Courses

Finishing Up Demystifying Culture and Folklore

By Shannon Bennett, Student     Whoa, what a course. It made me think. It made me analyze my family connections. Most of all it showed me how great of a story my family narrative is! Amazing stuff, and I am so happy that I registered for it. For those of you who are still not convinced, I am not sure there is much else I could say to sway you.  However, I will do my best. The rest of you who like stories and putting pieces of information together in new ways need to take this course.  Need reasons? Okay, here are a few. This course makes you think about your family in ways that traditional genealogy may not. While you may have thought, in a roundabout way, about what your ancestors lives may have been like, I bet you didn’t do it like we learned in this class.  Did you ever think about various influences that could affect their decisions? Or how about the cultural cues or biases they had and how that effected their American born children? My upbringing certainly influenced the ways I raise my children just like the way my parents were raised influenced my childhood.  Going through the stories again and again, listening to different perspectives, and looking at the family through the documents it was easy to see how and why this happened. The immigrant ancestor was still present in many ways; they were still affecting in subtle ways how their descendants behaved decades later. In this faster paced world where fewer people seem to have the time to sit and chat a while learning about the family mythology is also changing.  I learned about my family from listening to the stories my parents and grandparents told me. My kids, while learning the same stories from me, are also learning about their ancestors through the Internet and other resources.  Which is why I think taking a course on learning about the family myth is so very important. I can pass family stories on in person or via the web, reaching more cousins than I possibly could even 20 years ago. Combining all these thoughts, lessons, perspectives, and stories together is a good thing in my opinion. It can only make our knowledge of our heritage sounder.  Think of all the amazing information you can discover when looking at something ordinary and mundane in…

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New Course: American World War II Ancestors – Part 1

Often in genealogical research we concentrate on researching those who lived in much earlier times. However, documenting the lives of our more recent ancestors is equally important. 2014 marks the 70th Anniversary of World War II’s D-Day. In honor of this anniversary, The National Institute for Genealogical Studies is proud to announce the latest course by author and World War II researcher Jennifer Holik, Research: American World War II Ancestors – Part 1 . Part 1 of this course begins with what led to the start of World War II, how the U.S. became involved and the military records available. Contrary to popular belief, they did not all burn in the 1973 fire! This course will move from military records for the Navy, Coast Guard and Marines to civilian jobs including the USO, Merchant Marines and others. You will learn how to research the service of your military ancestors through numerous sources. Through this research you can then write the story of your ancestor’s life. Continue your journey into World War II military records in The National Institute for Genealogical Studies course,  Research: American World War II Ancestors – Part 2 course coming soon. In Research: American World War II Ancestors – Part 1, author Jennifer Holik takes family historians from research to the actual telling of their ancestor’s story. She shares, “researching the lives and writing the stories of my World War II ancestors has become a passion the last two years. Personally, most of my World War II ancestors died in battle and were unable to tell their own stories. That job was left to me. Teaching through my military lectures, my book Stories of the Lost and soon to be released, The Tiger’s Widow, and writing this course, allows me to share the knowledge of conducting World War II research moving beyond the records. There are many incredible stories to find and tell. Will you be the one in your family to research and write those stories?” “This course provides a mixture of social history and research methodology to help tell the story of your ancestor, no matter what they did during the war. This is a valuable addition to The National Institute for Genealogical Studies course offerings,” remarked Louise St Denis, Managing Director. This exciting course begins June 2, 2014. Until June 3rd take 25% off this course when you enter Promotion Coupon USWW2. Hurry! This offer…

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Your Ancestor the Hero

By Shannon Bennett, Student Well I am almost done. Really digging into the meat and potatoes of the Demystifying Culture and Folklore course now. Plus, we discuss one of my favorite mythologists, Joseph Campbell. Ah, hero myths, we should all be familiar with that concept thanks to Star Wars and Harry Potter. Now, before you go away and start thinking that I am going off the deep end and there is no way we can draw comparisons between family stories and a classic hero myth, let me tell you that you are wrong.  You can. Legends, myths, and folklore don’t have to be old. They also don’t have to be false. You can find them in your own history and this last section of the course shows you how. We learn that “the hero is one who develops his/her skill, talent, etc. and takes the journey to prove that part of his/her life; then returns to the community (or family) to use the lessons learned to better the group.” I am sure many of you can think of an ancestor who would fall into that description. For myself I can think of several. Most of my hero ancestors were immigrants or those who left what they knew in a colony and ventured further west into unexplored territories. Think about those people. What they left behind and what they had to overcome. They just didn’t go out there did they? Most of them had a skill or trade that was useful or there was a steep learning curve so they could survive. Those who immigrated usually settled in a community like theirs from where they came from. Those who went first had their community come to them. They lived the hero’s life. Then those stories were passed onto us, their descendants. They became legends and people in our family folklore. Characters to teach us lessons, show us strength, and influence who we would become.  Think for a minute about stories you were told as a child about your family. How did they shape you? Do you do things now because of the family mythos? I bet if you think hard enough you can find several examples. For me I think about the few stories I know of my immigrant ancestors. They were German and Irish men and women escaping hard times at home. Many already had family groups here before they…

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The Many Facets of the Family Story

By Shannon Bennett, Student Have you ever thought about how many points of view there are within one family story? Each person who was there heard, saw, felt, or interpreted the situation differently. Just ask your family about an event from when you were a child. I bet that while similar, they are all different. These next two modules (Modules 3 and 4 of Demystifying Culture & Folklore ) touched on aspects of this phenomena.  Course author Jean Wilcox Hibben made this point at the beginning of Module 4: “As genealogists, it is our responsibility to analyze the family story … the truth or falsehood(s) with it.” Many people want to believe that everything told to them by an ancestor has to be 100% true. You know, it might be, from their point of view. But you have to think about it, who has another side? If it was a story passed down, was the whole story told or only part? Everyone has something to hide, so were facts fudged or exaggerated? Hibben drives these points home through examples of her own family.  Examples that I can see in mine as well. What I found fascinating was using Bormann’s Theory of Symbolic Convergence to understand my family and its stories better. Jean Wilcox Hibben put it simply: “by studying the paradigm of the communication of a group, a researcher can analyze the history of the unit [family] and assess its dynamics.”  Communication is always key, how did our family groups communicate within the house and even outside of the house. Think about how this could have effected perceptions of them and in turn the stories they told to the next generation. As an example, my grandfather was career military. He and my grandmother grew up in a small farming community. As soon as she graduated high school they eloped and left. That was 1936. He served in World War II, they traveled the world, and he finally retired in 1965. They decided to move back home and he took up his portion of the family farm.  My mother and her older brother remember it as a horrible time. Even though their parents were accepted back into the fold, mostly, the children were not. My mother and uncle were outsiders.  They were picked on, ostracized, and teased simply because they were not born in the community and did not know the norms…

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Learning More About Family History and Culture

By Shannon Bennett, Student Wow!  This course, Demystifying Culture & Folklore started off with a bang.  Lots of information and a page turner to boot.  It’s hard to believe that I am even more excited now than I was before the first day started.  However, if you remember my introduction post to this course, I am a self-confessed myth and folklore geek. What I liked, and I didn’t get from the undergrad courses I took, is that this is firmly family centered.  How we take those standard terms, throes, and ideas then turn the magnifying glass on ourselves and our family, not another culture.  Well, I guess in some ways we are doing that too since many of us are descendants of immigrants. From the beginning we were told to examine our family and explore our roots to see: That was a big task, a daunting task some would say.  Honestly it takes a lot of guts to really analyze your family and come to an understanding about what they did and why they did it. Thankfully the instructor, professional genealogist and folklorist Jean Wilcox Hibben, does not throw you into the deep end.  Each section began with a list of terms and their definitions.  Terms which lead to discussion and understanding of how everything from material goods, unspoken customs, and assumptions affected the lives of our ancestors. The exercises in these modules worked in conjunction with the new terms I read as well.  Instead of thinking about long dead civilizations and what their symbols meant I found myself dissecting what I knew about my own family.  That was difficult, more difficult than I anticipated.  Fun and educational, but difficult. I was surprised about what I could pull out of my memories.  The nuances in the way a story was told.  The unwritten norms and mores that I was indoctrinated with as a child.  Plus, how the word sub-culture really isn’t a bad thing.  In fact, I think I count eight sub-cultures that I belong to! The next two modules should be even more fun as we learn about cultural assimilation and family folklore.   See you online!