Family Geography Project

 

Cultural Geography -  GEOG  3340

 

 

You will write a 2-3 page paper AND make a Geographic Family Tree giving an overview of the geography of their family back to your great-grandparents, if you know it or if you can find the information.  SEE - Family Geography Tree Example  BELOW

 

 If you cannot complete all of this information, for whatever reason of family circumstance, do the best you can within the bounds of your personal situation.  (If you need help discuss your situation with the professor).

 

This is NOT designed to put names with your family members, only their geographic places of birth and places they lived or move to, resulting in the place where the next generation was born…and so on down to your birthplace and present place of residence.  Obviously this will entail calling or checking with older members of your family to find this geographic history. 

 

Also, discuss some of the cultural traditions brought down through time in your family, such as holiday traditions, such as types of foods, dances, legends, superstitions, special ways of doing things and legends.  You might be surprised at the cultural geographic information you might learn about your family

 

Finally analyze how this geographic knowledge of your family and their traditions have impacted you and your life in the present.  Submit your essay via WebCT E-mail.  BUT, bring your Family Geography Tree in hard copy to class.

 

Develop a three generation “geographic family tree” for your family indicating the places they came from locally (towns, city or county), regionally (Southeast, Northwest etc.), nationally.  You should NOT name names, just their relationship (mother, father, grandparents or great grandparents).  PLEASE USE the template example I have set out here to help you gather and present the information so as to keep your cultural tree simple.  Fill in as much of the information as you know OR can find out from talking to your relatives.

 

EXAMPLE:     (Note: Do the following using the "landscape" position on your word processor as seen below.


 

Mothers’ Side

Great Grandfather (paternal) – Dublin, Ohio

                                                                                    Grand Father – Cheyenne, Wyoming

Great Grandmother (paternal) – Chicago, Illinois

 

                                                                                    Mother – Houston, Texas

 

Great Grandfather (maternal) – St. Paul, Minnesota

                                                                                     Grand Mother – St. Paul, Minnesota

Great Grandmother (maternal) – St. Paul, Minnesota

 

                                                                                                                                                                        YOU (Atlanta, GA)

 

Father’s Side:

Great Grandfather (paternal) – Cherokee Nation, North Carolina

                                                                   Grandfather – Cherokee Nation, North Carolina

Great Grandmother (paternal) – Cherokee Nation, North Carolina

 

                                                                                                                                    Father – Rome, Georgia

 

 

Great Grandfather (maternal) – Gadsden, Alabama

                                                                    Grandmother – Gadsden, Alabama

Great Grandmother (maternal) – Bordeaux, France