Dear Lifelines,
I have two relatives that passed away during different wars Canada has been involved in. I’m only 15 so I never knew them, but have heard that they were very good people and I would like to recognize them this year at Remembrance Day. Do you have any ideas?
Sincerely,
Reflecting
Dear Reflecting;
What a great way to honour your relatives! It sounds like it could be a very challenging, yet immensely rewarding project that will enable you to learn about history while at the same time learn about your ancestors. I guess there are many types of projects that you could try, but it all depends who it is for and how you want to display your project.
One possible option might be to create a media file that you can put together on a computer. Perhaps you can get photos and descriptions from other relatives who knew and respected your deceased ancestors. You could record the voices of your relatives speaking about them and telling stories. If your family that you would like to talk to doesn’t live close to you, you could skype them and record the conversation, or you could interview them over the phone and record it. One way to honour your deceased relatives might be through a slideshow or video that you could later place online such as on YouTube - or you could distribute it through DropBox or another emailing service for large files to email friends and family. In creating the slideshow you could use the music of the era depending on which wars your relatives were involved in. You can experiment with the music and perhaps get some family members to do the narration. Historic war information can be located through various online ancestry sites if you are unable to discover much from your relatives. You might want to check with Veteran offices as well to see if there are other ways of obtaining information. If they are buried in a war memorial cemetery you might get photos of their graves or see if there might be other information you can obtain about them through online cemetery websites. I guess it’s up to you how detailed and involved you get with your project. You might want to share it with your local school at the Remembrance Day Service or have a special day to share it with family and friends.
Enjoy your project! Take pride in honouring and remembering your ancestors who sacrificed their lives so that we might live in freedom.
Sincerely,
Lifelines
“The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.” Czeslaw Milosz