Brian,  What you say about family history is so true.  For years I have
been hung up on the Revolutionary War because my ggggrandfather fought in
it--as near as I can make out it was only for a few days, but enough to
qualify me for DAR membership if I ever get old and stuffy enough to join.

I completely ignored the Civil War, didn't think I had any ancestors
involved and it didn't interest me.  Oh, I studied it in school and
remember a fair bit but it wasn't terribly interesting to me UNTIL--I
discovered my great grand uncle was a photographer who went to the war and
took photos, we even have some of his photos still.  Then I became
interested.  Got even more interested a few years ago when I discovered a
shoe box full of letters written home from the Civil War by a soldier--not
a relative, in our attic.  I have transcribed those letters and put them in
archival sleeves and will be taking them to the local school for the kids
to see in a week or so.  Now I am very interested in anything to do with
the Civil War--except what kind of mortar they used between their bricks.
Whatever will hold them together is fine with me.

HISTORY LIVES  !!!!!  Ruth



At 8:07 AM -0400 5/2/07, Brian Robinson wrote:
A couple of points about the survey.



For many kids, history is just a bunch of facts and dates. They don't have
any established context on which to hang their concept of historical study.
I try to encourage my students to explore their own family history in an
effort to enlighten them as to how historical events have impacted their
personal situation.  I had an uncle that was in the 82nd Airborne and was
killed on June 6, 1944 in Normandy. That makes WWII come alive for me. We
all have these types of family events we can discover.
-- 
Ruth Barton
[log in to unmask]
Dummerston, VT

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