THIS IS A TWO-SEMESTER COURSE.
NOTE THAT THIS COURSE MEETS EVERY OTHER WEEK.

This course will center on family history. Utilizing census data, historical newspapers, oral interviews, family items such as old diaries, and similar sources, students will focus on how certain events shaped and impacted individuals within the family, including parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles or the entire extended family. Did a relative serve in the Civil War? World War II? Immigrate from another country? Any event(s) will qualify.

Each student’s family experience will be different; hence, the course will be highly individualized. The final outcome of the course will be a paper or project devoted to the research undertaken during the course. Students will meet as a class as well as individually with the instructor.

Class Meetings: Thursdays, 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Fall Semester: August 28 – December 18, 2025
Spring Semester: January 22 – May 14, 2026
Note that this course meets every other week.

Student Expectations: Students will utilize a number of primary and secondary sources to discover a family member or family members’ experiences in the past. A paper or project will be due at the end of the course that will tell the unique story of each student’s family and the event(s) experienced by the family member(s).

Student Support: The instructor is available via email.

Feedback/Assessment: The instructor will advise and assist each student with research questions and with placing the family within a larger historical framework.

Materials: Any reading materials will be pulled from internet resources.