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family history

Creating an Archive of Your Family’s Voting History

October 23, 2020

by Pam Pacelli Cooper October is American Archives Month. As the leaves fall and we turn our energies indoors, we can begin to think about the archives in our own homes: troves of letters never read or catalogued; memories not yet recorded; years of photos cached in disorganized files on multiple computers, thrown into shoeboxes,[Read More]

A Challenge for the New Year: 52 Weeks, 52 Ancestors

January 2, 2018

by Pam Pacelli Cooper President, Verissima Productions Happy New Year All! May 2018 be the year you “Save Lives”. As a personal historian, I’ve been encouraging people to save their stories for over 20 years, but I recently realized I haven’t been so good at saving my own. This year, I decided to take genealogist[Read More]

Making Choices in Personal History Part 2: Contemplation How do you decide to embark on a personal history? In our last blog, we began to explore the stages of decision-making, based on the work of James Prochaska and his colleagues in their ground-breaking research on lasting change and how it happens. Today, we’re going to discuss the second stage of change. Contemplation: “Hmmmm…” In pre-contemplation, we introduced the idea of presenting information that was previously unknown: that there is such a thing as a personal history and that it will have lasting value in the lives of individuals, families, and communities. This is the “awareness” stage, a move from ignorance to knowledge. We encouraged the “educator,” to share information freely and then step back to allow it to percolate, rather than trying to rush decision-making and action. Now suppose you haven’t talked with them for a couple of months. It’s perfectly fine to check in and ask them and ask if they’ve thought any more about it (being aware of the personality of the person you’re contacting). At this point, if they say either, “I’m thinking about what it might mean to do something like this, but I need to take some more time to make any decision, or, “I hadn’t thought about it but, now that you remind me, I’d like to think further about this. “This is the signal that he/she is in the “Contemplation” stage. What are the indicators: 1. Consideration of the possibilities without any action steps being involved; Their Sitting on a fence where previously no fence existed; 2. No immediate time frame being discussed. ‘I’m aware that this is something that has benefited others and might be of benefit to me, but I’m not ready to jump in just yet.” How can you be helpful in this stage? 1. Validate their decision-making process: “I understand that you want to think about this some more. That’s great. It’s a big step. You want to make sure that if you do this, it feels solid. “ 2. Clarify and discuss: Help them understand the pros and cons of doing a personal history (e.g., the pro of having something for my siblings, great grandchildren, community; the con of how much it would cost, the time it would take, I don’t feel like I’d have anything to say, etc.) 3. Illustrate the value of contemplation: Just carefully weighing the options will deepen their understanding of their process and help them achieve resolution.

Personal History & Making Choices – Part 2

April 27, 2016

Creating a Correspondence with the Future: A Monthly Newsletter

April 1, 2016

We’re excited to announce the launch of a monthly e-newsletter, beginning in April. We’d love to have you join us and subscribe. Just CLICK HERE to be put on our mailing list! Want to know more? Watch this quick iPhone video we shot on location for an introduction to what will be contained in each[Read More]

#TheGreatListen

November 19, 2015

What’s the story?

November 5, 2015

Road Trip!

October 14, 2015

Sonic World: Your Aural History

July 29, 2015

Opening the Picnic Basket: Reunions, Food, and Personal History

June 26, 2015

By Pam Pacelli Cooper President, Verissima Productions “Mother’s German potato salad,” “The Rauh sister’s Spice Cake,” “Successful Icing as of 1975,” and “Oy! Lebkuchen.” As I opened the little tin box of my mother in law’s recipes, I was able to see the history of her family in about 100 3×5 cards. Some were written[Read More]

Photo, Photo, Who’s That in the Photo?

May 15, 2015

  By Pamela Pacelli-Cooper President, Verissima Productions Incorporated   Who takes the photos in your family? Do you have stacks and stacks of albums from past years, a Picasa or Flickr account with thousands of images, or do you stay away from taking photographs because it’s too much trouble? And what about photos from your[Read More]

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