When it became obvious that we weren’t returning to school any time soon and that I’d be spending entire days (and nights) in our home, one of my first thoughts was, “Great! I’ll have so much uninterrupted time to work on my genealogy projects!”
Um. Nope. The last two weeks of March 2020 were consumed by training sessions on how to use Zoom (if you’re reading this in the year 2030 and aren’t familiar, Zoom is a web conferencing platform!), followed by numerous planning meetings, and frequent emails (like every ten minutes.) Whatever time was left in my day was consumed by attempts to get Instacart grocery deliveries. (I had lots of toilet paper but no disinfectant wipes or appropriate cleaning supplies to knock out the Coronavirus.) Of most concern was assuring an adequate supply of orange juice, cheese, and crackers for our now daily Home Happy Hour. We were in for the long haul…
As April settled in so did the “new normal.” By mid-April, we had our routine down. Zoom meetings had decreased since we were becoming very efficient in holding our online classess and meetings. Instacart hired more “shoppers” so I spent less time searching for groceries. I finished making some 50+ masks for family and friends. Next thing I knew – it was April 30!!
I became aware of the 21 Day Family Connections Experiment just in time! As explained by the organizers, “We, as a group of family historians, thought it would be an excellent time to do an informal study about how connecting with both living and deceased family members can contribute positively to our overall emotional health and mental well being.”
If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’m interested in how sharing family history can promote mental health. (Read this post. And this one.) So this project is right up my alley.
For each of the next 21 days, I will be sharing a new family history activity. You can enjoy just reading about my family (we are very entertaining!) but I challenge you to try the activities yourself with your own family. Click on the image above, or the link to read more about the 21 Day Family Connections Experiment and join in! I’m following the “Family Plan” provided by the organizers. Here is the calendar of activities:
I’m taking the “easy way out” for Day 1. Read my post “How Did I Get My Name?” from 2018 where I wrote about the origins of the first names for me and some of my siblings. Also, this more academic post on the origin of the Samuel surname. And, finally, these two posts on why the name “Winchester” figures so prominently in my husband’s family. (Post #1, Post #2)
If you would like to research the origin of your surname, check out the FamilySearch website. Share what you learned on my Facebook page or leave it in a comment on this blog.
See you tomorrow, when we will be looking at what happened in the year of our births!
Who We Are and How We Got This Way 