We need “doers” and “knowers”: doers who can do the research and work with the census-matching we need, and knowers who are sources of community memory about which ancestors lived just where, and were related to just whom.
One of the things we learned in the first round of experimental work was the need to draw on community memory. It is hard to piece together records to determine the necessary connections to kith and kin. The similarity of names, and the frequency with which people move, or form and dissolve business relationships, suffer a death of their spouse, or marry one of their inlaws, is all too common for it not to be difficult to read who is whom from the records alone. The solution is the "knowers". If you ever saw your grandmother sit down with a stranger and over the next 90 minutes establish 17 points of connection between the two kin-systems, then you know what we are talking about. It was a form of oral history which was rooted in what we mean by kith: the places and people who are "known and familiar".
But we need the Doers to do the research. They are the engineers and mechanics of the world. Without them, we wouldn't get anything done. In order to get this project to work, we need people who can make things happen. These are people who know how to use computers, how to squirrel away little pieces of information, who can talk easily to people to learn what they know, to pursue hypotheses relentlessly, and who can manage data. It may also require working with archival records at one of the county centres, or talking to specialists who have more experience.
You might be a person who is impatient with this endless unearthing of the past, but you can control it because you are a "doer", and know that the whole thing will fall apart without you. You are one of the mechanics of the world.
If you can help, then send us an email with the following information:
[First Name & Last Name]
[Preferred Email]
[Phone Number]
[First Choice of Community, County to Work In]
[Second Choice of Community, County to Work In]
Brothers and sisters, we need your help.
Send us an email: I am a Doer: Sign me Up !!
KITH is working with heritage groups in Antigonish, Hants and Halifax counties to preserve and digitize the A. F. Church maps and match the map information with existing genealogical records. The goal is to improve our understanding of the history and social relations in nineteenth century Nova Scotia, and make this data publicly accessible.
