Family History Questionnaire – Slovak Canadian Heritage Museum

THE SLOVAK CANADIAN HERITAGE MUSEUM

GENEALOGY & ORAL HISTORY

Anthology Project Adapted from an orientation package

prepared by

NIAGARA SLOVAK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

in partnership with the St. Catharines Museum, Lock 3.

What is Oral History?

“Oral history… refers to recorded interviews with individuals about the past, or first-person reminiscences. The primary form of the oral history document is the recorded human voice. This document, in turn, may be applied as informational source material or directly in sound or transcribed form.”

Canadian Oral History Association

Why is oral History Important?

“For centuries the communication of historical information was exclusively oral. With the advent of writing, however, people came to rely almost entirely on written documents for information about the past, but much that was communicated orally was lost. The advent of sound recording technology has once more enabled students of the past to collect and use information communicated by speech.”

Canadian Oral History Association

What is Folklife?

“Folklife is the traditional, expressive, and shared culture of various groups: familial, ethnic, occupational religious, and regional. Expressive culture includes a wide range of creative and symbolic forms, such as custom, belief, technical skill, language, drama, ritual, architecture, music, play, dance, drama, pageantry, and handicraft. Generally these expressions are learned orally, by imitation, or in performance, and are maintained or perpetuated without formal instruction or institutional direction.”

Folklife and Fieldwork

Everyone has a story unique to them.

You may say, “No one wants to hear my story,” “It is the same as everyone else´s,”

“I lived a quiet life – I didn´t do anything important.”

This is simply not true. Each and every one of you has a unique perspective of your life and lives around you. The stories you share will tell us about your daily life, the lives of your parents and grandparents, the celebrations, the holidays, the family recipes, the songs and dances.

The goal of this anthology project is to take these everyday ordinary and individual stories and create a much bigger story – the story of the Slovak Canadians.

Writing a family history is easy to do because you are using your own words and writing about people in your family. You are also talking about events that you have experienced as a member of your family. You decide what to write about and what to leave out as you write your recollections.

The reason we are suggesting these guidelines is that we hope they will help you to start writing your story and hopefully organize your ideas.

In the end we hope that your story will join with other family stories of the Slovaks who came alone or who came together to form a large and active community.

In this way we hope to share and honour our Slovak heritage with each other and with the larger community.

We hope to preserve the memory of people who established Slovak roots in Canada for future generations of Slovak descendants and others by continuing to add to the Slovak archives of The Slovak Canadian Heritage Museum.

Immigration Story

The families who established the Slovak communities were very typical of the immigrants who left Europe to put down roots in Canada. These Slovaks emigrated from Slovakia in three distinct waves: after World War I and prior to the outbreak of World War II; immediately following World War II; and after 1968 up to the present time.

Who were the members of your family that immigrated to Canada from Slovakia? Most immigration stories are very captivating and show the determination and resilience of Slovaks to thrive in their new homeland.

While writing your family story, it would be fitting to add the immigration story of your family member(s) when you mention them in your reflections. Even though you may not have many details to mention, it is a special way to honour your family. You may wish to include pictures of passports or documents that support the immigration story you have of them.

If your family emigrated from Slovakia, but lived in a place other than Canada first, give as many details about this phase of your family´s story as you remember. Once again, include any pictures that you may have from this time.

PART A

FAMILY CHART FOR THE ________________________________ FAMILY

Your name, date of birth, place of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Your spouse/partner´s name, date of birth, place of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Your children´s name, date of birth, place of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Your father´s name, date of birth, place of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Did your father have any brothers or sisters? If so, what are their names? Birth dates? Place of birth?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Your mother´s maiden name, date of birth, place of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Did your mother have any brothers or sisters? If so, what are their names? Birth dates? Place of birth?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Your grandparent´s names, birthdates, place of birth:
a) Paternal:

______________________________________________________________________________

b) Maternal:

______________________________________________________________________________

Your brother´s and sister´s names, birthdates, place of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Your brother´s children´s names, birthdates, places of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Your sister´s children´s names, birthdates, places of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Your spouse/partner´s brother´s and sister´s names, birthdates, places of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Your spouse/partner´s brother´s children´s names, birthdates, places of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Your spouse/partner´s sister´s children´s names, birthdates, places of birth:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

PART B

Why is it important for you to write your family´s story?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Begin your story by identifying yourself and continue to expand the information by naming your parents.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

In answering a few questions about your parents you will have begun to write your family´s story.

Where was your father born? What was the date of his birth? What education did he have? What was his occupation? What were his hobbies? Add any significant events.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

If he was born in Slovakia, name the village or the region of his birth if you know it. Did he live elsewhere? Did he travel and to where?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

If he was born outside of Slovakia, give the place of his birth. You may add any other interesting or important details surrounding his birth if you wish to do so.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

If you know the names of your father´s parents include them now, along with the date and place of their birth if you can. You may also include your paternal grandmother´s maiden name if you know it.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

You should now turn to your mother´s information going through the same steps as you did for your father.

Where was your mother born? What was her maiden name? What was the date of her birth? What schooling did she have? Was she employed or did she have a profession?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

If she was born in Slovakia, give the name of the town or village of her birth. If she was born outside of Slovakia, give some details about her birth.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Include the names of the brothers and sisters in your father´s and mother´s family. Give as much detail about them as you wish.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

How did your parents meet? You may wish to include some of the details you know about their engagement, wedding, etc. at this point.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Note: If you have any pictures that would illustrate your parent´s childood, they could be described at this point and copied later for adding to your story.

Where were they living when you were born? Describe the house or give its address if you know it. If they lived at other places before your birth and if you know the details, you could add this as well.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Describe your childhood by talking about your neighbourhood, the schools you attended and any activities you enjoyed such as sports or games.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

What were some of the special occasions that your family celebrated? Did these include special Slovak traditions? If they did, describe them in this section of your recollections.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Did you ever join other Slovaks in the area at any of their functions, such as Slovak Day? If you did, describe the event and the activities you enjoyed the most. What do you remember from these times spent within the Slovak community?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Note: If you have pictures of your family with other Slovaks at any of these special events, you could describe them here and include them with your recollections.

You may now continue your family story by talking about your immediate family: your wife/husband/ partner and your children.

How did you and your mate meet? Where did you live and work when you were younger?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Have you carried on with any of the Slovak traditions that you experienced when you were with your parents?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Note: You may give as many or as few details about your own family life as you wish.

Extra Notes:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Photographs

Photographs are a great resource for future generations to use for study and research.

If you have photographs that you would like to submit as a part of this project, there are some steps that you can take that will be beneficial to all involved. After all, it is great that we have the photograph, but unless we can identify who is in the picture, where it was taken, when it was taken, and even why it was taken, sixty years from now, it is just a picture that our grandparents saved.

In order for the Museum to keep the image preserved and documented, we have come up with some simple guidelines that should help you out.

Option A: Bring Photos to us to scan

If you do not have technology to scan the photos yourself, the SCHM would be glad to take care of this step for you. We do have a process set up for this to happen. We will make an appointment with you. You can bring your photos and notes with you. We will have you sign a Temporary Deposit Form indicating that you are leaving the photos with us. The photos will be scanned and then we will make arrangements with you to come back and pick up the photos.

Option B: Scan The Images Yourself

If you would prefer to scan the images on your own, here are a few pointers on providing the Museum with a usable image.

Resolution: The resolution or dpi (dots per inch) is important to the final quality of the scanned image. If you have the ability on your scanner to change the resolution/DPI, then we suggest scanning the photograph at the following resolutions based on photograph size.

Photo Size	Scan at … DPI
8 x 10	300
5 x 7	429
4 x 6	500
4 x 5	600
31/4 x 51/2 (postcard)	545
21/4 x 21/4	1067
2 x 3	1000
1 x 11/2	2000