Learning Packet: Making Connections

              Making Connections 

A Family History Workbook 



Sonoran Heritage 

National Endowment for the Humanities 

Learning Library Program at the Tucson Public Library 



This book belongs to 



MAKING CONNECTIONS 



HOW TO USE THE SONORAN HERITAGE FAMILY HISTORY WORKBOOK 



First -- define your family. It is our basic assumption that each of us has one, though "family" may be broadly defined. 



Second -- trust your memory. Recall that feeling you had of a sense of belonging with others, even if you can't remember names, or dates, or faces. 



Third -- make the connections. For every fragmentary re­collection there is supportive evidence in historical records that what you experienced is true. 



We have provided on these pages spaces for your notations and have made attempts to jog your memory by asking questions, by suggesting things to think about, by giving you examples of family history from published or collected memoirs. We have pointed out sources of help in our own community for making the connections. And we have offered our own experiences as demonstrations that even the smallest things are admissible to the record. We urge you to paste over our examples with anecdotes of your own, and to add as many extra pages as you wish, to make this a scrapbook featuring your family life, fo­cusing on those aspects of it which interest you most or which describe your family uniquely. 



We have made other assumptions. One, we believe that the people who will want to use this workbook are aware of a jour­ney -- the miles that we have traveled, the kilometers we must yet go. That journey might be called "change" or "growth." By our journey we declare ourselves willing to try something new. 



Two, we believe that everyone has a crossing-over story. We hear legends about. our forebears who took chances crossing the oceans, crossing the mountains, crossing the deserts, crossing the borders -- to continue their living in new loca­tions. We see movies and read novels that romanticize the dangers and hardships encountered by newcomer settlers and the conflicts they had with others whose plans did not include strangers. This is what makes and tests families. 



Three, we are aware that such crossings still occur, and that most are experienced without any fanfare or even acknow­ledgment of the difficulties of adjustment. They occur when we accept new jobs, build or buy houses, enroll in school, run for office, have babies, plant gardens. By our crossing-over we agree to become new members of established communities. This is what defines and strengthens families. 



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Making Connections 



Four, we believe that some things change and some things stay the same. That is why we have taken into account the study of social anthropology (patterns of social behavior) as well as the study of history (records of events). It explains why the journey has not ended. We start at the home place. We begin to wonder about the rest of the world. We dream of possibilities. Something happens to allow us or to force us to go. We journey. Reach our destination. Learn to fit in there. The place becomes home. Where we produce. Beget. And where the begotten dream... 



Our final assumption is that many of us have had a hard time knowing for sure what is worth keeping. And we believe that by looking back in an orderly fashion we might see more clearly what we can lay claim to and thus decide what it is we have to pass along. This workbook is designed simply to help you think about your past, and ultimately to give you a place to write it all down. 



* * * 



SONORAN HERITAGE STAFF 



Kathleen Dannreuther, Project Director 

Karen Fisher, Project Writer 

Barbara Baun Zetts, Secretary 

Susan Morton, Research Assistant 



LIBRARY DIRECTOR: John F. Anderson 

ADULT SERVICES COORDINATOR: Susan Goldberg 



ADVISORY BOARD 



J. Bankston, Louis C. Bernal, Charles Bowden, Bernard L. 

Fontana, Robert C. Giebner, Racquel Goldsmith, James S. 

Griffith, Gary Nabhan, Carolyn Niethammer. 



FAMILY HISTORY WORKBOOK COMMITTEE 



David Hoober, Archivist, Arizona Historical Society 

Patricia Preciado Martin 

Laura Rustin, Reference Librarian, Main Library 



SONORAN HERITAGE PRESENTS 

MAKING CONNECTIONS: A FAMILY HISTORY WORKBOOK 



CONTENTS 



Making Connections/How to Use This Workbook... 1 

I. Family -- What Is It?... 6 

II. History, Memory and Nostalgia... 15 

III. The Time Line... 20 

IV. Books That Will Help You Remember... 25 

V. Public Sources of Family History... 31 

VI. Personal Sources of Family History... 45 

VII. The Homeplace... 53 

VIII. The Journey... 63 

IX. The Destination... 75 

X. Family Roles and Responsibilities... 89 

XI. Change... 111 

XII. Continuity... 119 



Special SONORAN HERITAGE/FAMILY HISTORY files have been created and placed in the library agencies for your more thorough examination of family history. They include maps, magazine articles, essays, graphs, and photographs. Ask at the Reference Desk for these additional materials. 



SONORAN HERITAGE is a National Endowment for the Humanities Learning Library Program at the Tucson Public Library, January 1978 - December 1980. For more information, call Project Director, Kathy Dannreuther, (602) 791-4391, or write SONORAN HERITAGE, Tucson Public Library, Box 27470, Tucson, AZ 85726. 



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Making Connections 



Contributors 



In addition to the SONORAN HERITAGE Staff and Advisory Board, and the Family History Workbook Committee, the following individuals are chief among those who provided anecdotes, photographs and ideas for "Making Connections": 



MICHAEL S. ADAMS, JUANITA AHILL, PETER BLAINE, MARGARET BRET HARTE, DONALD H. BUFKIN, LINDA NEWMARK BYLANDER, JUDY CARLOCK, BETTY FINK, AGNES GRIFFEN, MARY LYNN HAMILTON, PHIL HART, NANCY HOOBER, ROLLY KENT, BOB LANTZ, ERNIE LEAVITT, LORENE LANTZ MONTICUE, BUCK RUFFNER, TAMA HOOD WHITE, CORALIE WOLF. 



There were also workshops that provided ideas and information: 



Smithsonian Institution Family Folklore Program at the Heard Museum, May 1978, presented by AMY KOTKIN and STEVEN ZEITLIN. 



Family and Community History Workshop at the University of California, Santa Barbara, January 1979, directed by G. WESLEY JOHNSON and THOMAS FULLER with the GRADUATE FELLOWS, Public Historical Studies Program, Department of History. (Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Archives.) 



"Remembrance of Things Past," Flagstaff, Arizona, April 1979, presented by MAGGIE NATION, Flagstaff-Coconino County Public Library, and JAMES BYRKIT and GLENN REED, Department of History, Northern Arizona University. (Funded by the Arizona Humanities Council.) 



Minnesota Social History Project, Saint Mary's College, Winona, Minnesota, June 1978 and June 1979, directed by WILLIAM CROZIER, Department of History, and JOHN WOZNIAK, Department of Anthropology. 



Editor: KAREN H. FISHER 



Artwork: PAUL MILLER/THE AGENCY 



Thanks also to the Division of Continuing Education, University of Arizona, for the opportunity to test our workbook materials at ELDERHOSTEL 1979. 



Special thanks to our Readers: ISABEL GALLARDO and CONNIE ROMERO.