Dan Curtis ~ Professional Personal Historian

Entries tagged as ‘life story’

Monday’s Link Roundup.

July 26, 2010 · 1 Comment

This Monday’s Link Roundup has some creative ways to tell stories. There’s Levi Strauss & Co.’s EXPLORE which uses video vignettes to tell the story of Braddock, Pennsylvania. Facebook has launched Facebook Stories. My favorite link is RFID Tags used to attach stories to charity shop’s donated goods.

  • EXPLORE. “In 2010, Levi Strauss & Co. began a collaboration in Braddock, Pennsylvania, a broken town struggling to reinvent itself. As part of this collaboration, Levi Strauss & Co. invested in Braddock’s community center, public library, and urban farm. The result is a campaign that tells the story of the people of Braddock.”
  • Free Genealogy Books on The Internet Archive. “The Internet Archive, also known as “The Wayback Machine,” is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.”
  • Facebook Stories. “Facebook will finally reach the impressive 500 million user milestone sometime this coming week. To celebrate, it’ll launch “Facebook Stories,” a visual memorial to all the ways the social network has changed people’s lives.”
  • Luxury Lit: A Book For $75,000. “For $75,000, you can buy a piece of Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar. Taschen contracted the Vatican’s book binder to put together SUMO because it was so large. Luxury publisher Kraken Opus mixed in a pint of Mr. Tendulkar’s blood with paper pulp to create the signature page for a book celebrating the renowned batsman’s career. The 10 limited-edition copies, which comes out in February, cost $75,000 each and have already sold out.”
  • Momma, Don’t Take My Kodachrome Away. “This week, Kodachrome went away. The last roll of Kodachrome film was developed at Dwayne’s Photo Service in Parsons, Kansas. We have witnessed an historic shift in technology.”

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

July 12, 2010 · 4 Comments

In this Monday’s Link Roundup, STORY in Photography is a fascinating look into the challenges of telling a story in a single photograph. And if you’re a nut about fonts, don’t miss Graphic Content | A Fount of Fonts.

  • 101 Best Genealogy Websites of 2010. “From state vital records and censuses to historical books and immigration data, this year’s 101 Best Websites list features tools that can bust your brick walls — but not your budget.”
  • STORY in Photography. “An understanding of the elements of story and how they can be incorporated into your images will make stronger images…Four aspects of storytelling come to mind as I consider the unique challenges of storytelling within the confines of a single photographic frame; themes that tie the image to our deeper, more universal human experience; conflict; mystery; and the relationships between the characters.”
  • Graphic Content | A Fount of Fonts. “Tipoteca Italiana is a private foundation that was founded in 1995 to advance printing knowledge and preserve venerable printing technologies. Its founder, Silvio Antiga, a 65-year-old printer who owns a printing firm in the Veneto region, has collected more than 20 vintage presses and typesetting machines, along with hundreds of wood and metal type “fonts.” The smartly designed, modern museum includes a working print shop, which employs master craftsmen who hand-set type and pull proofs. It is open to the public — more than 8,000 people visit each year — and has become a mecca for designers and students from all over the world.” [Thanks to APH member Marcy Davis for alerting me to this item.]
  • U.S. public libraries: We lose them at our peril. “The U.S. is beginning an interesting experiment in democracy: We’re cutting public library funds, shrinking our public and school libraries, and in some places, shutting them altogether…The school libraries and public libraries in which we’ve invested decades and even centuries of resources will disappear unless we fight for them. Those in cities that haven’t preserved their libraries, those less fortunate and baffled by technology, and our children will be the first to suffer. But sooner or later, we’ll all feel the loss as one of the most effective levelers of privilege and avenues of reinvention — one of the great engines of democracy — begins to disappear.” [Thanks to cj madigan of Shoebox Stories for alerting me to this item.]
  • Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History. “Your stories and the stories of the people around you are unique, valuable treasures for your family and your community. You and your family members can preserve unwritten family history using oral history techniques…As a door into the world of oral history, these pages give basic suggestions for collecting and preserving the valuable oral treasures around you, to enrich you and future generations.”

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Bringing the Dead to Life: Writing a Biography of An Ancestor.

June 3, 2010 · Leave a Comment

My grandfather

**LAST WEEK to vote on my poll: How long have you been a personal historian? Click here to vote.**

The other day I was asked if I had any ideas about writing the biography of a dead family member. This struck a responsive chord in me. For some time I’ve wanted to write  about my mother’s father, my grandfather. He was only thirty-two when he died in 1920. A Winnipeg fire fighter, he succumbed to the great flu pandemic that was sweeping the world. My mother was only two when he died and she has few stories about him.

Maybe you’re also thinking about writing the life story of a distant family member. Before beginning, you’ll need to pull together as much information as you can on your ancestor. Here’s an approach I’m going to use for my grandfather’s story. You might want to try this.

Locate relatives and friends. Where possible, audio record interviews with descendants. Try to find out as much as you can, whether it’s first person accounts, documents, or leads to other people who may have information about your relative.  For example, I’ve started to interview my ninety-two-year-old mother on everything she knows about my grandfather.

Research documents. Personal letters, diaries, and wills, as well as census, land, church, probate, and court records, may yield details of your subject’s life. For example, I’ve contacted The Fire Fighters Museum of Winnipeg to ascertain if there are any records of my grandfather.

Search for historical and cultural information. This will give you some clues about your relative’s  life. In my case, I want to find out about the working life of Winnipeg fire fighters around 1920. What were the qualifications to get into the fire department? What did the job pay? How many hours a day did they work? Was there a pension plan?

Read local and ethnic histories. These can provide clues as to how your relative may have lived and provide interesting texture to your story. For example, I want to read newspaper accounts of the impact the the flu pandemic was having on Winnipeg.

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Categories: Ancestors · How to · Life stories · Personal historian · Tips · Writing
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Monday’s Link Roundup.

April 12, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Another Monday and I have more great links for you.  One of my favorites is Castaway. Here are five incredible stories, each centering on a message in a bottle. Don’t miss it! For the frugal,  be sure to check out Changing Font To Save Ink.

  • Legal Issues Affecting Writers. [Live Webinar  $49; April 15th at 1:00 pm Eastern; duration: 75 minutes.] “Learn about the legal basics of concern to both fiction and nonfiction writers, and how to safely prepare and protect your work while not treading on the copyright or privacy rights of others. This session will also discuss how to get the most out of your publishing contract, for both articles and books.” [Thanks to Nancy Heifferon, APH Marketing Director for alerting me to this item.]
  • Changing Font To Save Ink. “A Wisconsin university has found a new way to cut costs with e-mail — by changing the font. The University of Wisconsin, Green Bay has switched the default font on its e-mail system from Arial to Century Gothic. The university says the change sounds minor, but it will save money on printer ink when students print out e-mails in the new font.”
  • bringing order to digital photo collections. “As more of our photographic images reside in the virtual world, we have not yet developed new systems for keeping track of them. I worry that a generation or more of photographic images will be lost. Here are two books that offer a new system for the digital era.”
  • Making Web Video That Sells: eBook Review. “With the ever expanding growth of high speed internet connections, video is cropping up on most major websites more and more. Whether you are informing potential purchasers with a screencast or hoping to direct the next viral experience, video is something that most designers and developers should have at least a basic understanding of.”
  • Memoir rooted in cherished, storied objects. “We look to moor our identities in things of the past,” says Seth C. Bruggeman, who teaches public history at Temple University. “We define who we are by the objects we choose to value,” Bruggeman says. “We have an almost religious belief in the power of objects to convey meaning.”
  • Cast Away: 5 Amazing Stories of Messages in Bottles. “Whenever a message in a bottle is discovered on a beach or floating in the ocean, it feels like something out of a fairy tale. The idea that two people have made a connection that mathematics would say is virtually impossible gives us hope that life is more than a series of random events. Here are five stories of the almost unbelievable connections these messages have brought about.” [Thanks to Larry Lehmer of Passing It On for alerting me to this item.]

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50 Fantastic Life Story Quotations!

February 28, 2010 · 2 Comments

For an inspirational lift or a grace note in your promotional materials you can’t beat a good quotation. Over the years I’ve  amassed a collection of quotes that relate to life stories and I’m pleased to share them with you here.  I’ve assembled the first fifteen on this page. For the remaining thirty-five be sure to click on the link at the bottom . Enjoy!

_______________________

Memoir writing, gathering words onto pieces of paper, helps me shape my life to a manageable size.  By discovering plot, arc, theme, and metaphor, I offer my life an organization, a frame, which would be otherwise unseen, unknown.  Memoir creates a narrative, a life story. Writing my life is a gift I give to myself.  To write is to be constantly reborn.  On one page I understand this about myself.  On the next page, I understand that.

from Sue William Silverman’s Fearless Confessions:  A Writer’s Guide to Memoir (U of Georgia, 2009)

It’s not about dinner but the kind of conversations you have with your family and the stories you tell.

Robyn Fivush, Professor of Psychology, Emory University

If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973),  American writer

Anyone who’s fortunate enough to live to be 50 years old should take some time, even if it’s just a couple of weekends, to sit down and write the story of your life, even if it’s only twenty pages, and even if it’s only for your children and grandchildren.

former President Bill Clinton

To forget one’s ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without a root.

Chinese proverb

Do not wait; the time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

George Herbert (1593 – 1633), a Welsh poet, orator, and priest

The positive thing about writing is that you connect with yourself in the deepest way, and that’s heaven. You get a chance to know who you are, to know what you think. You begin to have a relationship with your mind.

Natalie Goldberg, writer, Zen practitioner, and teacher

When you speak or write in your own voice you become subject rather than object. You transform your own destiny.

bell hooks, American author, feminist, and social activist

It seems that the ancient Medicine Men understood that listening to another’s story somehow gives us the strength of example to carry on, as well as showing us aspects of ourselves we can’t easily see.  For listening to the stories of others – not to their precautions or personal commandments – is a kind of water that breaks the fever of our isolation.  If we listen closely enough, we are soothed into remembering our common name.

from The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo

One regret I have: I didn’t get as much of the family history as I could have for the kids.

Robert De Niro, American actor, director, and producer

Ultimately, the richest resource for meaning and healing is one we already posses. It  rests (mostly untapped) in the material of our own lifestory, in the sprawling, many-layered “text” that has been accumulating within us across the years.

from Restorying Our Lives: Personal Growth through Autobiographical Reflection by Kenyon, Gary M., and William L. Randall (1997)

Your story, it’s not boring and ordinary, by the way. We just get the one life, you know. Just one. You can’t live someone else’s or think it’s more important just because it’s more dramatic. What happens matters, maybe only to us, but it matters.

from the movie Ghost Town

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.

Isaac Asimov (c. 1920 – 1992), science fiction writer

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 – 1881), British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister

The longer we listen to one another – with real attention – the more commonality we will find in all our lives. That is, if we are careful to exchange with one another life stories and not simply opinions.

Barbara Deming (1917 – 1984), American feminist and advocate of nonviolent social change

…and there’s more here!


(more…)

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

February 15, 2010 · Leave a Comment

This week’s Monday’s Links Roundup has some treats. Two of my favorites are Word Spy and Looking Into the Past. If you love playing with words, then Word Spy is the place to go. Here’s a sample:  “wheredunit n. A murder mystery or detective story where the location of a crime plays a central role. Also: where-dunit.”  And for an amazingly creative way to use photographs, you won’t want to pass up Looking Into the Past.

  • Advanced Oral History Summer Institute. “The Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) at the University of California, Berkeley, is offering a one-week advanced institute on the methodology, theory, and practice of oral/video history. This will take place at The Bancroft Library on the Berkeley campus from August 16-20, 2010. The cost of the five-day institute is $800.”
  • The HistoryMakers. “is the single largest archival collection of its kind in the world.  Our goal is to complete 5,000 interviews of both well-known and unsung African American HistoryMakers.  In doing so, we want to include the stories of individual African Americans along with those of African American organizations, events, movements and periods of time that are significant to the African American community.  To date, our oldest HistoryMaker is 105 years old and the youngest is 29 years old.”
  • Is Reading Blog Posts Worth Your Time? “You probably read blogs every day, blogs on marketing or entrepreneurship or Zen or gardening or getting your dog to behave. Are you putting any of the advice you read there to regular, everyday use?”
  • Word Spy: The Word Lover’s Guide to New Words. This is great fun. Want to add a new word to your vocabulary. How about foodoir? It’s a blend of memoir and food – a book  that incorporates recipes, food stories, eating, and memoir.
  • Meet your match – typographically at least. “If there’s a car and a dog and an ideal online mate for every personality, then why not a typeface? By answering four simple questions posed in a playful video by the English design firm Pentagram, you can finally hook up with the style of print for which you were destined. ” To take the test click here.
  • Looking Into the Past. “Inspired by Michael Hughes’ Souvenir project, Jason Powell started Looking Into The Past, a Flickr pool devoted to combining old photos of locations, buildings, and people with the present day scene. The ones with the most impact have the photographer holding an old photo in front of the camera lined up with features in the scene.”
  • Oral history project spotlights local LGBT community. “A project conducted by Appalachian State University is gathering the histories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people living in the Appalachian region. “We’re not just looking for people who grew up here but transplants, those who moved here or lived here and moved away,” archivist Kathy Staley explains.”

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

February 8, 2010 · Leave a Comment

When I’m researching links for my Monday’s Link Roundup, I’m always  amazed by the richness of material available for those interested in personal and oral histories, storytelling, and genealogy. Today’s list is no exception. My favorite link is the Newseum. You can hover your mouse cursor over a city anywhere in the world and the front pages of that city’s newspapers are highlighted. Very cool!

  • Unique photo gift ideas. “Your hard drive’s holding gigabytes of digital photos you’ve been snapping for years hostage, keeping all those memories of people and places in the digital dark. Your photos can make others smile on a personalized photo gift, for a holiday or for no reason at all.”
  • Google Digitizes the Ottawa Citizen Archives. “Google has digitized and made available online most of the archives of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, putting about 2.5 million articles at your fingertips, the earliest from 1890. You may be amazed at the speed and ease with which you can find family history.”
  • Online Oral History Projects. “Many museums, historical organizations, universities, and special interest groups have not only created digital archives, but also oral history projects that cover spectrums of historical themes. The following sites offer a look into the expansive realm of online oral history projects.”
  • Newseum Blends High-Tech With Historical. “The Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits. The Newseum is located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., on America’s Main Street between the White House and the U.S. Capitol and adjacent to the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall.” [Thanks to RJ McHatton of Inventive Productions for alerting me to this site.]
  • This I Believe. “…an international project engaging people in writing and sharing essays describing the core values that guide their daily lives. Over 70,000 of these essays, written by people from all walks of life, are archived here on our website, heard on public radio, chronicled through our books and television programming, and featured in weekly podcasts. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.”

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

January 18, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Among this Monday’s Link Roundup are  two sites that provide some useful advice on marketing with Facebook and building your personal brand. There’s a new television series starting in February called Faces of America that looks promising. My favorite pick this week is What Matters Now, a free e-book organized by Seth Godin. It contains  seventy important thinkers with capsule thoughts on what matters now. Don’t pass it by.

  • Series Explores “What Made America?” Through Genealogy. “Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose “African-American Lives” series have been popular on PBS, is working on another genealogy documentary series to air in February and March. “Faces of America” uses genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 11 famous Americans, using their ancestors’ experiences to draw a picture of American history.”
  • Using Assessments to Enhance Life-Story Writing. “Came across an interesting juxtaposition of two interests of mine. In an article title How to Write One’s Life Story in which author Christina Hamlett writes: Fill out self-assessment quizzes and introspective writing exercises. In addition to personality tests you can find in consumer magazines and on the Internet, books such as Barbara Ann Kipfer’s 4,000 Questions For Getting To Know Anyone and Everyone, Margaret Tiberio’s The Book of Self-Acquaintance and Dr. Gregory Stock’s The Book of Questions will get you thinking about what really makes you tick.”
  • How to Market Your Business With Facebook. “A growing number of businesses are making Facebook an indispensable part of hanging out their shingles. Small businesses are using it to find new customers, build online communities of fans and dig into gold mines of demographic information.”
  • Writing a memoir: 7 tips for defeating your inner critic. “That’s the nagging voice in your ear that says nothing you write is good or true, the voice that inflicts you with shame and guilt, especially if you’ve experienced trauma, abuse, or loss. The inner critic can inhibit you from acknowledging and revealing — even if only to yourself — what actually happened in your life.”
  • How to Start (or Start-over) Building Your Personal Brand. “A ‘personal brand’ is in many ways synonymous with your reputation. It refers to the way other people see you. Are you a genius? An expert? Are you trustworthy? What do you represent? What do you stand for? What ideas and notions pop up as soon as someone hears your name?”
  • Living Detroit Website Launched. “Wayne State University’s Honors College has launched a new web-based oral history project to gather people’s personal memories of large and small events in Metro Detroit. Jerry Herron, Dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State, calls the Living Detroit website a “living record of story telling, people’s memories of the people, the places, the things that have defined this great city of Detroit.”
  • What Matters Now: get the free ebook. “Here are more than seventy big thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about as we head into the new year. From bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert to brilliant tech thinker Kevin Kelly, from publisher Tim O’Reilly to radio host Dave Ramsey, there are some important people riffing about important ideas here. The ebook includes Tom Peters, Fred Wilson, Jackie Huba and Jason Fried, along with Gina Trapani, Bill Taylor and Alan Webber.”

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

December 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment

If you’re into gadgets, this Monday’s link will be of interest.  Carry a Scanner in Your Pocket describes an  iPhone application that allows you to scan documents. How cool is that? It almost make me want to put an iPhone on my Santa wish list.  For British history buffs there’s Cambridge University’s Raj collection goes online. And if you like contests, check out the Southern California Genealogical Society 10th Annual Writers Contest.

  • Announcing Freelance Forecast 2010. “… it’s time for Freelance Forecast 2010, Boomvang Creative Group’s second annual survey of creative freelancers and the clients who hire them.  Topics include ways to improve relationships, avoid deal-killers and understand motivations, as well as some info on pricing.  Complete either or both of the surveys and you’ll receive a free copy of the final results, plus you’ll be entered into a drawing for a $100 iTunes or STAPLES gift card.” [Thanks to Pat McNees for alerting me to this item.]
  • Carry a Scanner in Your Pocket. “Scanner Pro 1.2 is the latest version of a popular iPhone application which transforms the device into portable scanner. You can snap a picture of a document or of an old picture, and Scanner Pro then converts the image to a PDF file in the same manner as a scanner.”
  • Project will give Sephardic Jews a voice. “The goal: 5,000 interviews. The deadline: Dec. 31, 2015. The objective: To record the stories of Sephardic Jews who immigrated to the United States or were born here. Called “Sephardic America Voices: A Jewish Oral History Project,” it’s sponsored by the New York-based American Sephardi Federation (ASF), in partnership with the University of Miami and Hebrew University.”
  • The Inflation Calculator. “The following form adjusts any given amount of money for inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index, from 1800 to 2007.” [Thanks to Brina Bolanz at Restored Stories for alerting me to this item.]

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Monday’s Link Roundup.

November 23, 2009 · Leave a Comment

It’s Monday and time for some “tasty” links.  One of my favorite picks this week is Slow: Life In A Tuscan Town. The book is a reminder of the  potential that photos have when put in the hands of a creative story teller. My thanks to APH colleague Marcy Davis for alerting me to this story.

  • Slow: Life In A Tuscan Town. “[Author Douglas Gayeton] came from a fast town, Los Angeles, to the slow village of Pistoia, Italy ten years ago and there he fell under the spell of “slow” living. He came to photograph the farmers, spent days with the mushroom hunters, and then, spent days putting together dozens of photographs (called flat film) into one photograph on which he wrote his notes, reminding himself of what he learned that day…There’s so much wisdom in this book from the people of Pistoia that makes us slow down and take stock in a way that we might not normally do in our fast food lives.”
  • ‘Notes Left Behind’ Inspired by 5-Year-Old. “Young Girl Left Notes for Her Family to Find as She Died of Cancer. After 5-year-old Elena Desserich was diagnosed with an inoperable kind of cancer, she managed to spread a message of hope and healing.”
  • Over 1.8 Million Native American Records Released on Footnote.com. “November 19, 2009 – Footnote.com announced today the release of their latest interactive collection of historical records: the Native American collection. Working together with the National Archives and Allen County Library, Footnote.com has created a unique collection that will help people discover new details about Native American history.”
  • RootsMagic Releases Free Genealogy and Family Tree Software. “SPRINGVILLE, Utah, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ — RootsMagic, Inc. announced the immediate availability of RootsMagic Essentials, free desktop genealogy software based on their award-winning RootsMagic 4 system. RootsMagic Essentials contains many core features found in its namesake that allow the public to easily start tracing their family trees.”
  • Editors Pick: Family Tree Legacies. “Family Tree Magazine editor Allison Stacy and I talked about everything we’d want in one of those “record your family history” books, and Family Tree Legacies: Preserving Memories Throughout Time is the result. We’re a little biased, but we love how well-organized, versatile and pretty it is (and we think it would make a good Christmas or wedding gift).”
  • Nurturing the “Grand” in Grandchildren Over the Holidays. “There are at least 56 million grandparents in the country, with the U.S. Census Bureau reporting that more than 4.5 million children live with their grandparents. The report also indicates that African American grandparents are more likely to be their grandchildren’s primary caregivers compared to other ethnic groups.  First 5 California recognizes the important role African American grandparents play in the lives of young children. Below are helpful tips on how grandparents can support their grandchildren in their early years.  Read to your Grandchildren November is Child Literacy Month and a perfect time for grandparents to make reading a priority when spending time with their grandchildren.”
  • Voice of Witness. “… a non-profit book series that empowers those most closely affected by contemporary social injustice. Using oral history as a foundation, the series depicts human rights crises around the world through the stories of the men and women who experience them.”

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