Wondering

Throughout this project I hope to create a family tree that lists as many family members from previous generations as possible. I am intrigued by who my ancestors were and how they helped shape the family that we are today. I have always been amazed at how blessed I am to have a wonderful, loving family. Often I look back and think about how different this family would be if just one thing had turned out differently. For example, I sometimes wonder where I would be and if I would be married to Charles if my friend/boss had not set us up on a blind date! While I have no doubt that God was using her to bring us together and that we are supposed to be together, I wonder how we would have met if not through her. I also wonder about other family members and how they met their spouse. I wonder what it was like for them growing up. I remember my mom always talking about how little money they had and how she thought it was a treat when her grandma would give her a nickel to buy a coke. Just the little things like that makes me crave for more stories. I have also heard stories told by my grandma that I'm afraid I'll forget. Those are the main reasons I want to create this site, so that they will be preserved for future generations.

As soon as I had settled on this topic for my project, I kept a list of questions I wanted to ask family members running in my head. I knew several questions that I wanted to ask. I also asked my husband what he would like to know about our parents and grandparents. One night we sat down and brainstormed a list of about twenty questions. From there, I consulted some online help. I went through a couple of suggestion lists for inspiration and to double check to make sure I had not left something out that I thought was important. I wanted basic information that allowed for some personalization among each family member.

The two sites I consulted include:

• http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm
  
• http://ezinearticles.com/?Write-Your-Family-History---50-Questions-You-Must-Ask-Parents-Or-Grandparents-Before-They-Die&id=800937
  

The list of questions is organized into three different parts. (Once I create my final product you will be able to see the exact questions I asked.) The three parts consist of: "Just the Facts" - includes basic questions such as name, date/place of birth, parents, spouse, children, etc., "Growing Up" - includes questions such as where did you go to school, what did you do for fun, what was your favorite toy, how did you celebrate holidays, etc., and "Adulthood" - includes questions such as profession, memories of your children, etc. I plan on taking this information and analyzing it. From there, I want to expand upon their answers or focus on one response they gave me. This idea is similar to McKenzie's questioning research cycle where as students will move through the research cycle several times before determining what to report.

Finally my focus for the project right now includes creating a family e-scrapbook. I envision one page with a family tree. I envision the other pages including the "nitty-gritty" (responses to family member's questions and some photos)!

Watching

As I began reading the requirements for this assignment, the gears in my brain began to turn and grind over numerous topics and directions in which I could take for this project. By the time I had finished reading the assignment and browsed through several previous students' projects, I had a list a mile long of what I could do. Here are just a few of the ideas I came up with:

1. "How to Be an Olympic Gymnast" - I participated in competitive gymnastics, as well as tumbling and trampoline, for over 18 years while I was growing up. As many athletes do, I too dreamed of competing in the Olympic games. Therefore, I thought about finding out what it took to become an Olympic athlete.
2. "Best Strategies for Playing Softball" - (As you can see I have a love for sports.) My husband plays on our church softball team. The league requires for each team to field three women. A couple of times this season I have had to play (instead of being the official score keeper) in order to field three women. Not having played softball since the age of 5, I thought it would be neat to investigate various strategies and tips to best play softball.
3. "Who's My Family" - My two boys (ages 2 and 6 months) are blessed to still have four great-grandparents still living. Therefore I thought it would be a great idea to create an online scrapbook showcasing their family tree and preserve the memories that our family holds.

As you can tell by the title of the blog, I decided to go with the third choice. I felt that this project, as well as the product I create, would be something that would provide lasting effects on our entire family. I also envision this scrapbook to never be complete, so that we as a family continue to add to it as we gather more genealogy information, as well as journal the memories we make.