Jo's Personal Blog at Blogger.com

Monday

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - What have you learnt about yourself and your family?

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations. - See more at: http://joannfitz.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/the-book-of-me-written-by-you-topic-1.html#sthash.2TuO2bVu.dpuf

The prompt for the week is:

What have you learnt about yourself and your family?

The Brief:

Think back to the question we asked in Week One - Who am I?
Before you look back at the answers you wrote then, answer the question again.
Now compare are there any similarites, it is the same, or have any of the answers changed?
What has made the change?

Now lets look at the wider and original question - What have you learnt about yourself and your family?
Is there anything you still want to write and explore?

I have actually looked back and used this as an example in a genealogy class I taught at the end of 2014. I then told them about this topic and that I would add to it some more things. I wouldn't take anything out because they are who I AM but now I found I am MORE.

One of my slides I used for my course on Genealogy

The answers have changed because of adding to them. As I'm researching each ancestor, things are becoming more interesting as I'm finding out more about them as a person. I used to be mad and annoyed at my grandfather, but as I started to research I found the things he did either were the result of someone else and not his or his was the result of what someone else did to him and this is how he handled it. An example would be I was told he was a drunk. I found this was probably because of the way his father treated him and how he was kicked out of the family home at 15. This was the way he dealt with those things as an escape.

I've learned over the last 2 years, when looking at your ancestor, or yourself, look for what is going on in their life and whatever it was caused a reaction - good or bad. Another example, is my great

Jimmy's wings he obtained before he left. He died about 3 weeks later.

uncle Jimmy (I've spoken about my mother's cousin before) Sherman. He saw how scared his mother, my great aunt Florence, was about World War 2. He joined the service to protect her and other females and children in the family. All very honorable, but he ended up loosing his life in a training accident.

In fact, in my newer classes or when I talk to people about their family histories, I ask about the era and what part of the world, and then ask them about what was going on during that time. When they don't know, I tell them to research that and it usually helps with understanding what is going on with them or what the actions and reactions in later life are. Then I use the many examples of my ancestors. In fact, I pressed home this fact with my cousins recently. I spent my holiday season tracing my Belgium ancestors - the Gauquie's - back to see how far I could go. Hoping to hit the link that took the name from France into Belgium. The family story was they left because of the French

The National Assembly taking the Tennis Court Oath (sketch by Jacques-Louis David). from Wikipedia

Revolution. I was able to go back to just before that war broke out with our timeline, but I could show them via history what happened and how it influenced how far they moved. The big question was did they move because of the French Revolution? Answer is - it was probably the events just before the revolution which caused them to leave. They probably said it was the revolution because it was one or more of the causes of it that made them leave before anything really bad happened.

Another great example I use is my great grandfather Jules. He left Belgium and arrived in the US in 1888. The way he treated his wife was as, I think, his father treated HIS wife - Jules' mother, Florence. As the Belgium custom is :

"Rural women were expected to work in the fields as well as in the home. Traditional roles for men and women were observed, and any deviation was often censured. Even though it was not uncommon for widows to carry on their deceased husband's occupation, especially that of farming, it was frowned upon if women assumed a community leadership role, except on a social basis. Children also had chores to do at an early age, and gender-based chores were commonly assigned. On farms, they also helped with planting and harvest, and as a result, were often absent from school during those times of the year."

Which is why when I found news articles about my great grandmother getting hurt with cows and
then later talking to my cousins they told me she never had a winter jacket until a few months before she died. Sounds to me it was Belgium customs. Also, could the children part be why my grandfather and his siblings didn't really go to school and they left? We know now, this was why some of the people back then did not go to school and looked down upon it.

Great Grandmother Annie Gauquie has been hurt

As if that wasn't enough, it was how Jules treated his second wife, Belle, in comparison. According to the newspaper, she got 1/3 of Jules' estate. However, family stories has it she got most of his money and land before he passed away. Then she got basically everything after he passed and the kids didn't get anything. I was annoyed at this until I found out that Jules was born illegitimate to a maid servant. This explains why Belle got almost all of his money - because he was taking care of her and her child like no one did for HIS mother. Again - action and reaction.

Jules' birth certificate listing his mother and father - the writing on the right was when he was made legitimate

Oh there's still more that I want to explore. I'm slowly starting to fill in the holes on my mother's side. My father side? Well, that's another jumble that I'll have to try to unmangle again... I think I feel a headache coming on...

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

Friday

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Task Reflections

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

Task Reflections

The Brief:

Write a list of each task you undertake for any given day.
Include the fine details of the tasks - taking milk out of the fridge to add to a drink - what was the milk in? a jug, quart container?
Compare those tasks to an ancestor - someone born in the late 19th Century or early 20th Century and preferably someone that you knew or remember.
Record and discuss the differences
What of those discoveries has impacted on you?

At the moment I cannot really do the tasks as each day these tasks are different especially as I'm still trying to complete things from over the holiday time period and catch up with the posts here.

My daily routine

Normally, I'd get up, make breakfast and get dressed to start the day. I usually go on my walk (lately I haven't been doing this until the afternoon or late evening), and then I was sitting down to work on my certificate I finished up midyear. After I finished my certificate up, I used the time to write up
presentations and resources for my classes for the rest of the year and then I sat doing genealogy research. Then went for a walk with the dog, Buddy follows me around the house, and back home and made dinner.

My ancestor's routines
I can imagine people like my great grandmother Annie and greats back before her all got up and made the household breakfast before they went out to either work (baker, farmer, factory workers) and the women cleaned the house, did the dishes, did the laundry, looked after the gardens, looked

Woodhull's Dairy in 1870-1920? - Taken from website http://www.hrvh.org/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=chs&CISOPTR=290&action=2&DMSCALE=90&DMWIDTH=512&DMHEIGHT=479&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMROTATE=0

after the vegetable patches and made everything from scratch. Then there were the children. All dogs were probably kept outside.

Comparing the two routines
I can see my ancestor's milking the cows (as some owned dairy farms) and the kids or wife bringing in the milk to use with the breakfast. I know when I was a child, we would go to a farm which gave away some milk to people so all we would have to do is bring in the glass and then plastic jugs and then take them home with us.

Me walking at Sam's Point in 2011.

I know on the weekends and when I'm home, like I have been, I make things from scratch. When I was working such long hours I was just too tired to do it. However, with me being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, I've went back to basics and have brought the Diabetes back under control. Today the foods are not pure - instead companies fill them with sugars, salts and any other thing that will make them taste good. This is one of the major problems with people today and why people are cannot get over the mother in the US that the authorities want to bring up on child neglect charges because they were walking back from the park. What has the world turned into? Its crazy...
gaining so much weight! The other is no exercise - or very little. I still

Equipment that is used compared

My husband's coffee machine and grinder

I know I use a computer and back in the 1800's they would have had books to read and paper and pen to use instead of the computer. As for the kitchen, we have a kettle that is electric but its not that much of a stretch to boil water in a pot. My husband and his 'machine' I can only imagine what the look would have been on my ancestor's faces if they wanted coffee and my husband used the machine for them. In fact, its probably the same type of face my sister gave him the time she visited and saw what he went through in order to get one cup of coffee - she told him point blank that was too hard.

Early 1800 Teapot from husband's Moyode Castle connection

I can only imagine what they would have thought of the TV and the way we can get movies over the internet. I know my paternal grandmother Jean, would have told us if we wanted that then we should have watched when it was on and not save it. She thought an answering machine was a waste of money and space because if they wanted you badly enough then they would call you back. Oh she was such a character!

The one thing I think they would have fought against would be how fast everything moves today and how its all got to be done NOW! Also, how religion has fallen down and not been practiced very much. Up until my mother's generation I can tell everyone thought highly and made time for religion. However, since that generation church seems like something the rest of us think about, but are usually too busy to go. I know that's one of my problems - the services are held at a time when I'm just too busy (working or doing things that need to get done) or on days when I can be doing other things that need to be done. Another reason could be that growing up, the way my mother said church it was like a bad word. Only when I really pushed and I had to go with one of my friends in order to go. It was like world war 3 to do it. Overall, it was just too hard and so I never really went consistently.

Where I am trying to attend services

I do know my husband and I talked about it and if we ever had kids then they would go, as it would be another type of support system and I would encourage it. However, that seems very unlikely it would happen to us, so I guess its a mute point.

Check back for the continuation of "The Book of me, Written by You" series.

Tuesday

"The Book of Me, Written by You" - Memory Board of my life

This is a journey of finding yourself and how your loved ones see you in their eyes. Further, this can be online and carried forward to share, if you wish, to future generations.

The prompt for the week is:

Memory Board

The Brief:

Take ideas and create my digital memory board reflecting a section of my life and then add it to my Book of Me.
A quick video to show you an example of a memory board.

Reflections of my life

Birth and Growing Up