Wiggling

This has been a wonderful weekend for a number of reasons, as my inquiry into this project has really seemed to take off! Over the past week, my sister-in-law (husband's sister, Jennifer) and I celebrated birthdays. This meant that a family dinner would take place at my parent's house, and then another at my in-law's house. Because most of my family has already received my questionnaire, I used these dinners as opportunities to gather more personal information and to share favorite memories. (As of today I have received responses from my mom, my grandma, and Delores.) I love to hear stories from my grandma or my husband's grandparents just to compare the days of old to today!

This morning as soon as Charles' grandma (Mamaw Granny Delores) walked in the door, she handed me her questionnaire and said, "I only did this because you're Charlie Bill's wife." She said she went to several different cemeteries to gather dates of different family members. That sparked an entire conversation for the breakfast table! I continued to ask her questions and she continued to give me information. She also discussed the uncertainty of her grandpa's death date. Her older sister has always said that the marker on his grave is wrong. She also checked the funeral book and there is a different date in there. While I never meant for my questionnaire to be a lot of work for family members, she said she enjoyed going to the different cemeteries to get the dates for her own knowledge! I thought it was neat that I sparked her investigation because of my inquiry!

Currently I am evaluating the information his grandmother gave me using the data that my husband has collected on his side of the family. I have also contacted my uncle to get copies of the information he has on our two sides of the family. Both my husband and uncle have spent a great deal of time finding historical documents and identifying family members. I am comparing the information I have gathered from family members with the information my husband and uncle have collected. If there are discrepancies in any of the data, I will have to investigate it further. So far, I haven't found anything that needs to be looked into further. Since my project is two-fold, I have two different types of information to evaluate. The data (dates/ancestors/etc.) and the personal "stuff." The personal stuff doesn't really need evaluated, but it does need to be looked at for understanding. For example, my grandmother wrote about playing Old Mill and Heaven & Purgatory. I have never heard of either one of those games. At first I thought she wrote Old Maid, but she mentions that later on in her answer. Therefore, in cases like this, I will contact (or have contacted) her or whomever it is to get more details.

Read the letter my uncle accompanied with his information he gave me! It is very interesting!

I also have a notebook that I'm using to check off things to do and information to gather. Once I have gathered all the "data" (family members with birth/death dates) I plan to organize my information into the Family Tree Maker software that my husband has. This will allow my project to have a visual aspect, as I am a huge visual learner and enjoy presenting ideas visually. I really like what Annette Lamb has on her web page about visual literacy (http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/visual.htm). She writes: "Visual literacy is the ability to understand and use images. This includes to think, learn, and express oneself in terms of images." This is me in a nut shell!

I have also started to work on my product for this inquiry, which will be the family web page. I know I want to include this family tree I am creating on the web page. Another visual aspect I am currently doing is creating a family tree by hand. I do better when I write something out first before putting it into the computer. Therefore, I have drawn several family trees out by hand on notebook paper. I finally have one that I am happy with, so I plan to use it and add to it as I continue to gather ancestors and dates.

As I mentioned in a prior blog about literacy, I feel that this family tree I'm creating is addressing the "visual aspect" of my inquiry and proves that I possess visual literacy. I can also argue that I possess other aspects of literacy. For example, I am identifying sources of information and evaluating what I have received, which is information literacy. I also possess media and technology literacy, because my final product will produce a website that incorporates technology and media into the information gathered.