Life Story Links: July 14, 2020
“Families are united more by mutual stories—of love and pain and adventure—than by biology. ‘Do you remember when …’ bonds people together far more than shared chromosomes…a family knows itself to be a family through its shared stories.”
—Daniel Taylor
Board games play a starring role in many of our Covid diaries. This vintage photo shows the Herbster youngsters in Elizabeth, New Jersey, circa 1941. Photograph courtesy United States Office for Emergency Management, courtesy Library of Congress.
Finding Humanity & Connection via Story Sharing
HERITAGE, NOT HATE
When his family gathered after a funeral to share stories, a young Andrew Taylor-Troutman made sure to stay within earshot. “Stories are some of the best prayers,” he writes in this column in which he argues for heritage, not hate: “As a white person, I have the ability to be selective about Southern history. I could focus only upon my personal history." Alas, he does not.
“CAN I ASK YOU A QUESTION, BUBBE?”
Last week I wrote about a free guide I created with my 10-year-old son at the beginning of the pandemic, reiterating that kids can—and should—connect with grandparents intentionally, even after a loosening on social distancing guidance allows them hugs (and the ability to take one another for granted likely sinks back in).
EMPOWERING KIDS
“One thing that we have learned from decades of research in The Family Narratives Lab at Emory University is that family stories provide a foundation for feeling emotionally safe and secure for children,” Robyn Fivush, Ph.D., writes in this piece on how family stories can help us cope during the Covid-19 crisis.
Behind-the-Scenes Glimpses
A DAY IN THE LIFE
Are you working from home, too? Join Samantha Shubert of New York–based Remarkable Life Memoirs as she strives to achieve work/life balance—complete with ghostwriting, Zoom meetings, and (of course) a lot of coffee.
SHOW & TALES
“It’s like Antiques Roadshow meets The Moth,” Martie McNabb says of her signature story sharing events, dubbed Show & Tales. See how she helps other legacy professionals, and how she continues to “be of service” during the pandemic with virtual live events.
FULL CIRCLE MOMENT
StoryCorps’ recent animated video short, “My Aunties” (watch it below) documents one man’s experience of the AIDS crisis. Peek behind the scenes as the illustrator shares a glimpse of how the subject’s story intersects with his own.
First Person Stories Worth Hearing
BEEF STROGANOFF
“I have a Carl Reiner story that I hold very dear to me. I figured I'd share it today, on the day of his passing, because I hope it will bring some other people some joy the way it does me,” Matthew Rosenberg wrote on Twitter. Read the full story thread here—if you’re anything like me, it’ll bring you some joy, too, just as Rosenberg intended.
A LIFE STOLEN
John Hardy was seven years old when he witnessed his uncle kill a prominent white plantation owner in self-defense in 1925 Louisiana. Decades later, as the last family member with firsthand knowledge, he was interviewed to memorialize his account. Read about this story of racial injustice and resilience here.
ODE TO THE DADS
Los Angeles–based oral historian Ellie Kahn collected a few of her favorite stories about fathers to celebrate Father’s Day for the Jewish Journal.
FAMILY MYTHOLOGY
“I will likely never know which parts of Africa my ancestors were taken from.... But some accident of history gave me a last name that's actually pretty uncommon—one that I could use to track down a small part of my family's history.” Read part one of Leah Donnella’s ancestry story here, then click below to listen in as she gets to the bottom of her grandfather’s mysterious origin story.
Passing on Family History
SILENCES DOWN THE LINE
“In 2000, the way people got bad news wasn’t so different than how they got it back in 1929 when my great-grandmother was confined to a hospital bed.” Rachel Beanland on some of her family’s secrets, and why hiding them isn’t necessarily a kindness.
YOUR FAMILY ARCHIVE
“It is hard to know what of your family’s ‘archives’ to digitize, what to hold onto, what to get rid of, or even how to get started doing any of these things,” Philadelphia–based personal historian Clémence Scouten writes in this “ultimate guide” to archiving your family collection.
...and a Few More Links
The Mandela effect: how groups of people can all remember the wrong thing
FamilyScrybe has released its second issue of articles by and for family history researchers.
A fun oral history of Truman Capote’s legendary Black and White Ball
The souvenirs of everyday life provide a head-start on your memoir.
Short Takes