Noun, or VERB?

-
AI generated

“We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, a writer - I am a person who does things - I write, I act," said Stephen Fry.

We humans are active. We do things, changing the world and our future. We move around our world with action verbs. 

So why do we describe ourselves and our ancestors as nouns, which are static? When people are asked to describe themselves, they often use roles: mother, father, or profession. While part of the picture, it does not get to the heart of the person. I heard a story on the radio today from a mother describing her son who has died, and it was all about what he DID. He kissed the back of her neck as he left with a friend; she never saw him alive again. Precious and painful. 


My favorite obituaries describe actions. I treasure them, because they are a window into the human who lives in the records. Dates, places, names are great, but read this bit of Peter Cain's: "To this union were born 7 children, all of whom with the mother are left to mourn the loss of a kind and loving husband and father. 

"Peter Cain was everyone's friend, and would divide his last penny to assist any one at any time, and was always of a jovial disposition." Peter is not my ancestor, but I would like to have met him. 


My third cousin twice-removed Charles Booth  was "a rock and coin collector and loved watching football, especially the Colts. He was always a practical joker with a twinkle in his eyes. He loved blowing stuff up, photography, country music, rock-n-roll music, was a Grill Master and gave the best hugs. Charles was a loving father, brother, uncle and friend who will be loved and sorely missed by all who knew and loved him." We never met in person, but thanks to that obituary, we've met.


My friend and brother-in-law Rick: "After spending some time in the US Army, he came back to Washington to marry Kim ⋯ Their children were born in Germany and Washington State. After leaving the Army, Rick continued his service to the United States by signing on to the Post Office where he served for most of his career. During the mid-90s, they fulfilled Rick’s life-long dream to run a bakery in Salome, Arizona. They made the best doughnuts and pizza in the state of Arizona! After closing the bakery in 2003 they came back to Washington, living many years in Bonney Lake." Now you know Rick, too. 


One of the features of Ancestry's online trees I love is how events in the profiles are reported, as long as the records are logged and dated. That timeline is one place where the stories live, if we just linger over the details and think about what they were doing, why, and with whom. Are they frequently moving, or staying put? If they are going to war, who is left behind?

We need not use an online tree to make a timeline, and from that organized collection of research, find the stories our families want from us. It is important to seek all the relevant records, properly cite them, and look for the context in which that life was lived. Good research is the foundation for stories we can trust.

Once you have written one, why not send it here?


Valorie Zimmerman


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~




Send your stories to m.strickland@skcgs.org






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Family Bible

-
Image
  DID YOU INHERIT A FAMILY BIBLE? Surprises! My parents had an interesting way of getting rid of “things” as they aged. I lived with my family in the Puget Sound area. My parents lived in eastern Washington, so when they came to visit us, it was usually several days, or at least overnight. The first thing I remember “finding” was an unfinished piece of needlepoint that I remembered hanging around my parents’ home for years. I recognized the box as soon as I saw it under the bed in the guest room. The next time I talked with my Mother, I asked her about it, but a funny thing, she knew nothing about what I was talking about. I learned to do needlepoint and finished the piece. My husband refinished an old dressing table bench, which had also come from my parents’  home, and we mounted the needlepoint.   The bench now resides in my son’s home. I did not leave it as a “surprise” for him to find. The next “surprise” I found in my ...
Read more

Power Your Memories: Tell the Stories!

-
Image
Iron lung, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London: a patient inside a Drinker respirator, attended to by a nurse and a doctor. Photograph, ca 1930.  Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Valorie: While listening to the news about recent controversy concerning vaccines, I thought of my uncle, who died a few years back. When I was young, he was infected with polio. According to my cousin, doctors have said he was actually infected twice, with two different polio strains. He was deathly ill for many months and in an "iron lung" for a while. Although he mostly recovered and was able to work, travel and have a wonderful long life, he was never free of polio even at the end of his life.  I asked my husband if he had ever known someone with polio, and he said that a kid in his neighborhood was infected and paralyzed. He eventually was able to walk wearing braces. This was  frighteningly  common until the polio vaccines were finally available after thorough testing. It was co...
Read more

Finding Your Pre-1850 Ancestors

-
Image
William McBee (Mackbey) with Louisa Smith, and at bottom, their daughter Martha Jane, with other relatives. ✪ Why is 1850 so important in US research? Because this is the first year each person in the US Census was named, and both age and birthplace  usually  noted. From 1790 through 1840, the US Census named only free heads of household, usually (but not always) the oldest man. The rest are divided by age groups and assigned tick marks. Before 1870, enslaved and some other non-White persons were also noted separately. Good News! Is this a terrible obstacle? Fortunately not, because as we travel up the tree from the present to the past, clues are found in many records which can lead to finding the parents, even when men married multiple women with the same name. Fortunately, most of us are already using the best strategy to find more distant ancestors, but we will need to focus on details to get the most out of our work.  There is an excellent talk by Julia Anderson...
Read more