I Thought They'd Always Be There
Social Science/History | Available (Membership Required)
When we were children, we assumed that our grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, siblings, and cousins would always be there—just as they were at the time. But later in life, we came to understand the cycle of life. The family members who were always there did change. They aged. They got ill. Even as our siblings, cousins, and we were having children, older relatives came to the ends of our lives. In this workshop we will talk about how we came to understand that they would not always be there.
Duane Roen
Roen, Duane - has been tracing his roots since his teenage years, building a database with more than 32,000 ancestors. He and his wife, Maureen Roen, have also been recording their family history since 1978 by writing more than 19,000 daily journal entries on their children and other family members. Combining his professional and personal interests, Duane worked with colleagues to establish courses on writing and recording family history at Arizona State University. He also is founding coordinator of the Project for Writing and Recording Family History in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at ASU.