Attendees gather for hands-on autobituary attempt.
Dick Sussman, 2021 Founder of the Genealogy Club
A time-tested “show biz” maxim knowingly conveys, “Give people what they want to experience, and they’ll turn out in droves.” After being founded in October of 2021, our club rapidly achieved large membership tallies of lineage-seeking, family tree-building residents. In the vein of the above-mentioned maxim, our club’s board soon unanimously decided that we would operate at full capacity during every month year-round, therefore including the Summers of 2022, 2023, and now 2024. By contrast, the great majority of our nation’s genealogy clubs in senior-oriented communities are effectively inactive all summer. Our successful and rewarding Summer Roundtables format has proven to be fascinating and intriguing for all QC attendees each summer. Such meetings (housed in the Kino Center’s marvelously air-conditioned rooms) amount to very pleasant and enriching summer hours spent with new friends and neighbors.
The room’s tables are arranged for six or more separate groups, with an assigned member of our leadership team (the day’s highly experienced moderator) front and center, explaining and guiding the event’s topic of the day. Hands-on, attendees learn to compose their lineage facts and family stories and ways to pass them on!
These roundtable sessions are always highly social and lively with plenty of inevitable humor as attendees recount usual, and unusual, lineage discoveries and memories.
This year’s June and July events were both themed as “Summer Fun With Family Facts,” lineage story writing based on memories and precious family photos. August’s meeting, intriguingly announced as “Remembering Me Through My Eyes,” explored the important six practical reasons many informed seniors decide to write an autobituary (a self-penned obit) rather than leaving the composing to a friend, grieving relative, or staff reporter, all of whom will incompletely know what to write. For a grieving family, your providing of a finished autobituary is a genuine blessing. They’ll be assured that you approved it and left nothing of factual and emotional significance unsaid.
Published (or privately shared) obits become part of the legacies passed down to many future generations of one’s lineage. You’ll appreciate knowing that August’s well-attended session included plenty of “how to” guidance and handouts regarding obits. These handouts are now always permanently available to all interested residents for the asking. Simply type into your URL option box this link: tinyurl.com/2bys9y2v, which colorfully describes our club in depth and provides contact info for the handouts and any questions you may have for us.
And be sure to thoroughly browse our club’s website by visiting QCGenealogy.com. You’ll find page-top sections there featuring literally thousands of lineage researching and resource documents and videos that we amassed in our mission to serve QC residents and first-time visitors.