This quarter you are being given the option of writing a social history of the lives of your grandparents.  A family social history is much more than a geological chart of names and dates.  It is an attempt to reconstruct the lives of your grandparents; and should include information on jobs, living to arrangements, personal relationships, and socio-economic status.  Writing a family history requires interviewing family members, searching for family records, and perhaps doing other research as well.

How to Collect Information

Any family is a good subject.  If, for example, your family was wealthy or prominent, you can explain what they did to acquire or maintain their fortune or position - or how they lost it.  If your family was not wealthy, its experiences are just as important to the historian.  (Why?…If enough people write family histories it will be much easier for historians to know what life in America for the average person was really like).   Be sure to find out if your family's wealth or prestige increased or decreased from one generation to the next (this is called social mobility).

 

In almost every case one side of the family was more socially prominent than the other, or there is little information concerning one set of grandparents, but plenty for the other.  Don't worry; tell more about the side for which you can get information.  Also, be sure to tell something about the lives of your parents.

Interviews

First, find out if your parents and grandparents will cooperate.  Even if all your grandparents are deceased, you can easily interview your parents about them; often an uncle, great aunt or close friend of one of your grandparents can provide information.  You should either recorder what they tell you or write it down.  Try to get their exact words if they use unfamiliar terms.  If you or grandparents lived in distant places write them a letter.  Send specific questions and leave plenty of blank space for each answer.  Grandparents are not likely to give you lots of information if you simply ask them to write about their lives.

 

In interviews try to get your grandparents to be as specific as possible.  Ask for exact dates, the amount paid, the exact wage, etc..  This will keep them from wandering from the subject and will help separate tales from what actually happened.  But do not accept uncritically everything you hear.  Ask about problems you're grandparents faced.

 

Preparing Your Report

The report should be type written, if at all possible, double spaced, and at least six pages in length.  You may include pictures, but they may not take up more than 30 percent of your report.  Your report must have a title page giving your name and the date you turn in your project.  The title of your report may simply be the names of your grandparents; or you may wish to be more creative.  On the first page of the report list the sources of information [names of the persons you interviewed, the people to whom you wrote, etc.].  Your report may be divided into a section for each pair of grandparents, or it may concentrate entirely on one set.  To acquire 10 bonus points, your report MUST be type written and AT LEAST ten pages in length.

 

I suggest you divide your report as follows:

1. Note on sources

 
2. Life of one grandmother up to marriage

 
3. Life of the man she married up to the time of marriage

 
4. Their married life together

 

Repeat these steps for each set of grandparents and then your parents.  Each section can begin with the name of the person being discussed.  Your report should be carefully proof read and written in good, clear prose.

 

Your report may include a map showing the location of all towns referred to.  Your report will be greatly enhanced by such items as photographs, copies of old letters, a page from a diary, a wedding license, etc. You may place all your illustrations at the end of your report if you wish, but don't leave it to me to try to figure out what they mean.

 

Give careful descriptions.  Keep in mind that your reader needs to be told how even the simple tasks were performed years ago.  These days most people know nothing about farming; who know is what it was like to hitch a horse to a plow?  If your grandmother was a schoolteacher, for example, tell us how much education she received, exactly what she taught and how she presented her material.  What books she used, and how long the school term lasted.  Remember that a rural school teacher in Boonville 50 years ago has little in common with someone who teaches at Memorial today.

 

The questions at you ask will determine the quality of your family history.  Here are some questions you can ask, you can no doubt think of others:

 
 

How did both grandparents and parents meet?  How was marriage decided upon?  Was one from a "better" family?  Ask for examples to show what is meant by "better."  What homes that the families live in?  Where were they?  What were they like? How was working, sleeping, and living space arranged?  How crowded was the household?  Did members other then the parents and the children live in the same house?

 

What jobs were held by family members?  Try to find out exactly what the job involved.  It is much more useful, for example, to know exactly how your grandparents grew rice than merely to say that he grew some rice.  Try to learn about years spent on each job, pay, advancement, relations with employers and unions, and reasons for leaving a position.  Did the family consider itself poor, average, or well off?  How was a family income used?

 

What were the daily routines of the family members?  How did they spend time at home and on holidays?  How and where were weddings, baptisms, funeral and other ceremonies held?  Who attended?  Who visited whom, how frequently?  What kinds of family celebrations were held?  Were there family reunions?  What part did religion play in family life?

 

How were key decisions made of moving, schooling, occupations, and approval of marriage?  How and by whom were decisions on daily family business made?  Who disciplined the children and by what means?  Did grandparents or other adults besides parents participate in the discipline or child rearing?  What types of conflicts occurred within the family and what were the responses?  When was the first radio, car, TV, etc. purchased?

 

Try to describe the community life of the place where each grandparent lived between the ages of 10 and 15.  Described the neighborhood in which they lived.  What were major community events?  What sort of sanitation and health facilities were there?  What kind of amusements and sports?  At school what games were played?  What spectacular events occurred?

 

Other Kinds of Records

Diaries, letters, etc. Your report will be much more vivid if you can provide photographs of your grandparents, the houses they lived in, and places where they worked. Also look for old family Bibles (which often listed births and deaths), and diaries and letters.  Perhaps you will find a notebook used by your grandmother and school.  Your grandfather may have an old bank book, or records of his business.  Copies, which can be made in our school library, from such items can make your report much more informative.

 

 

Project Sample

A student, Melissa McAdams, was kind enough to contribute her 1999 project for display online.  You may view the McAdams Family History online or print it out for review.  Many thanks to Melissa for her scholarly contribution.

 
 

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