Natalie – Day Three

On the third day, Natalie taught the students about the history of photography.  First, she showed us many different types of cameras.  Next, we learned about the kinds of photos created by each camera.  Finally, students were given packets of photos and asked to sort these in order, from the oldest to newest.

Natalie Kinsey-Warnock

Natalie - Day Two

Our second day with Natalie was on Wed., Jan 23^rd.  We began on this day learning about primary and secondary sources and were shown examples of each.  We learned about a variety of artifacts.  Natalie brought in family recipes, her grandmother’s apron, many photos, a war ration book, and a diary.  Natalie also told a story about a plane crash that happened on her family property when she was a child.  She had several pieces from this crash as another example of an artifact.

Later in the day we learned all about census records.  Natalie read a great book, Tricking the Tallyman by Jacqueline Davies.  This trickster tale takes place in Tunbridge, VT during 1790, the year of the first U.S. census.  After, she taught us how to search census records online for information on our ancestors.  Students learned that the latest census we can look for is 1940 because census records are not released for 72 years after the information is gathered.

A war ration book

A piece of the plane!

Family photo

Natalie Kinsey-Warnock

Day One

We have had five days of the six day residency with Vermont author and historian Natalie Kinsey-Warnock.  She began on the first day sharing that most of her books are based on family stories.  Throughout the past month and a half we have been reading several of these stories,  including her first book about the Canada geese quilt that Natalie designed and made with her grandmother.  Natalie talked about how many times she revises her stories (up to 40 times) before sending them off to the publisher.  It then can take up to another 5 years before the book is published and on the bookstore shelf.  Currently, she has over 60 books that are “works in progress.”  Natalie also shared a slideshow that showed children about her life.  Slides included many of the animals she has rescued, including 2 horses, 10 dogs, and many cats.

During the afternoon,  students began learning the meanings of many words that will be used during this residency.  Ancestors, descendants, genealogy, siblings, paternal, and maternal were some of these words.  Natalie taught students how to determine relationships such as cousins once removed, twice removed, and more.  We learned about how some names have changed over time and that many of the last names came from occupations (i.e. Cooper is an English occupational name for a maker of barrels and other wooden vessels.)  Students also were given a family tree to begin filling out and were told about the research project that they will be working on.  This project will be one of the things shared at the Celebration of Learning.  Below are a few pictures of the quilts that Natalie designed and her grandmother made.  Natalie told us that her grandmother did not start making quilts until she was 65.  These quilts were all made by hand and she completed a total of 250 quilts.

Starburst with over 1,000 points

Canada geese quilt