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Many of us who become
interested in learning more about our family's history often wait until
it's too late to ask our family members questions about their lives.
If
you could go back in time and ask each member of your family only ten
questions, what would you ask?
Flora and Harry Ness and
their Children
Brooklyn, New York
early 1920s
Living in America: The Jewish Experience,
Main Floor
Before Flora Burak and Harry
Ness married in 1914, they had worked and lived in the Lower East Side of
Manhattan. They were not in the United States for that long, having
arrived in the United States in 1907 and 1906, respectively.
After they wed, they moved
into a cold-water flat in Lower Manhattan before moving into a tenement in
nearby Kings County, or Brooklyn.
This is the only existing Ness
family photograph showing the entire family. Each of the Nesses has a
story to tell, each having lived their own uniquely interesting life.
Let's say that they were your
grandparents and one of the three children in the photograph was your
parent. If at the time this photograph was taken you could go back in time
and ask each of them only ten questions in order to learn more about them,
what questions would you ask?
How old are the children pictured here? What could you ask them that would
allow you to learn the most about them and their very young lives?
What questions would be the
most important for you to ask the parents, knowing that you can only ask
each of them only ten questions?
In what ways are asking older
people and children questions about their lives different?
Write down all your questions and review them from time to time. You're
allowed to revise your question list whenever you wish. |
