On August 8th, this week, I am presenting my talk about Stormy Weather: events that changed our ancestors' fortunes. It is not too late to register if you are interested in hearing about how such events played havoc with people and communities in the past. To register click on the logo to the right or go to the SoG website here.
Growing up, my parents were involved in many different clubs. They developed life-long friendships with members of these social and professional groups. Joining these associations, both formal and informal, I suspect was a habit and lifestyle they brought to the city from their rural roots, where neighbours often gathered for community events.
Joining
groups of people for social relationships or occupational connections is part
of being a member of a community. Often such associations started as a student
and progressed in adulthood as interests developed or changed. Volunteering was
a driver of memberships in service clubs of business-people or meaningful
charities.
Among the groups my parents were involved with were the Kiwanis Club (for business people and service to the community), the Movie Club (for people interested in taking home movies) and the square dance club (for fun and social connections).
In my own
experience, as a student I was part of the Boy Scouts, bands and orchestras
(with and outside of schools), the Rundle Group (a university club for geology
students)
As an adult I participated with: the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (a professional society) and family history societies (pursuing genealogical research).
Farm life
in the early 1900s meant people were physically separated during their workdays
so community activities centred around churches and schools dominated their
social life: after work, on weekends, and for special holidays. Volunteering
was a way of life. People came together to organize events to raise funds to
help neighbours in distress, provide capital for recreational and other facilities,
or just for fun.
Regular
community parties and dances were the best way for young people to meet,
outside of school. Because of their different ages, my parents would not have
met at school but at community events. In fact, they were introduced by my
father’s cousin who was staying with my mother’s family and got to know each
other at local dances and parties.
KIK Country is a collection of histories of families and events for the Kathryn, Irricana and Keoma areas northeast of Calgary, Alberta. This is where my parents were raised and where my father was born. It contains hundreds of short summaries of local families who lived in the region.
Besides the
hundreds of summaries of individual families, the book contains historical
information about: the indigenous population of the time; the irrigation
system; the railroads; local villages and municipal histories; agriculture
history, methods, livestock and general industry; local churches; schools,
school clubs and professional groups; social, professional and volunteer
organizations; sporting groups; military service; and many plain articles of
interest.
I actually
found a bunch of new stuff, including copies of photos I had not seen before,
while writing this piece.
By the way,
the book can be browsed online in the digital collections of the University of
Calgary. https://digitalcollections.ucalgary.ca/archive/K-I-K--country-2R3BF1OVWXP_W.html Their “Local Histories collection
features books describing the history of Canadian small towns, rural areas, and
large cities.” It’s a wonderful resource. I have found a great deal of
information about my ancestors, including photos not in our family albums in
this one publication.
The important part in the book concerning what this blog post is about are the descriptions of the many organizations in which people participated and that brought them together to form a vibrant community: home and school associations, community associations, Odd Fellows Lodge, Masonic Lodge, Order of the Eastern Star, Camp for the Modern Woodmen of America, Lions Club, farm workers locals, and several ladies aid groups.
For the young people there were: the Sunshine Girls Club, Cadet Corps, Junior Grain Club, 4-H beef Club, 4-H Field Crops Club, 4-H Engine Club, 4-H Clothing Club, and Cubs Scouts. There were organized teams for softball, baseball, curling and hockey for both children and adults.
In addition
to the family histories, it is very interesting to read about the various clubs
and events with which my ancestors participated, particularly those that raised
funds for local projects. These demonstrate the closeness of the community and
its members.
It’s easy to see how people growing up in such places took with them the idea of belonging to other groups where there were friends to be made, new experiences to enjoy and with a spirit of volunteerism where other people could be helped.
Clubs and
societies have been around for a long time, of course. Here are some
interesting books from which you can learn about them:
Clark,
Peter. (2000). British Clubs and Societies 1580-1800. Oxford University
Press.
Thompson,
F. M. L. (Editor). (1990). The Cambridge Social History of Britain,
1750-1950. Three volumes. Cambridge University Press.
A
Complete and Humorous Account of all the Remarkable Clubs and Societies in the
Cities of London and Westminster. (1756). https://archive.org/details/b30510466/page/n3/mode/2up
I am giving a presentation to the Family Tree Genealogy Gadgets Club in September about Creating Visuals for Publication. See the information at the end of this post to find how you can join in.
I use a lot
of images in my blogs, published articles and presentations. Some are photos of
people. Many are diagrams, graphs or copies of documents from parish registers,
books and articles or websites.
All are
useful in demonstrating the subject matter of my publications and talks. In my
presentations, particularly, I like to have colour and images that attract
attention and keep interest. Not to be too critical but slides with a lot of
text, that presenters just read, leave me cold, even though those speaking are
probably very knowledgeable in their areas.
With too
much text on the screen, I suspect participants spend too much time trying to
read the information (many likely cannot keep up), lose their place in the talk
and mss important things the speaker is trying to impart. I confess I
do read a lot of my text, mainly so that I don’t forget to say something, but I
try not to put too many words on the slide.
Many images
need to be cleaned up and put for publication, whether in a magazine, a book, a
family summary or a presentation. I use MyHeritage a lot for this
as I mentioned in previous posts: MyHeritage Photo Repair (26 May 2021) and Using MyHeritage’s Photo Improvement
Processes (28 Feb 2022). Before I publish, I
use my Adobe Photoshop software to put them in the best format.
One of the examples I am using in my talk is a photo taken of me and my mother in 1947. It is one of my favorite pictures. The original snapshot was a bit washed out and not framed as well as it could have been.
So, using Photoshop I used the brightness/contrast adjustment to improve it. Then I trimmed it and centred the people.
It was not bad but on closeup was still a bit fuzzy. So, I ran it through the Enhancement process at MyHeritage. The resultant image was much sharper.
Then I wondered, what might we have looked like if my dad had been using colour film? MyHeritage has software for that as well.
It was not the best result that I have obtained using this
process, but it was still pretty neat to see it. It is now framed and on the
bookshelf above my desk.
There are
many tools you can use to produce informative and attention-getting visuals for
your article, presentation or family history writeup. I encourage people to look at all
the options. One drawback, of course, is that some will cost a bit of money for
software programs or subscriptions to sites, like MyHeritage, that have
processes to help modify images. I don’t know of a way around that
unless you have a knowledgeable friend or relative, or a child or grandchild
that can help.
Come and
hear my presentation in September.
The session is available two ways:
If you have any queries about the presentation or about
Family Tree Plus, please email enquiries@family-tree.co.uk
