Passing It On

History Detectives back on the case

One of my favorite television shows returned to the air this week, just in time to offer a respite from one of the soggiest Junes I can remember.

The History Detectives began its 2008 public television season by reuniting a family with a long-lost journal compiled in the year before the writer’s death in a World War II bombing raid, taking a stab at identifying the author of a once-popular book about the Mormon religion and trying to substantiate a family legend regarding fabled sharpshooter Annie Oakley.

Anyone with an interest in family history will find something of interest in this show, just one of many informative offerings that make PBS the channel of choice in our household. On Sunday, our local PBS station aired another fascinating program, “Traces of the Trade,” a documentary examining the slave trade from the perspective of a Rhode Island family that bought and sold more than 10,000 Africans.

Researching family history, which trails only gardening as America’s No. 1 pastime, has been much in the news lately, especially in the flood-soaked Midwest where sad tales of lost family artifacts have dominated headlines for weeks. The CBS newsmagazine, “60 Minutes,” reran a piece on Sunday about the growing popularity of using DNA in genealogical research and the limitations of that science.

The common thread running through all this media exposure is that no amount of science and wishful thinking can replace the deliberate thought and effort that is necessary to preserve our connections to our family’s legacies. The sooner the better

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Photo of two early television performers with a 1933 Bush/Baird mirror drum Televisor courtesy of TVteam.

Michael Apted’s “49 Up” puts reality back into “reality television”

Thank you Michael Apted. And thank you PBS for bringing Apted’s seminal work in chronicling personal history to American audiences.

This week’s airing of Apted’s “49 Up” also revived the notion that true “reality television” can be riveting watching despite the shameless co-opting, distortion and exploitation of the term by America’s commercial TV panderers.

In case you missed it, PBS this week broadcast the latest in Apted’s long-running series of films chronicling the lives of several people from his native England who entered this world a half century ago. Since 1964, when the youth were 7 years old, Apted has tracked down the participants every seven years and filmed interviews with them, thus the “7 Up” name for the series.

At each juncture, Apted quizzes them about their life at the moment, what’s changed in the last seven years and what do they see in their future. Each resulting film is fascinating, peeling away the life stories of real people in their own words.

The “kids” are 49 now and their personal histories are littered with job loss, splintered relationships and shattered dreams. But there are stories of fulfillment, redemption, hope and promise as well. Some participants drop out for awhile and return. Some drop out and stay out.

In my legacy letter workshops, I attempt a similar exercise, asking participants to write about their best friends at various stages of their lives. Ironically, I use seven year intervals, beginning at age 7. Changes in our family life tend to occur gradually, almost seamlessly, making them difficult to detect. But, if you look at your life in intervals using a reference point outside the family, such as your best friend every seven years, the changes become more noticeable.

Try it. List your best friends at various stages of your life and write everything you remember about them – what you did together, what you learned from each other, what you wanted out of life at that time. You’ll have your own personal “7 Up” series.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family histories. To learn more, visit his web site or send him an e-mail.

Flickr photo courtesy of Mary Hockenbery (reddirtrose).

Remembering the veterans in your family’s history

The long-awaited PBS series, “The War,” by documentarian Ken Burns is set to debut this Sunday, Sept. 23.

In advance of this 14-hour presentation about World War II, the 32^nd Carnival of Genealogy, Family Stories of Wartime, was released this week. Although I was not a contributor, I recommend this series of blog posts on the impact of war on families.

The nature of war today is certainly different than it was in WWII. While virtually all Americans at that time made some sort of sacrifice in support of the war effort, the heaviest weight of today’s conflicts are borne by a relative few.

I come from a family of mostly U.S. Navy veterans. My father, a brother and a couple of uncles served in the Navy during WWII and the Vietnam conflict. I served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam era and my father-in-law was in the Army in the Great War. That’s a picture of him and my mother-in-law on the streets of San Antonio in 1943. 

What role has war and military service played in your family history? Were careers interrupted? Skills learned? Education gained under the G.I. Bill? Spouses met? Families started? Loved ones lost? 

Make a list of those family members who served their country in the military. Keep them in mind when you watch “The War” and honor their sacrifices in your own family history. 

Did you know … that the New York Times has opened up big chunks of its on-line archives for free? It just happened this week. Check it out.

Larry Lehmer is a personal historian who helps people preserve their family stories. To learn more, check out his web site or send him an e-mail.