08 October 2018

WTF Opportunities

Weddings, Thanksgiving and Funerals, occasions when families get together, are opportunities to gather and distribute family history knowledge.

In the latest OGS eWeekly Update Patti Mordasewicz has a timely suggestion: "ask each person “What is your favourite part of Thanksgiving?”  Then ask one of your teenage family members to turn on their cell phone and record the responses!  Save the digital file and share it with everyone who has the technology to view it – but, for those who don’t, create a transcription or synopsis that can be read by future generations."

What about distributing? Next week it's my unfortunate duty to be giving a(n) eulogy at my young brother's funeral, I’d hoped I'd never have to do so.

A family historian with a captive audience should come with a warning label, family history isn’t everyone’s cup of tea — but on this occasion they’ll have to suffer just a little.

My brother although born in England chose to spend much of his life in Portugal. So it's intriguing that our family roots find their way back there — our earliest known ancestor, on our mother’s side, if you believe a credible looking family tree, was Abraham Zacuto, born in 1452, mathematician, rabbi and historian who served as Portuguese Royal Astronomer in the 15th century.

Perhaps that might lodge in the minds of his children, and I'll go easy on the intervening generations hoping some might express interest at the reception afterwards.




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry for your loss John. But I agree with you. Use any opportunity to give family history information. I recall that when Ed and I married, after shacking up for some years, a chum told me "oh cripes, you just wanted to join your trees together!" Hugs anyway, BT

Barbara T. said...

My condolences, John, on the loss of your brother. Hopefully your remembrances and those of others will keep him near.

Ellen Thorne Morris said...

Sorry to read of your family loss.The Portuguese background is very interesting, did you do the searching? I have a friend whose grandparents came from Portugal and she gave up when learning they interchanged surnames.