I try, as much as possible, to share how I am using the learning I do in our HQRL classes as I do my own family history or how I am preparing my history learning for the next class. If you have been reading this blog, I hope you see my efforts. The last class on social history was especially interesting I thought. Her goal was for us all to come away with ideas. Ideas about how and what we can look for and apply to our family histories that fill in the gaps between the dates, locations, and names. As I have said before, to tell the story of our families. She talked about bringing those ancestors to life and to understand a little better why they did the things they did based on their lives and times rather than judging them based on our life perspectives.

With her short case studies, it led me to continue my research into the religions and occupations of my family. Based on my own family knowledge, my paternal grandparents belonged to the First Christian Church in our hometown. I used the speaker’s ideas to look further into this church history especially as everything leading up to this tells me that there was a long line of Methodists on all sides.

Looking up the history of that church in our hometown told me that it was established in 1952 in town but in Oregon in the mid-1800s. That information explains perhaps why the change happened when it did but not why. So, I looked for the differences between the 2 belief systems. It explains why someone might have changed but not necessarily why my grandparents specifically did. This raises questions for me. What were the religious beliefs of this couple’s ancestors, and could they have influenced the change? Perhaps their parents or grandparents came from a different church in their previous location and when moving to this new hometown, found the only church that they could.

The speaker suggests that there are hints we can get from history, google, and just general information but then how does that lead us to the more specific. We must do some critical thinking. Where does the information, whether specific or general, lead us and where can we look for that information?

The other part of the speaker’s message was about why we want this information. Why should we care as family historians? Her reasoning was to help answer the question: “What was it like?” What was it like to give birth, court and marry, make a living, serve in the military, etc. (Annette Burke Lyttle, CG 6/4/26) That is what I intend to continue to do as well as continue to find how it connects to me.

As I continue this work, I want to prepare for the next class which is about Missouri. Now, I don’t have a lot of family history from this part of the country but, what do I always say, “Learners can learn something from any class or resource.” It isn’t so much about finding resources in Missouri for me. It is more about strategies for researching in states or in states near Missouri. Maybe it is about history and learning that boundary changes meant that where my family was from was once part of the same territory. Maybe it is weather or historical events that impacted Missouri and my family roots.

I guess we will find out on June 18^th!

Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com