Gratitude, Family, Thanksgiving, and Health Histories

 In the United States, the fourth Thursday of November is celebrated as Thanksgiving, gathering loved ones, family, and friends to share a meal reflecting upon the past year's events and the challenges and blessings received. Expressing gratitude has become a topic of scholarly study, and they have found that gratitude can improve physical and psychological health, decrease aggression, and enhance empathy, increase mental strength. One may wonder where the tradition began. Most children learn it started with the pilgrims; however, it didn't become a National Holiday until 1863, when President Lincoln made a proclamation commending the citizens of the war-torn nation for asking God to care for all those who were widows, orphans and heal the nation's wounds from the civil war. Thanksgiving was celebrated on the final Thursday in November until 1939, when President Franklin D Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week to assist with sales during the Great depression. The movement of the date by President Roosevelt met significant opposition, and two years later, in 1941, a bill was signed making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November.

Thanksgiving is a time for family gatherings and an excellent opportunity to gather family stories, pictures, traditions, and other information. You may want to interview the older people asking about stories from their lives and the lives of their parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in your gathering.

You may want to consider creating a medical family history.  Your first thought may be, why? Why would I need to create a Medical Family tree? How does this help my ancestor? The simple answer is it really doesn't help your ancestors, but it can help you, your children, grandchildren, and descendants. FamilySearch has a helpful article regarding Family Health History you can access here. 

I created a Medical Family Tree you can use for ideas of questions you may want to record. If you are interested in receiving a downloadable file, please feel free to reach out to me through the Contact me page, and I will send it to you directly.

Come Join the Experiment

 The Connections Experiment is a fun way to dip your toe into genealogy or family history. They have come up with a 21-day Experiment where you can choose which experiments in which you would like to participate. This month's Connections Experiment is a Genealogy BootCamp. If you ever wondered how to begin the family search quest, this would be a great opportunity for you. The BootCamp is free and you complete one task each of the 21 days. This is a wonderful step-by-step guideline on how to start, research, family stories. If you would like participate in the challenge, click this link Connections Experiment. 

Record Your Family Memories

We are blessed in this modern age of technology where we can easily record and save our ancestor's oral histories, which will be preserved for your children, children's children, and down through the age. 

The Native Americans frequently taught each other their history by telling stories of their past. These stories are valuable in helping the children know who they are from and, as a benefit, allow them to know who they are. 

Now is the time for you to record your parent's and grandparents' stories. You will enjoy hearing them tell them in their own words once they have left this life. My family has recordings of my parents talking about memories from their life. They have all passed from this life, and it brings me joy to hear their voices. 

Consider talking with the oldest family members and recording them talking about their lives. We are also blessed with the cell phones that cannot only record audio, can also record video. The videos will be a treasure trove for your children, grandchildren, and throughout generations. 

Additionally, if you upload the videos or audio recordings using the FamilySearch Memories Mobil App, which can be found in app stores, and they will be preserved for your children, grandchildren, and on down through the generations. The Memories app can be downloaded from the Google App Store using your computer or phone or Apple App Store using your iPhone or iPad. 

 

Trail of Tears Research

 

Recently I attended a Family Search where the discussion was regarding female ancestors and how/where to research.  In the comment section of the live broadcast was information about the Trail of Tears as someone had inquired how to find information about those people who were part of the 1830 Indian Removal Act. I was interested in learning more because this inquiry and decided to research further online to see what could be found about this atrocity where the Cherokee Nation was forcibly removed from their homelands to Oklahoma and thousands of them perished along the way.

One of the links provided during the Family Search Live Event chat section was Family Search - Trail of Tears. I began here learning a great deal from my reading in Family Search and also checking out the Cherokee Nation link in Family Search.

Further online research discovered information was limited regarding the names of the people driven from their homes in 1830 to Oklahoma. Although I do not personally have any known relation to the Native American Nations, I feel what was done to them in the establishment of the Unite States.

Although I was unable to find any searchable lists of those were on the Trail of Tears, I discovered a website dedicated to Preserving the Cherokee heritage which provided links for Cherokee roles. 

The Sequoyah Research Center American Native Press Archives website provide some Family Stories passed down to the descendants of those who traveled the Trail of Tears.  If you would like to read the stories, click here.

If you are unfamiliar with the Trail of Tears, this video explains it well. Trail of Tears Movie