Quoting Joe Mackey to Nancy Backus on 06-27-18 07:18 <=-
Just presenting a series of facts, dates, etc and learn by rote
doesn't work.
The one that made it deadly sat on a stool at the front of the room,
reading the textbook to us.... it couldn't have been more dry, dusty
or dull...
I had a couple of those as well. :(
I remember a good English teacher I had, forget his name off hand,
it being over 50 years ago.
He actually taught the history of English, how it developed from
other languages, also how other languages in Europe grew out of Greek
and Latin, etc. How words sounded in the past. I still remember
"knife" was pronounced "Ka-nif". which I still call them from time to time, especially when cooking and needing a certain one. :)
Fortunately for us, she had to leave mid-year to have a baby...
and the substitute that came in was the one that made history
live for us... :)
And replaced probably not too soon. :)
X so you understand Y", not "you need to know this for the next
test".
Or even better, show how interesting it can be... Teaching to the
test is not only deadly, it's mostly useless...
Yep, forgotten as soon as the test is over.
Then talking with family, friends, etc who lived through those days
or whose grandparents, etc did.
That too... for things more close in time to us....
One of the regrets in my life is not talking to my parents more
about their families.
Oh I knew Grandma and Grandpa did this and that, but not going back further. My mothers mother (descendant of the FFV side) was a school teacher and my grandfather, who was of German extraction, was a coal
miner starting around 10 as a breaker boy and later worked at a
factory, after they moved from the coal fields to here in 1918.
One story she told was of Uncle Jack, who survived the 1906 San
Francisco earthquake. She never knew what he was doing there. Her mothers great-uncle. My father's father ran the family saw mill and
his boys (my uncles) were teachers (except for my father who went into medicine) and one was the principal of a large high school in another city. His sisters all stayed at home and never married, taking care of their parents. I take after my aunts, having never married. :)
(FFV) and I would joke they were probably indentured
servants, which she didn't care to hear.
I'd guess that you both were probably right... there was of course--snip--
Keep in mind that for those indentured ones, it was usually
short-term, and often just a means to an end, to get to the new
country...
Oh, absolutely. Nothing wrong with being indentured. It was merely someone who agreed to work to someone to pay for their transportation
from England. I think the average time was like seven years. That
time span sticks in my mind. And indentured servants could be
anything from a field hand to a ladies maid to some sort of
professional such as tailor, watchmaker, any number of things.
I have Scots on both of my father's lines... his father's Scots came
just before the Rev War into Central PA, and stayed there...
For years mine kept on the move. I always joked they were trying to
stay one step ahead of the local sheriff. :)
grandmother's Scots came to NC just before the Civil War and ended
up in Norfolk VA afterwards
When my family had the saw mill it was originally still part of VA
and they considered themselves Virginians.
When researching the 1850s-70 era I discovered an unknown Uncle
Robert. Never heard of him before and double checking I found yes, he
was part of the Mackey family. I did some more checking and found the reason he was never mentioned. He had joined the Union Army during the unpleasantness of the early 1860s. So in my family it really was
brother against brother. Robert died in 1893.
Scotland... Granddad's were probably tenant farmers in Perthshire....
Mine came from Sutherland, in the Highlands.
Probably sheep stealers, since in that area there wasn't much more
to do.
Grandmother's great-grandfather was a bookseller in Haddington...
Her great-uncle, who also came to the States, was a doctor.... her
grandfather was a seed merchant.... :)
I always find it interesting how different family members have
different jobs and slide up and down on the social scale.
Do you have any half-siblings alive that might
have memories to share of your grandparents...?
None on my fathers side.
I have a half brother from out mothers first marriage but he's not interested in the past. To him anything more than five years old is ancient. Our mother's mother died when he was seven and father when he was 15. He could care less about family history.
His father's side of the family he knows little about. But his grandmother was the only grandmother either of us really knew. (It's a long story, but a clean one). Basically his father and my mother
remained friends after divorcing in 1940 and her ex's family was
"adopted" by me as well, but no blood relation at all. His natural grandmother, who died in 1966 at 90) became my "grandmother" and since
a child of our mother was accepted by her and I became a "grandson" to her. She was a nice old lady, looked like Beulah Bondi who was in a
lot of old movies. Joe
Some fascinating tales there... and who knows how much more you might
have learned about them... but perhaps you got told all the stories they remembered
Well, they were... ;)
I've found lots of things interesting... including the insights one
might get from obituaries and census records... ;)
the immigrant into central PA opened his will by calling
himself Yeoman, designating that he owned his land, a step up from his tenant farmer father,
Quoting Joe Mackey to Nancy Backus on 06-29-18 07:03 <=-
Some fascinating tales there... and who knows how much more you might
have learned about them... but perhaps you got told all the stories they
remembered
It's very possible, but being the typical kid I was probably not all
that interested.
One story my father liked to tell on himself (there are a few I
remember since told several times) was when he was in med school at
Johns Hopkins during WWI. (He had a draft deferment since in essential work). Working midnight's as a track switcher for the B&O he would sometimes take naps, laying across the rails. When the train
approached the rails would vibrate, wake him up, he would throw the
switch and after the train passed lay back down. :)
When my family had the saw mill it was originally still part of VA
and they considered themselves Virginians.
Well, they were... ;)
True. In pre-Civil War times people didn't consider themselves "Americans" as much as whatever state they lived in. They were first Virginians, or New Yorker's, etc, then American.
I've found lots of things interesting... including the insights one
might get from obituaries and census records... ;)
Those are a great source of information. When available. A friend
of mine is a genealogist (been with the Denver Public Library for
many years). When he still lived here he knew every cemetery for
miles around and would spend hours wandering through, recording grave stone information, plotting out on paper who was buried where, when,
etc. Many family cemeteries had fallen into disrepair over the years
as the offspring moved elsewhere. Many was the time he would find
just a slight depression in the ground and mark it "unknown".
the immigrant into central PA opened his will by calling
himself Yeoman, designating that he owned his land, a step up from
his tenant farmer father,
Which was a big step up for anyone.
The vast majority I have no idea where they are.
The family is still trying to keep one step ahead of the local
sheriff. :) Joe
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