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"Along Those Lines"
10/5/2001 - Archive
Let's Celebrate Families and Family History
The last weeks since 11 September 2001 have been a time of shock and incredulity
for Americans and citizens around the world. Millions of us were glued to our
televisions and radios trying to absorb the enormity of the horror perpetrated
in New York, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania, by fanatical terrorists. These
acts were not just attacks against the U.S., but onslaughts against all humanity.
Our complacent lives have been rocked as never before and have been changed
forever. However, our collective recovery has slowly begun.
In the past weeks, I have thought about the situation that existed in the U.S.
prior to its involvement in WWI. While United States had endured its own Civil
War a half-century before, it felt isolated and aloof from the affairs of far-off
Europe. The actions of a terrorist in the assassination of Austrian Archduke
Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on 28 June 1914 seemed to have little
relevance to most Americans' lives. However, with the ultimate involvement of
the U.S. in the first World War, the so-called "age of innocence" ended. I've
wondered what my own ancestors must have thought, and what their reactions must
have been to the events of that era. Then, as now, few people could say their
lives were unaffected.
It is important in these troubled and uncertain times to come together to support
one another. Perhaps the strongest support group each of us has is our family
and our friends. It is important to talk about our experiences, our feelings,
and our fears. Verbalizing and expressing them is an important means of working
through the shock and grief. It serves to relieve our sense of isolation and
it bonds us one to another, this sharing of common experience. Isn't this part
of what being a family is all about? Through our families and through our extended
families and our friends, we find reason and purpose to continue our lives and
to carry on.
It is perhaps a fortunate coincidence for America that the U.S. Senate approved
legislation introduced by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch to designate October 2001 as "Family
History Month." (View Senate Resolution 160) — search for SR 160) Yes, plans were already in the works to introduce
the proposal months ago, but I tend to think it a fortuitous event, especially
at this point in our history. A number of states had previously declared a Family
History Month, but having the U.S. Senate call for the President to make a national
proclamation to that effect provides an incentive for all citizens to participate.
In other words, it's not just for genealogists anymore.
Family History Month should be an important event in all Americans' lives. It
provides us with limitless opportunities to celebrate our families and our family
history. It is a time to draw one another near, setting aside our petty differences
to reunite as the descendants of our unique family lineage, replete with all
the stories, values, and traditions that linked us together as a family unit
from our birth. It is an opportunity to renew our family identity and reinforce
that knowledge in ourselves. We also can help establish that identity and knowledge
in the younger generation by telling family stories, sharing time to look through
family photographs, and engaging in discussions about the current and previous
generations.
Your celebration of Family History Month and that of your family should also
include more than just talk about the family. It also should encompass learning
about family members' places in history, including who they were, where they
lived, what they did, and how they participated in the historical events of
their times. What evidence did they leave in the way of letters, diaries, journals,
or other effects in which they expressed their observations or reactions to
their contemporary events? How, indeed, did they interact with historical events
and what were their actions and responses?
Genealogy and family history are much, much more than collecting copies of documents,
filling in names and dates on a pedigree chart, or inputting data into a computer
program. This is the total experience of locating evidence, interpreting it,
and building a knowledge and understanding of each person. You must learn about
the people—what they were like, how they thought, the place and environment
in which they lived, the other family members and people with whom they interacted,
and the historical era and events through which they lived and the responses
to it. THIS is successful family history research! THIS is why we enjoy the
research work we do—not to fill in names and dates just so that we can join
some lineage society, but because we want a sense of belonging and an understanding
of who we are and where we are from.
October 2001 is officially proclaimed as Family History Month in the United
States. Let us celebrate the "United" in United States by celebrating our families
and our family history. And please remember that the word 'family' doesn't necessarily
mean blood relationships; it also can mean the extended group of friends, neighbors,
colleagues and co-workers, and people throughout our local, national and global
community. Despite our ancestral origins and lifestyles, our religious differences,
and our racial, linguistic, and cultural diversity, we are a huge family. The
terrorist attacks suffered in the U.S. in September, as heinous as they were,
have had the effect of bringing our global family together in a show of unity
against the tyranny of terrorism against the values of humanity and family we
hold dear. Each of us can help overcome the negativity of terrorism by continuing
our lives and celebrating the unity and strength of both our families and our
communities. Let's make Family History Month this year the beginning of something
bigger and better on many levels.
Happy Family History Month!
The Citation Corner
Editor's Note: Quotation marks are used in this section to denote titles in
the citations; and the name of the newspaper should be italicized. Check with
your library for a bibliographic citation reference handbook for guidance on
precise format.
Three Citations Formats
Consider the citation format you wish to use based on how you plan to use
it. The first style, a BIBLIOGRAPHIC citation, is typically used in a list of
source materials, such as in the bibliography at the back of a book. It usually
does not include specific page numbers. If you were writing a book about your
family history, you would use this style in your bibliography. The second style,
the FOOTNOTE or ENDNOTE, is used in conjunction with a bibliography that includes
the full publication information. A footnote will include the author name, the
title, and a page number, and the interested reader or researcher will seek
the bibliography for full publication details. The third style is used for the
SOURCE you input for a specific fact, such as that which you enter into your
genealogy database program. Here, let's assume that you are not publishing a
book, but you want to provide enough detail for another researcher to quickly
locate your source material.
Newspaper Citations
In the past weeks, most people have concentrated their attention on the
news media. This include newspapers, which are a rich source of information
for genealogists and family historians. Consider the importance of two particular
types of citations in your research: the newspaper story/article and the obituary.
Citations will vary somewhat for each of these. However, if you remember that
you want to provide the WHO, the WHAT, the WHERE, and the WHEN, you will produce
a quality citation.
A bibliographic citation for a newspaper article or column used in a list of
sources should include the author, if present, the title of the column, the
place of publication and the publisher, and the date. As an example, an article
in the St. Petersburg [FL] Times may be cited as follows:
Wilson, Mike. "A Drop of Water on a Blaze." St. Petersburg Times. St.
Petersburg, Florida, 30 September 2001.
If you are creating a citation as a source for a specific fact, such as a citation
you input to your genealogical database, you would do well to also include the
newspaper's section name or number and page number, such as the Floridian section
(Section F), page 1, as shown below. This will make it easier for subsequent
researchers to quickly locate your source.
Wilson, Mike. "A Drop of Water on a Blaze." St. Petersburg Times. St.
Petersburg, Florida, 30 September 2001, Floridian, 1.
An obituary usually has no author listed unless, of course, it is for a noteworthy
person whose death notice is published as a news article. A bibliographic citation
for the obituary of Mary Allen Morgan's death in 1969 would read as follows:
The Messenger. Madison, North Carolina, 21 December 1969.
A source citation, however, would include more detail.
Mary Allen Morgan obituary. The Messenger. Madison, North Carolina, 21
December 1969, Section 2, page 4.
If the newspaper has been microfilmed, you need not list the microform information.
It is up to the subsequent researcher to determine where and in what form he
or she will access the newspaper.
If an obituary is published in an online, Internet-based format, you would create
a citation for a Web source, as described in last week's column.
When to Include the Repository
Often you will be working with rare materials, sometimes one-of-a kind items.
You usually do not need to list the name and location of the repository in your
citation for commonly available items, such as census microfilm or mass media
books, magazines, and journals. However, a family Bible, a personal journal
or diary, a deed, or other unique item's citation should include details about
the repository where you found the item. This can be as simple as adding a notation
as shown in the following citation.
Letter from Emma Dale Holder (105 E. 6th Ave., Rome, Georgia) to George Magruder
Battey III, 25 October 1961. Original in the genealogical special collection
at the Sara Hightower Regional Library, Rome, GA.
Whatever you do, your goal is to make it simpler for yourself and other researchers
to determine the source of the material you use to document facts.
Happy Hunting! George
George G. Morgan is a proud member of the International Society of Family History
Writers and Editors, Inc. (ISFHWE) at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~cgc/cgc2.htm.
He would like to hear from you at atl@ahaseminars.com
but, due to the volume of e-mail, he is unable to answer every e-mail message
received. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual research.
Visit George's Web site
for information about speaking engagements.
Copyright 2001, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved.
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