Generations Project

We are not a TV watching family- we watch movies on DVD and we watch shows on-line.  One of my all time favourites is The Generations Project on BYU TV.  It just finished the second season.  I am so inspired by every single episode.  I love how they help facilitate the process of searching out one's roots.

They did an episode early in this season about the steps they follow in creating a generations project.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about these steps and I find that they really help in my quest for understanding more about who I am and why this search is so important to me and how it shapes me in my thoughts and actions.

Step 1: FIND OUT YOUR WHY. Some sample questions: What do you want to change?  Who do you want to become?

Step 2: POPULATE YOUR TREE do the research, talk to living relatives and find out what info you already have, go on-line, go to archives and get names, dates and stories

Step 3: MIX IT WITH HISTORY find out what historical events were occuring at the time of their life

Step 4: WALK IN THEIR SHOES go to where they were, try to experience life the way they would have lived

Step 5: SHARE IT AND WATCH IT RIPPLE  write about it, share it some way- through a blog, website, family reunion, and if possible make some sort of video to share.

I have been taking these steps as I pursue my family history research.  I am grateful for this guidance.
MY WHY
I applied to be on the show.  In my application my why was: Why is community so important to me?  I guess I never fully understood how important community has been to me until we moved to a large urban center two years ago.  I was VERY uncomfortable, uneasy and incredibly unsettled (my husband had never seen me like that).  We had moved from a town of 1000 people to a suburb of 500000 which is part of a very large centre (5.5 million).
As I reflected on this I realized that my whole life has been spent in small town (my dad would commute so that we could be in outlining towns).  I loved the security of a small town- everyone watching out for each other and people knowing who you are.  This got me thinking about my grandpa- Mike Bowie.  He grew up building up the town of Claresholm.  The only time I ever heard him say anything negative about anyone was when he spoke about a certain group of people who were not community minded.
Then I thought about John George Bowie who came to Claresholm from Halifax, Nova Scotia and built this community.  His father came from Scotland to Halifax and built up that community.
I often think about William Bowie and wonder what that would have been like for him to leave his community and start over in a new county building a new community.
Another aspect of this community being so important to me is that I have moved a lot in my life for example from a baby to high school grad I lived in 6 towns, 2 provinces, and 9 houses.  Since I've been married (ten years) we have lived in 4 towns/cities, 2 provinces and 5 houses.
Since applying I have thought of a lot of others WHYS
-why is creativity so important, why do I love quilting- cutting up perfectly good fabric and creating something my own
-why is being a mom so important to me- why I walked away from my career and am so eager to be a stay at home mom and make those lifestyle changes that are necessary
-why do i feel it is so important to grow a garden every single year of my married life-NO MATTER WHAT (community gardens, gardening in other peoples back yards, gardening when very pregnant, etc)
-fitness, why is it so important to me and to my siblings
-why do I have such a strong desire to know about my ancestors lives and why do their stories mean so much to me.

I am grateful for the WHY's, the many WHY's in my life.
-why

Unbelievable Findings

I truly did not realize what a gem www.ancestry.ca truly is!!

I have blurry eyes as I have been staying up WAY TOO late working on establishing my family tree.
Almost every time I write the name of an ancestor I get a little waving leaf telling me that they have found connections to that name.  I am in awe of the ancestors I am finding.

For example, my great grandmother Ellen Olive Carlson who married John Bowie was from Freemont Dodge Nebraska however, her family came here from Sweden.

My Aunt Marian (dad's sister in law) has recently found the names of her sisters and parents.  She even got Ellen's parents and both sets of grandparents-the she found 2 sets of great grandparents (in relation to Ellen Olive).

Through the family history wonder of www.ancestry.ca I was able to FIVE more generations with children and some of their souses and children.
I am so grateful for this program.  Money very well spent.  If you don't want to spend the money or don't have a lot of access, you can go to your nearest archives and most public libraries have access to this program.

Also, you can set up your own profile without joining and you can access various resources.
AMAZING

My tree is expanding and I love it.

I was so excited I just had to share even though this entry is taking me way longer to write because I am so tired and making LOTS of typos which I can not stand so I am doing many corrections.