Great comments! It would be a nice five minute introductory topic for a genealogy meeting before the main speaker.
Diane ----- Original Message ----- From: Cheri Mello To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2008 11:20 AM Subject: [AZORES-Genealogy] Re: Relatives who won't share Be careful about calling peopled "old folks." :) The majority of genealogists are the older segment of our society!! I think it's just different personalities. There are people who are helpful and like to share. My father was an only child. His first cousin (female) is also an only child. Their mothers were twins. Although they played together a little bit when small, they didn't when they were older (moved away). To see them now, you'd think that they were siblings. Both are in their 70s and the moniker "helpful Henry" must be their motto. They'll share, think about things, and later remember the story. It's just their nature to go and help others (I think it came from their moms). On the other hand, there's my mom. She's the most unhelpful person you'd ever meet. If you pulled into the gas station needing directions and asked her how to get to such and such place, she'd feign ignorance - and this is not a recent thing. She just won't help people (my dad and his cousin would say "Let me get a piece of paper and I'll draw you a map.") Yes, it seems to be magnified more with age. It's like pulling teeth with my mom to get her to help with genealogy - and she's ALWAYS been this way. A lot of the questioning and dates have to do with the way the question is asked. I have my father's baby book. Under gifts, his mother wrote, "Beautiful bonnet from baby's great-grandmother, Azore Islands." Since my dad is half Portuguese, this was one of two women. On my first trip to the Azores, I had a translator. We had found a cousin. I had my translator ask her if she knew her grandparents. She said one grandmother (and named her) was dead by the time she was born. I then knew which great-grandma had sent the bonnet for my father in 1934. I had my translator ask her if she knew what year the other grandmother had died. She didn't know. So I asked him to ask her HOW OLD she was when the grandmother died. He looked at me and said that he already asked and she didn't know. I said it was a different question and to ask her. Her answer was that she was 17. I asked when she was born and bingo! I had an approximate date of death. I had the same problem with my boyfriend's father. He came to America in 1930 from Poland. He was only 5. So what he remembers is playing games with the other children. But his only remaining sister was 12 in 1930. I was told she doesn't remember anything. I got to meet her this past summer. Being 12 when immigrating here, she remembers a lot more. Since we were in a restaurant, I didn't have a lot of time to talk to her, but I told my boyfriend and his brother, she does remember, it's the questioning technique and we need to go to her house and interview her some more. I got the questioning technique information from "Unpuzzling Your Past," by Emily Anne Croom. See if your local public library has it. People can seem to remember how old they were when something happened, or at least tell you that they were a teenager or a small child (you have to ask around what age small children are, though). You can use historical events too...did it happen before or after WWII? Things like that. You may not always get an exact date but you may narrow down the range considerably. Cheri Mello Listowner, Azores-Gen Researching: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, R. das Tainhas, Achada --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. Follow the confirmation directions when they arrive. For more options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
