A few days before Christmas my aunt (age 80 yrs - but she thinks I don't know how old she is) had a mild stroke. Fortunately the rescue units arrived promptly and she received immediate care. She is currently in a rehabilitation center receiving various therapies. My aunt is the last of her generation - she is my late father's youngest sister. Unlike my father, she did not have a deep interest or curiosity regarding family history, though she has shared some of her memories with me when I have made inquiries - however, I don't always remember to phrase questions "properly", that is, to ilicit an informative response.
Now - it just occured to me that when she dies (which I don't expect to happen soon), I WILL BECOME the family elder, as I am the eldest of the family of my generation - kind of a scary thought.
SO - are any of YOU the FAMILY ELDER? How do you feel about that role? I guess I better get cracking on my research.
Just my 2 centavos.
Natalie
Natalie,
I am the family elder (female) of my generation, and I have been thinking about my "role". It is a scary thought. I would be in that position until my own demise, sort of like Queen Eliz or the Pope, ha, ha. In fact, one of my younger cousins recently asked me if I would become the family matriarch when my Aunt Emilia (my mother's sister), the last of her generation at 93, dies, and I told her that that would be the custom in the old days when people never moved, when they stayed in the same community forever. However, it is becoming more and more difficult to even have family reunions, since we are spread from coast to coast and even as far as China now, and it is up to the ones who stayed in the family place of origin to organize things. When my aunt goes, our ties to that place will be gone forever, unless some of us choose to relocate there. Those with children and grandchildren won't be willing to do that.
So, I guess I better cultivate someone of the generation
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Like Emily I find my family spread out and just don't have the time to do genealogy even though they all asked for copies of the family history at the family reunions. I told my father that I'd lost 5,000 names from my ancestry files because of negligence on my part allowing a virus in when I turned off the virus scanner and then not having backed up my files for 6 months. I told him I had the files and had to put them back in. His comment was that no one would really care anyway... it hurt but it certainly didn't stop me from putting those names back in! At 85 he's satisfied just knowing his direct line and that's enough for him and many others. As for me, I know I'm the last in my line who understands any Spanish at all and if I don't take the time and effort our families Mexican family history will disappear. I'm retired now so have the time and money to chase the illusive history of my families and leave a legacy for future generations... the one's who don't speak
Spanish
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Here is my plan. . .start calling people with the surnames of my family
and try to find new branches of the family. Probably somewhere there are
people related from those lost branches of the family and "probably" in
those lost branches there are folks older than you. Yes I know I just
did a might side step of the issue. . .what me getting old, well yes one
day we'll need to all face that. Heck I just want to one day die with my
records in such a way that someone 10 generations from now will be able
to make sense of the work I've already done. I think it might take 10
generations for someone to come along that has the same passion as I've
had at different times in my genealogy research.
So get out the phone book or go to "Reference USA" (if you're lucky
enough to have access to it) and start calling Castanon's (I'm privately
sending you a list of folks)
joseph
===================
Joseph Puentes
http://H2Opodcast.com (Environment Podcast)
http://NuestraFamiliaUnida.com
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Emilie Garcia wrote:
> In this day and age, I guess we just have to post as much info on-line at WorldConnect or Ancestry and in groups like this (thank goodness for the Internet) and hope that someone of our younger relatives down the line will find it and build on it if possible.
>
> Emilie Garcia
> Port Orchard, WA ---
>
>
I guess I'd say that you need to send out paper copies to the various
parts of the family around the world. also a paper copy to a couple of
libraries that accept genealogies. I know that the large Library in
Indiana (the name escapes me now) accepts them and I think the godfrey
library in Vermont accepts them now. I'm sure there are others. spread
them out and then tell folks where they are stored. You don't want to
depend on digital storehouses for your long term storage of your
genealogy. Yes they "might" figure something out but I'm pessimistic
that our digital information will be readable by anyone 300 years from
now especially if 5 or 6
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The Library in Indiana is the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne Indiana. They have a website:
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Thanks. that's it!! they definitely accept genealogy submissions and
hopefully will be in existence for many generations to come.
thanks,
joseph
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Joseph Puentes
http://H2Opodcast.com (Environment Podcast)
http://NuestraFamiliaUnida.com (Latin American History)
Maureen Bejar wrote:
> The Library in Indiana is the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne Indiana. They have a website:
>
>
> http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/
>
>
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Hi there Natalie ,
Good question , I have looked at it this way I am not the eldest in my clan I'm in the middle but , I am the one that is in the quest of the family genes and history . Although I feel like the eldest at times . I'm the one that everyone always comes to for advice and stuff even my parents !
The answer to your question is for me it feels GREAT ! Even though I'm the only one doing research I am more than happy to pass it along to the rest of the family cuz I know later on someone will want to see it or maybe even thiere kids would like to see it , either way I'm putting it out there for all to see whenever they feel a hankering to do it .
Welester
> To: general@lists.nuestrosranchos.org> From: nc_coleman@yahoo.com> Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 13:46:09 -0800> Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] The role of family elder> > > A few days before Christmas my aunt (age 80 yrs - but she thinks I don't know how old she is) had a mild stroke. Fortunately the rescue units arrived
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The role of family elder