Sunday, June 19, 2011

An Immigrant's Tale from Patheos

Little Italy, Manhattan. 2006.

I occasionally read the Historical Society, a blog "devoted to history for the academy and beyond."  A few days ago it led me to the blog of Professor John Fea, The Way of Improvement Leads Home, which then led me to post Fea had written for Patheos. In An Immigrant's Tale, Fea, who teaches a course called "Immigrant America", relates his experiences conducting an oral history interview with his 100-year-old grandfather, who came to America from Italy in 1913.

I don't know if Professor Fea would admit to being interested in "genealogy," but that is essentially what he did when he interviewed his grandfather. It's nice to know I'm not the only historian who has a foot in both camps. 


image credit: Alextrevelian 006

2 comments:

John Fea said...

Amanda: Thanks for the post! While I identify myself as a historian, I have certainly found genealogy to be immensely helpful in my research. The interview with my grandfather was probably a mix of both history and genealogy since I was asking him both family history questions AND questions about the way he experiences American life and culture more broadly.

Thanks again for your post. I enjoyed finding out about your very interesting blog.

Amanda E. Epperson said...

I'm glad you enjoyed the post John. I always tell people that my interest in family history/genealogy is what led to my research specialty in immigration. Amanda