regular readers, currentdescendent, is doing a great project that I wanted to share with you, a multi-part story about her grandfather. Luanne has been blessed with an interview with her grandfather that was done about five years before he passed away. She has taken this interview and broken it up into short parts and then expanded on the interview with stories, photos and memories of her own. Great job Luanne!
In 1994, five and a half years before he passed away, my grandfather, Adrian Zuidweg, was interviewed by Connie Jo Bowman, the head of residents at Crossroads Village, a retirement community in Portage, Michigan. Connie was taking a course about the elderly at Western Michigan University and chose Grandpa as her subject. I’ve written about Grandpa in a post about our left-handed connection.
The entire interview is eight typed pages, so I’ll divide it among a few blog posts.
Connie begins by introducing my grandfather, Adrian Zuidweg. To read the excerpts of Connie’s report, you can click them for a better view (I hope):
Connie identifies my grandfather here as a “tall, gentle dutchman with a big friendly voice.” That would probably be how Grandpa thought of himself. He identified strongly with his Dutch heritage. He had a lot of jokes, but one of his favorites was to say, “If…
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Today is Respect of the Aged Day in Japan. It was established as a national holiday in 1966 to recognize and thank the elders in the community for their contributions and celebrate their lives. What do you do to recognize your older family members or neighbors?
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Clifford – photo by Karen Fuller
This morning a beloved dog named Clifford passed away. He was raised in hopes that he would grow up to be a guide dog but when he went back to Guide Dogs for the Blind for training they discovered he had cataracts. Though a miraculous series of events Clifford was adopted by my sister’s family. From the first day Clifford brought so much happiness and peace to their household. He instinctively knew just what to do. Clifford had the right mix of fun-loving and being laid back.
Shortly after his fourth birthday Clifford developed an autoimmune disorder that attached first his joints and then his blood and other organs. Despite treatment, his platelets were so low that his body just gave out. Though Clifford’s time was short his impact was huge. He will be sorely missed by not only his family but the many others he crossed paths with along the way.
StoryCorps has several programs designed to help educators. Stories are powerful way to teach not only history but also help student learning interviewing methods and the value of listening. Here are some of StoryCorps educational programs:
- StoryCorpsU has developed a dynamic College Readiness Curriculum as well as resources to help educators use StoryCorps content and interviewing techniques in their classrooms. Read more.
- StoryCorps’ National Teachers Initiative will collect, preserve, and share stories that celebrate the profound impact of great educators on all of our lives. Read more.
- The “Introduction to StoryCorps Lesson Plan” is a customizable lesson plan for students in grades 8-12 that is designed to teach students interviewing and storytelling skills using StoryCorps content. In the 2 activities, students are asked to participate effectively in a variety of interactions (one-on-one and in groups), exchanging information to advance a discussion and to build on the input of others. This lesson plan also includes a list of recommended recordings, organized by themes of relevance and interest to young people.
StoryCorps has lots of great resources for anyone working on a story project. Take some time to explore their website.
Here is StoryCorps‘ purpose in their own words:
Our mission is to provide people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives.
Since 2003 they have recorded more than 45,000 stories. That is a lot of stories! Wow. Here is one that seems particularly appropriate today.
Constance Labetti remembers her boss, Ron Fazio, who died in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001.
StoryCorps sponsors a national day of listening each year. This year’s day is November 29th. They have put together a how-to video for a successful recording session. Here are the key points from the video.
telling family tales 