Resource Center

Two presentations discuss ways to engage family members in family history.

Donna Weispfenning is currently working on a graphic memoir inspired by a visit to her grandmother in 1976. Donna showed us an eight-page draft of how she is transforming images from black and white photographs into drawings, paintings, and woodcuts to recapture the spirit of her time with the then-82-year-old family matriarch.

Jan Morlock and her brother, Jerry Morlock, described their efforts preparing for a major family reunion. Here is Jan's short take on the experience:

"It’s one thing to enjoy the solitary hours of research into your family’s history, but another thing when you need to find a way to share that enthusiasm with 100 members of your far-extended family—most of whom aren't interested in the humdrum details of family records, or maybe not even in how they are related to each other and YOU! That was the challenge in front of us when Jerry and I, along with two cousins, found ourselves named as the History Committee in preparation for the 100-year family reunion of my mother’s family. At the February FHIG meeting, Jerry and I will show some of the things we cooked up to engage our diverse and distant relatives in learning about how we all are connected to each other."

Source: University of Minnesota Retirees Association, 2023.
https://umra.umn.edu/news/ways-engage-family-members-family-history