genealogy & the analysis of historical texts: overcoming student resistance to history

Genealogy and the Analysis of Historical Texts:

Overcoming Student Resistance to the Past

James M. FarrellUniversity of New Hampshire

National Communication Association Convention

Las Vegas, NVNovember 21, 2015

Who Are You?

Where Did You Come From?

Who Are Your Parents?

And Their Parents?

And Their Parents’ Parents?

Where Did They Come From?

When Did They Come To America?

When did they marry?

Where did they live?

Other Documents

More Information

Finding Your Family History

Ancestry.Com

Finding Documents

Download Images

Original Images

familysearch.org

Ellis Island Records

Passenger Records

USS Caronia

Origins

Coming to America

Select an Ancestor

Citizenship

1920 City Directory

Visit the Places

De Valera, Fenway Park in 1919

Irish President Speaks in Boston

Grandpa in the Crowd?

Finding the Text

Contemporary Publications

Videohttp://www.britishpathe.com/video/eamon-de-valera-in-boston

Scholarship

Or, A Different Ancestor

Annie Kelly

Newspapers

More Clues

German Warnings

May 1915

Missing

Contemporary Accounts

Videohttp://www.britishpathe.com/video/lusitania-disaster-1915

Propaganda Value

President Wilson’s Response

Another Speech

Scholarship

Online Resources

FROM GENEALOGY TO RHETORICAL CRITICISM

An Example

Annella Struzziero

1903 Birth Record

Passport Application

Immigration Record, 1922

S. S. Arabic

Death Record

1930 U.S. Census

Sacco and Vanzetti

Images

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsuuuc3t1UM

Newspapers

Speeches

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

Trial Arguments

Statements by Defendants

Execution

Sacco & Vanzetti Scholarship

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Scholarship

COMPREHENDING SCHOLARSHIPExercises in Critical Reading

In the News

Murkland Hall

Charles S. Murkland President of the

New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 1893-1903. Born: May 30,

1856 Lowell,

Massachusetts Died: Nov. 11,

1926

Passport 1917 - 1919

Marriage to Helen Southwick

1900 Census Durham

Murkland’s Genealogy Father: John

Murkland Born in Kilmarnock,

Scotland, 1810

Married, 1833 Immigration, 1848 Citizenship, 1856 Died in Lowell,

1876 Occupation:

Cordwainer

John Murkland’s Death, 1876

Census Records

Interesting Confluence of Dates May 13, 1856

John Murkland becomes a U.S. Citizen in Massachusetts.

May 19-20, 1856 Charles Sumner, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts,

delivers “Crime Against Kansas” speech. May 22, 1856:

Preston Brooks attacks Sen. Charles Sumner May 30, 1856:

Birth of Charles Sumner Murkland, Lowell, Massachusetts

U. S. Senator Charles Sumner

Bleeding Kansas

Bleeding Kansas

Crime Against Kansas May 19-20, 1856

Attack by U.S. Rep. Preston Brooks

Scholarship

Scholarship

Rhetorical Scholarship

Pfau on Sumner--Abstract

Scholarly Context

Existing Scholarly Views

Pfau’s Thesis

Statement of Purpose & Intent

The Need for Further Work

Textual Analysis as Evidence

Interpretation of the Text

Conclusion

Notes