Saturday, February 15, 2014

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Share Some of Your Memories

It's Saturday Night - 
time for more Genealogy Fun! 



Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission Impossible! music) is to:


1)  Judy Russell asked six questions in her Keynote address at RootsTech to determine if audience members knew certain family stories about their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.  She demonstrated very well that family stories are lost within three generations if they are not recorded and passed on to later generations.


2)  This week, I want you to answer Judy's six questions, but about YOUR own life story, not your ancestors.  Here are the questions:

a)  What was your first illness as a child?

b)  What was the first funeral you attended?

c)  What was your favorite book as a child?

d)  What was your favorite class in elementary school?

e)  What was your favorite toy as a child?

f)  Did you learn how to swim, and where did you learn?

3)  Tell us in your own blog post, or in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post.

Here are my stories:

a)  The first illness I recall as a child was the chicken pox.  I'm sure that I got it in the first two or three years of school from another classmate, and I passed it to my brother.  I still have a scar on the side of my nose from it.  

b)  The first funeral I attended may have been for my grandfather, Lyle Carringer, in November 1976.  I son't recall an earlier one in the family, or for friends.  I was too young to go to my great-grandmother's funeral in 1952, and my Massachusetts grandmother, who died in 1962, was too far away.

c)  My favorite book as a child was the World Book Encyclopedia.  I read it voraciously just about every day.  My favorite subjects were geography, history and science.  

d)  My favorite class at Brooklyn Elementary School was 4th grade.  Miss Williams was the teacher, and she was very patient and encouraging.  

e)  My favorite toy as a child was my Lionel train set.  My father, brother, and I would play for hours setting up the track through the house, and running at least two engines on it to try to make spectacular crashes.   I spent my allowance money on more train cars.

f)  I learned how to swim in summer 1954 at age 10 at Bass Lake near Yosemite.  That was our first family vacation away from San Diego, and it was memorable not only for swimming in the lake, but also fishing on the lake and buying baseball cards at the park store.  

I have no clue how my parents, or grandparents, or great-grandparents would answer those questions.  At RootsTech, I sat down before the first question was finished!  

I wrote my answers down so that they would be saved somewhere on the Internet and perhaps my children and grandchildren will see them.  When Judy's grand-niece gives a Keynote lecture at RootsTech 2054, my grandchildren will be able to answer some of the questions she might pose as a challenge to the audience!

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-share-some.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver



14 comments:

GeneGinny said...

Thank you, Randy. I've been wondering what 6 questions Judy posed. Our wifi is too intermittent to watch the RootsTech videos or download handouts, so have been quite frustrated.
Here's my contribution: http://geneginny.blogspot.com/2014/02/sngf-sharing-childhood-memories.html

Lori Thornton said...

http://familyhistorian.blogspot.com/2014/02/sngf-6-questions.html

Lisa S. Gorrell said...

That was fun. Here's my post.

http://cccgs.blogspot.com/2014/02/i-really-enjoy-reading-randy-seavers.html

Lisa Gorrell

Yvonne Demoskoff said...

Great idea for a challenge, Randy! Here's my post: http://yvonnesgenealogyblog.blogspot.ca/2014/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-share-some.html

Unknown said...

I've wanted to participate in SNGF since I started blogging and family got a chance to do so!

http://branchesandtwigs.weebly.com/1/post/2014/02/all-about-me.html

Jana Iverson Last said...

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Randy! Here's my post.

http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2014/02/some-of-my-childhood-memories-saturday.html

Jane Neff Rollins said...

Randy, Thanks for setting this challenge. I've posted the first half of my stories based on these questions to my blog

Jane

Caitie G said...

Here's mine!

http://genealogically-speaking.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-childhood.html

Really got me thinking. I'm going to have to ask my parents these questions too.

Wendy Grant Walter said...

My post is http://www.fromatozophar.com/2014/02/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-share-some.html

The Dead Relative Collector said...

Thanks Randy, It's always great to have a stroll down memory lane.

And my stroll can be found here

http://thedeadrelativecollector.blogspot.com/2014/02/our-own-childhood-memories-saturday.html

Unknown said...

Your post did make me think about my childhood and I probably have a few memories that I've never mentioned to my wife or son. So, I've written a blog on my six answers. If anyone's interested, here's a link:
http://oregonancestry.com/2014/02/16/six-questions-to-answer-for-own-life-story/

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Melody said...

I'm a little late, but I'm here! This was so much fun, that I wanted to post it.

Here is my response...
http://www.researchjournal.yourislandroutes.com/2014/02/sngf-questions-about-me/

Susan A. Kitchens said...

I spent Saturday day in the process of collecting family history. Interviewed Mama and tested a recording app. But it wasn't along the lines of the questions posed by Judy Russell. (Saturday night we attended a basketball game to cheer on a family member)

I just took a look at the questions again. One thing Mama mentioned does answes one of the questions.

What was your favorite book?

Mama mentioned "old classic" books she's given to others because those were her favorite books. In fact, she mentioned giving a grandchild two books, one that was among her favorites and one that was her son's (i.e., the child's father) favorite book.

Consider this an obscure data point in the "what are the chances that a random bout of interviewing a parent will address at least one of Judy Russell's 6 questions"