Check us out on social media
hatfield historical society
  • Home
  • Events
    • Visitors and Workers
  • Collections
    • Foxfire Reports
    • Audio Stories
  • Genealogy
  • Resources
  • Profiles
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Us
    • Directions
    • Museum Shop
  • DONATE / JOIN
    • Membership
    • Donations

Local history a family affair: Documenting Hatfield’s Tercentenary Genealogy Reports

8/8/2013

0 Comments

 
Introducing a guest blogger – UMASS PhD student Amanda Tewes of Morgan Hill, CA, who’s been our museum intern for the summer. Amanda has used her talents to work on a Hatfield genealogy project for us – and she’s just completed it. It starts in 1970 and stretches back four to five generations. We hope you enjoy her thoughts on the project!

Picture(click photo for larger image)
By Amanda Tewes

Growing up in California, most of my peers were first or second generation Californians, as many families did not arrive in the state until the huge midcentury population boom and the national and international migration that ensued. New England experienced this boom much earlier than its Western neighbors, but the change in demographics was just as important to the development of the region. The effects of the influx of new nationalities like French Canadians and Poles to the traditionally Yankee stronghold were felt generations later as Hatfield, Massachusetts, prepared for its tercentenary celebration in 1970.  

Before its 300th birthday, Hatfield’s Tercentenary Committee encouraged residents to document their family histories with a simple questionnaire asking for the names of relatives, dates of birth, places of birth, and names of siblings going back four generations. Any other information was completely optional and may have required a bit of research on the part of the participating family—no small feat considering many families traced their roots to behind the Iron Curtain.

PictureKellogg Family (click photo for report)
Most of the completed questionnaires seem to have come from students ranging from kindergarten to high school; however, several entries came from older residents, some of whom also had children in school. This overlap presented some challenges in how to document and display the questionnaires. If a family completed multiple questionnaires, whose would take priority?  Additionally, the finished questionnaires came to the Hatfield Historical Museum under the names of the male heads of household. Should we apply the same priority to the fathers or to their children, whose names adorned the top of the questionnaires?

These were just some of the questions we faced when beginning this project.  But most importantly, we had to ask ourselves: how do researchers want to use this information?  Accessibility is key for local history organizations, and we felt that posting this information online would allow for the largest audience.  We grappled with simply scanning the original documents and providing a separate list of participants.  However, when I research topics I prefer to have as much information at my fingertips as possible.  So after much discussion, we decided to create two spreadsheets: a detailed list transcribing as much of the fifty-seven questionnaires as possible, and one with only the names of the participants and their ancestors. These spreadsheets, along with scans of the original documents, allow researchers maximum benefits of the information in this project.

PictureCady Family (click photo for report)
Perhaps you are still wondering why the Hatfield Historical Museum should go this far to document and share family histories from the tercentennial.  One answer is that in the last four decades, the students who completed these genealogies have grown up, had families of their own, and scattered across the country. Sharing this information online allows these families to reconnect to their Hatfield roots, find long-lost cousins, and flesh out their own genealogies.  

But I think there is also another answer.  These genealogical questionnaires from the late 1960s tell us not only what Hatfield remembered about its past, but how it remembered its past: through the lives of individual family members. These questionnaire participants made Hatfield’s history personal.
 
Michael Cady may have been one of many Irish immigrants who found their way to New England in the nineteenth century, but his is the story that matters to his descendants. Helping others find this personal connection is why I am proud to be a part of the Hatfield Historical Museum as we uncover family history from the town’s tercentenary!  


0 Comments

Why didn’t I think of that?

8/8/2013

 
Picture"The Loud, the Weird and the Wonderful..."
Our exhibit on Polish Immigration in Hatfield will be coming down in September, which means we’ll have two large cases to fill. We will replace one case with an exhibit on Medical Care in Hatfield in Years Past -- and we’re very excited about that, with museum volunteers Linda Golash and Vivian Kinzler taking the lead. Details to come in a future post. But that doesn’t leave us any extra time or people to develop an exhibit for the second of the two large cases. What to do?

Whately saves the day. Last week we were visited at the museum by two members of the Whately Historical Society (Adelia Bardwell and Jane Grybko) because we had some duplicate local book items to deaccession and thought they might be interested. We got to talking about exhibits and how this year they didn’t have quite enough artifacts in their Whately Postal History exhibit to fill their cases, so they ended up doing a case of recent acquisitions.

Brilliant. What a wonderful idea! Why didn’t I think of that? Not only would it make the donors happy, but it would have broad appeal and be relatively quick and easy to assemble. It would also help us gauge interest for future exhibits.

"The Loud, the Weird and the Wonderful: A Sampling of Recent Acquisitions" will now be our second exhibit opening for Fall Festival on Oct. 6, 2013. Thank you Adelia and Jane!

**And if you'd like to check out the Whately Historical Society's Recent Acquisitions, as well as their look back at Whately Postal History and their perennial exhibit on Whately Potters, their museum is open every Tuesday morning from 9 am to 12 noon, or by appointment by calling 413-665-3837. 

    If you like this blog, subscribe!
    If you'd like to be sent a link each time a new entry is posted (which is periodically), please send an email with the subject line SUBSCRIBE to
    hatfieldhistoricalsociety
    @gmail.com

    Curator's musings...

    As the curator of a small town Historical Society museum, I wonder a great many things. Am I alone in these thoughts that come to me while driving, or exercising, or falling asleep at night? Is it unusual to be constructing displays and writing copy in one's head for an enlarged museum space that does not, as yet, exist?

    If you're wondering about the blog title, "bird by bird," see my First Post for an explanation! Click HERE to read it.

    When I'm not thinking about our museum or rehousing artifacts with my fellow museum committee members, I'm working with our exhibit committee to plan physical or virtual exhibits, and working with our board to help fundraise.

    I invite your comments and reactions.

    --Kathie Gow


    Categories

    All
    18th Century
    19th Century
    Churches & Religion
    Collections Mgt.
    Conservation/preservation
    Death & Dying
    First Post
    Genealogy
    Graveyards
    Inventory Project
    Local Historical Society Issues
    Mass Militia
    Medical Care In Hatfield
    Moving The Museum
    Old Photos
    Oral History
    Other Museums
    Polish Immigration
    Provenance
    Slavery
    Smith Academy
    Storytelling
    Technology
    Tercentenary
    Textiles
    Wars & Rebellions

    Archives

    March 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    November 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    April 2017
    February 2017
    August 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012
    September 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photo used under Creative Commons from Cea.