ASK GRANNY Newsletter: January 2015

Greetings to all of our ASK GRANNY friends around the world and best wishes for a Happy New Year!  GRANNY's 2014 was a great one, and we are hoping yours was, too.  

The highlight of our year was receiving the July 2014 Seton Shields National Award and Grant from Megan Smolenyak's "Honoring our Ancestors Foundation."  It was truly a great honor to be recognized and to receive a grant that will help finance our 2015 events.  Thank you for all the good wishes we got from you on this occasion!

We also were very pleased to be invited to speak in September at the 3rd Annual Southern Studies Showcase in Edgefield, South Carolina. It was great fun to be able to meet lots of the folks that we have corresponded with over the years and also to talk about GRANNY ideas with a group of very interested participants.

We've had a year of continued expansion in the USA and internationally and have emailed our free set of files to 52 individuals or groups. Many of our recipients are genealogical librarians who, as part of their work activities, conduct workshops on basic interviewing skills and other "getting started in genealogy" topics. But we've fufilled requests individuals, reunion groups, and Genealogical Socities in the USA and from New Zealand, Australia, and the UK as well.   

This summer we also introduced ASK GRANNY LITE, a set of instructions for using one or two of the GRANNY files in one-on-one settings. We've had many questions about using the materials for interviewing family members and we hope that this instruction sheet will help in those situations: 

http://newsfromaskgranny.blogspot.com/2014/10/announcing-ask-granny-lite.html

Lastly:  For those of you who are thinking of doing a 2015 presentation in your local area....here's encouragement to do the hardest part....pick up the phone and talk to the Activities Director at a retirement facility.  These folks are usually planning their yearly calendars about this time and they are, in our experience, very receptive to our GRANNY program idea, especially when we emphasize that everything is FREE.  

Please let us know if there is any way we can help with your outreach efforts.  Also, please continue to send your reports of activities and other ideas to ask.granny.us@gmail.com

Thank you for everything you do to make sure that the vital family memories of senior citizens are not lost, but are recorded and preserved for future researchers!

Very best wishes,   Judy and Greg, aka ASK GRANNY
Judy Russell and Greg Crane

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

2014 reports from individuals and groups

Wilmington NC: 

I included your Ask Granny series in a presentation, “Innovative Genealogy Programs for the Public” at the North Carolina Library Association Conference October 2013. I told them a little bit about your program and how they could contact you, along with giving them your website. They seemed very receptive and I hope it helped to spread the word about your program.

Burlington WI GS:

I conducted a modified Ask Granny program for a luncheon for retired employees at Wheaton Franciscan Medical Center in Racine, Wisconsin in Dec 2012.  I gave them the basics and had a question session afterward.  There were aprox  90 people in attendance.  I had a sign up sheet with our Burlington Genealogical Society information and when we were going to be holding small group sessions.  We had about 25 sign up for those which we held during the year.

 In July 2013 we held the Ask Granny program for a group of patrons of the Waterford Wisconsin public Library.  It was met with much sucess including helping one adopted attendee find information about her birth parents and their family tree.

We have gotten several call backs from those that came to our programs for help with their trees and were able to walk them through over the telephone and using the sheets we handed out  from the Ask Granny material.

In 2014, we plan on continuing with the program.

West Georgia Genealogical Society:

I gave the exercise on "Ask Granny" that we put together in January yesterday for our local chapter in West Central Georgia yesterday.

 I think it went very well, and the booklets that you put together for us were extremely helpful, along with all your tips and other thoughts that make this so much easier for others. 

I did indicate to the participants, that they could call you if they had other questions, or wanted to present it at a church group, or family reunion etc. Your e-mail address for "Ask Granny" as well as your phone number was in the material. 

One of my suprises, was how little so many knew of their family history. Many indicated they planned to look up the material, or ask other family members of their knowledge so it would be accurate. I had made several copies of the "Ask Granny" chart, and most of them were gone when I left, so some at least planned to do more. 

Thanks again for all of your assistance, in putting things together in a way that anyone can figure out a way to get started, and for sharing so much work and effort on what you have done.

Livermore-Ardmore CA GS:

Thank you for initiating and sharing the “Ask Granny”^© program resources.

 Last evening, January 23, 2014, genealogy docents from the Livermore – Amador Genealogical Society and the leadership of the Livermore – Pleasanton – Dublin Branch of the American Association of University Women in conjunction with the staff of the Pleasanton Public Library presented a very well-received “Ask Granny”^© work shop to 27 AAUW members, and their guests.

Most participants said that they would soon seek further research assistance from L-AGS genealogy docents who are available in the Pleasanton Public Library every Wednesday between the hours of 10 am and 1 pm to assist family history investigators. 

Washington State, Lower Columbia Gen Society:

... is using Granny materials in conjunction with a "Write your life" program.  
We had discussed the idea of giving people the most cost effective gift Granny could think of....10 cent spiral bound notebook from Big Lots!  Thank you for the idea of having the notebooks for people.  We had about 25 show up to listen to the stories (had 5 people read theirs).  The activities director at the retirement facility is encouraging them to write and even has a team of volunteers who will help -- one on one.  

Carlsbad CA Library:

...thank you so much for sending me your materials. Wow, you have a full-featured program there!

Roswell, GA, PL

...I'm the young adult librarian at my branch library in Roswell, GA.  I also do some adult programming.

I presented 3 "Ask Granny" type  classes in September, October and November 2013.  I used the Ask Granny materials in the classes.  One I called  Basic Genealogy for adults was attended by 3 people.  The other called Oral History and genealogy.  Only one person came, but she was very appreciative as she was a complete "newbie."

 I also did a series of 5 classes for homeschooled teens with their parents.  I use a lot of the "Ask Granny" materials to get them started.  I think the parents were more excited than the teens, but I had one girl who really threw herself into her research.

Thanks for providing the materials as it made my job of developing class materials much easier.

Here are some quotes from our Participants:o "So many helpful ideas were presented to help search for family ancestors.  Handouts will be so helpful.  I will be watching for other classes in newsletter."
o "My family and I will be working on that."

Columbia South Carolina,Richland PL:

Our Ask Granny presentation is set for August 12 and 19 at the Oak Read High Rise. Last year I did something similar for a one day event but without the Ask Granny material.... Personally, it was an powerful experience.  This year I am expanding it to two days and using the Ask Granny materials.  This is all part of a larger program to engage the older residents of our poorer neighborhoods

Garland TX:

For your information, I held the first session last Thursday, July 7. This was held at Chambrel at Club Hill Senior Living Center in Garland, Texas.

 We had 10 people there but three of them were experienced, 7 newcomers. The one thing I learned from the newcomers was that the 6 generation sheet still had too small print. I am changing that for the next session.

 I am going to create a work sheet of two generations, I think, for the next session...

 Other than that, the program went well. I think I talked too much. We were pressed for time. I did not realize how much beginners have to learn and how much they do NOT know about their family.

Henderson County KY Public Library:

We had our workshop and it was a big success.  We had 6 children and parents for them. We divided the adults and went over some basic genealogy since some of them were new.  

The children talked about journaling, received some handouts to fill out as they gather information about their relatives (including your ancestral chart), and ironed family tree patterns on tee shirts they had brought with them.  All of the kids with their parent's help were able to fill out most of their leaves. 

Thanks for letting us use your chart...