The “Generations Project” Show
By Dale E. Lee
2021.08.25
Summary:
- About the Generations Project
- Locations
- Activities
- Wrap up
Detail:
- About the Generations Project
The Generations Project is a show with multiple episodes helping people find answers to questions concerning their ancestors and the impact of their ancestors actions on them today.
Life without understanding Family History is like getting the answers to an exam, but not knowing what the questions were. If all we have is the final result, the present, how can we understand the context those answers fit within?
Each episode of the Generations Project takes a different journey with the participant depending on the questions they want to have answered about their heritage. Some roots go back to Sicily, others to India and yet others to the Philippines. And many go through Ellis Island. Roots go many places and the show attempts to go to those locations, within reason, and show the participants not only the location, but also the working conditions their ancestors would have been dealing with at the time.
- Locations
The Generation Project not only helps answer family questions, but also takes them to the location their ancestor lived and either shows them how they lived or has them talk to relatives and contemporaries of their ancestors. This helps better fill in their gaps in understanding. One young black lady was taken to a museum which not only displayed historic information, but also demonstrated working conditions during slavery. Another had the participant go to a sheep farm and drive sheep, just as his ancestor did. And yet another visited her relative in late stage Alzheimer’s after talking with those that knew her.
- Activities
The following are some of the activities the Generations Project covered in it’s episodes. Discoveries made by the participants were often significant and moving. The Generation Project’s motto is “Helping people connect across generations.” And by connection, they mean more than just looking at printed data. There is a difference between researching history and experiencing it, and this show does its best to help the participants experience it.
The show visits:
- Relatives
- Geneticists
- Farmers
- Hair Dressers
- Family History Libraries
- Historic locations of family value
- Criminal researchers
- Neighbors of ancestors
- Hired help of ancestors
- Towns and neighborhoods
- Ellis Island
- Museums
- Etc.
- Wrap up
Different Family History shows approach the topic from different points of view. Some are games, some help adoptees, etc. The focus of the Generations Project is to not only help lead participants to find the answers to their Family History questions, but to allow them to experience the kinds of things that their ancestor experienced and by doing so, allow them to have a deeper connection to them and their lives.
To view the show, search for “Ancestors Project” on BYU-TV (https://www.byutv.org/).
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Seekerz, © 2021
