The Great Thanksgiving Listen

Today in the United States it is Thanksgiving, a national nondenominational day to gather with friends and family and give thanks in appreciation of what we have.  I hope you are having a good and happy Thanksgiving and are able to spend it with people you care about.

Tomorrow is The Great Thanksgiving Listen, launched by StoryCorps in 2008 (originally called the National Day of Listening).  It was deliberately scheduled on the same day as the (now infamous, as far as I am concerned) Black Friday, a day of rampant commercialism that officially used to kick off the pre-Christmas spending season (but that seems to have crept all the way into August at this point).

The Great Thanksgiving Listen, or just The Great Listen for short (#TheGreatListen), is a day when you are encouraged to talk with family, friends, and community members and record their stories.  An old proverb, attributed to multiple cultures, says that when an elder dies, a library turns to the ground.  If we don't record people's stories and share them, those stories disappear when the person passes away.

So set aside some time tomorrow to interview a relative or friend and record that person's story.  Use a mobile phone, digital camera, videocamera, cassette tape, the StoryCorps app, or whatever you have handy.  Write it down if you have to!  (StoryCorps does have recommendations for questions, equipment, and resources for people to conduct their own interviews.)  If you are with more than one family member, make it a family event and have multiple interviews.  Save those family stories and share them with other family members.  If you interview a community member, share the stories with that person's family and maybe the local library.  Make sure your family's and friends' stories are not forgotten.

StoryCorps has several specific "initiatives" focused on oral histories from particular segments of the population.  Visit the site to learn about the Stonewall Outloud (LGBTQ), Memory Loss, Military Voices (service members), and Griot (Black Americans) initiatives, in addition to others.

The Great Thanksgiving Listen 2019

This week the United States will celebrate Thanksgiving, when people gather together in appreciation of their families and friends.  And as a genealogist or family historian, this is a particularly special time because all those family members and friends are gathered together in one spot, making it the perfect time to sit down and share stories, one of the most precious things you can collect.

In 2008, StoryCorps, a nonprofit oral history project begun in 2003, launched the National Day of Listening, when Americans are encouraged to record the stories of family members, friends, and community members.  StoryCorps designated the Friday after Thanksgiving as the Day of Listening as a deliberate contrast to the commercial perspective of Black Friday.  This year the event has been rebranded as The Great Thanksgiving Listen, with a tag of #TheGreatListen (plus the organization has a new logo!).  And if you pledge ahead of time to participate, you will receive e-mails during the week to prepare you with ideas and tools.

Set aside time this Friday to interview a relative or friend and record that person's story.  Use a mobile phone, digital camera, videocamera, cassette tape, the StoryCorps app, or whatever you have handy.  Write it down if you have to!  (StoryCorps does have recommendations for questions, equipment, and resources for people to conduct their own interviews, since you have time to plan ahead.)  If you are with more than one family member, make it a family event and have multiple interviews.  Save those family stories and share them with other family members.  Make sure your family's and friends' stories are not forgotten.

After Thanksgiving, if you have time and are in one of the right locations, StoryCorps has recording booths in some cities in the United States and also conducts mobile tours, where people can come and record interviews.  These must be reserved ahead of time.  One of the benefits of doing a StoryCorps interview is that the recording is preserved in the Library of Congress with the rest of the collection.

StoryCorps has several specific "initiatives" focused on oral histories from particular segments of the population.  Visit the site to learn about the Stonewall Outloud (LGBTQ), Memory Loss, Military Voices (service members), and Griot (black Americans) initiatives, in addition to others.

National Day of Listening 2018

This week we will celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States, when people gather together in appreciation of their families and friends.  And because all those families and friends are gathered together in one spot, it's the perfect time to sit down and share stories, one of the best things you can collect as a family historian or genealogist.

In 2008, StoryCorps, a nonprofit oral history project, launched the National Day of Listening, when Americans are encouraged to record the stories of family members, friends, and community members.  StoryCorps designated the Friday after Thanksgiving as the Day of Listening as a contrast to the commercial perspective of Black Friday.

Make the time this Friday to interview a relative or friend and record that person's story.  Use a mobile phone, digital camera, videocamera, cassette tape, the StoryCorps app, or whatever you have handy.  Write it down if you have to!  (StoryCorps does have recommendations for questions, equipment, and resources for people to conduct their own interviews, since you have time to plan ahead.)  If you are with more than one family member, make it a family event and have multiple interviews.  Save those family stories and share them with other family members.

After Thanksgiving, if you have time and are in one of the right locations, StoryCorps has recording booths in some cities in the United States and also conducts mobile tours, where people can come and record interviews.  These must be reserved ahead of time.

StoryCorps has specific "initiatives" focused on oral histories from particular segments of the population.   Visit the site to learn about the Griot (black Americans), Historias (Latino Americans), Military Voices (service members), and Teachers initiatives, in addition to others.

National Day of Listening 2017

The Friday after Thanksgiving has been designated as the National Day of Listening since it was launched in 2008 by StoryCorps, a nonprofit oral history project.  Americans are encouraged to take the time to record the stories of family members, friends, and members of the community.  I'm posting a little later than I intended, but there is still time to participate!

StoryCorps has recommendations for equipment and resources if you want to conduct interviews today or even during the remainder of the holiday weekend.  Take some time to listen to a relative and record that person's memories.  Keep your family history alive by saving the stories and sharing them with other family members.

National Day of Listening 2016

Today is Thanksgiving in the United States, when people gather together in appreciation of their families and friends.  And because all those families and friends are gathered together, it's the perfect time to sit down and share stories, one of the best things you can collect as a family historian or genealogist.

In 2008, StoryCorps, a nonprofit oral history project, launched the National Day of Listening, when Americans are strongly encouraged to record the stories of family members, friends, and community members.  StoryCorps designated the Friday after Thanksgiving as the Day of Listening, which is tomorrow, so you have one day to get ready!

Make the time tomorrow to interview a relative and record that person's story.  Use a mobile phone, digital camera, videocamera, cassette tape, or whatever you have handy.  Write it down if you have to!  (Although StoryCorps does have recommendations for equipment and resources for people to conduct their own interviews.)  If you are with more than one family member, make it a family event and have multiple interviews!  Save those family stories and share them with other family members.

If you have time to plan ahead after Thanksgiving, StoryCorps has recording booths in some cities in the United States, and also conducts mobile tours, where people can come and record interviews.  These must be reserved ahead of time.

StoryCorps has specific "initiatives" focused on oral histories from particular parts of the population.   Visit the site to learn about the Griot (black Americans), Historias (Latino Americans), Military Voices (service members), and Teachers initiatives, in addition to others.

National Day of Listening

In 2008 StoryCorps, a nonprofit oral history project, launched the National Day of Listening, a day when Americans are encouraged to make time to record the stories of family members, friends, and community members.  It now regularly takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving — which means today!

StoryCorps has recording booths in some cities in the United States, and conducts mobile tours, where people can come and record interviews.  These must be reserved ahead of time.  It also has recommendations for equipment and resources for people to conduct their own interviews.

Take some time today to interview a relative and record that person's story.   Better yet, make it a family event and have multiple interviews!  Save family stories and pass them down to other family members.

Genealogy Seminar and "Who Do You Think You Are?"

Saturday was the second day of the Santa Clara County Historical and Genealogical Society and California State Genealogical Alliance weekend.  About 175 people from all over the Bay Area attended the meeting at the Santa Clara LDS church.  The presentations were "Land: Digging Deeper Online and Off" by Cath Madden Trindle, CG (stepping in at the last minute for Melinda Kashuba, who was not able to come), "Courthouse Records in Cyberspace" by Junel Davidsen, CG, "I Wish I Had Asked: A Guide to Doing Oral History Interviews" by Peggy Rossi, and "Spreadsheets in Genealogy" by Cat Nielsen.

Cath gave a broad overview of the different types of land records that exist, which types are likely to be found in which states, a glimpse into what can be found online, and archives in other countries.  Junel gave an online tour of several sites that have indices and actual downloadable scans of court records.  Her main point was that many government offices currently have records online, and more are likely to do so in the future, except in California.  Peggy outlined a series of steps to follow if you want to do oral history interviews with family members.  She explained the steps clearly, and I was happy to hear her emphasize the importance of transcribing the interviews and sharing them with other family members.  Cat talked about the utility of spreadsheets in analyzing information you have collected in your research.  She showed examples of spreadsheets with census data, city directory information, timelines, and studying all people with one surname in a given location.  While I learned something from each speaker, I think I enjoyed Cat's talk the most.  She had everyone laughing many times, and her tweaks on what you can do with spreadsheets gave me some good ideas.

After I returned home, I finally was able to watch the Vanessa Williams episode of Who Do You Think You Are? that I missed Friday night.  I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially the tintype of her great-great-grandfather in his service file at the National Archives (I have to wonder if that was planted; I'm not saying it was, just that I wonder).  Both of the stories the producers chose to follow in her family were compelling and interesting.  But I'm confused by some of Dick Eastman's comments on the episode in his post of February 4.  He said he felt that Vanessa Williams was doing the research herself, instead of being fed information by professionals.  Um, did I miss that in the episode?  What I saw was the historian in Oyster Bay showing her the book with David Carll's enlistment and the land record, the archivist in D.C. showing her the already pulled service file of David Carll, the Civil War historian in South Carolina showing her around locations he had researched, the genealogist showing her the enlarged printout of the 1910 census with her family at the top of the page, the archivist at the Tennessee State Archives showing her the engraving and some information that had already been pulled, and ditto at the Nashville Public Library and the Shelby County Archives.  The only thing Vanessa Williams did herself was look at the 1870 census on Ancestry.com (our obligatory product placement, specifically announced by Miss Williams herself before the screen shot).

Speaking of the Ancestry.com look-up, I have gotten in the habit of double-checking what they show on TV to see if I get the same results.  I noticed that Miss Williams typed in "Carll" for the last name but that the census page showed "Carle" for the name.  I tested it myself a few minutes ago.  "Carll" will pull up the correct record, because both spellings are listed in the index.  But while the census page says that David Carll was mulatto, the results page for David Carll in Oyster Bay said that he was white.  Maybe Ancestry.com will correct that?

While I'm nitpicking, there were some interesting mathematical errors in the dialog.  David Carll's enlistment record showed that he enlisted on January 3, 1864, and the Oyster Bay historian stated that blacks were allowed to enlist as of December 23, 1863 -- a difference of ten days.  But the historian said that David Carll enlisted "within the week" after he could do so.  Later, when they were looking at the record of Carll's land purchase, they said it was dated January 7, 1864, but Miss Williams said he bought the land five days later.  The last time I checked, 7 - 3 = 4, not 5.  Then when Miss Williams was looking at the 1870 census, she was musing to herself and said that David Carll was married before the war and enlisted for his family.  The oldest child in the household is 3 years old, which means he was born about 1866-1867, i.e., after the war.  Who is checking the continuity in the scripts on this show?

There was more, but I know -- it's entertainment.  I shouldn't be taking it this seriously.  It just seems that these are things that wouldn't be that difficult to catch, if someone was trying to do so.  Being more accurate is considered a positive thing in genealogy; why can't it be that way in a show (supposedly) about genealogy?