I don't remember a time when I didn’t know my family originated in Russia. I grew up eating kasha and beet borsch and creamed and pickled herring and honey cake and halvah.

My grandfathers were born in Russia. Although I never knew my grandfathers — they died before I was born — I knew my grandmothers. My maternal grandmother, Rose, lived with us. At times, she spoke Yiddish to my mom and dad and Aunt Pearl, and I learned a few words.

My paternal grandmother, Baba Masha, was born in Russia and had one child in Russia before emigrating to the U.S., to join her husband. My father was the first one in his family born in America. Baba Masha lived in Philadelphia. She spoke Yiddish and a little bit of English, and she read a Yiddish newspaper and drank hot tea from a glass.

But no one told me family history stories. It wasn’t until I was long in to adulthood that I realized I knew next to nothing about my family’s history, and by then, I wanted to know everything. But sadly, everybody who could tell me the stories had died. I did have boxes and boxes of photographs and a few other materials that I had never closely examined.

But when I learned I’d be moving to Moscow, I began to investigate.

At left, Chai Malka and Israel Victor Iskowitz, the author's paternal great-grandparents. At right, Masha Iskowitz Abramowitz (Abrams) and David Ephraimovitz Abramovitz (Abrams), the author's paternal grandparents.


At left, Harold Abramowitz (Abrams), Florence Esther Josephson, Sarah Kate Abrams and Debra Josephson Abrams, the author, her parents and her sibling. At right, Rose Dutkin Josephson and Sam Josephson, the author's maternal grandparents.


I moved to Moscow in September 2016 to live and work as a U.S. Department of State English Language Fellow (ELF), the first fellow at the Higher School of Economics. I’ve just completed my first semester working with graduate students studying to become English teachers, interpreters and translators — students with whom I’ll continue working in the spring, when we focus on public speaking.

It is my longing for my family history, my desire to provide my students the opportunity to capture their own stories, the pleasure I receive from "StoryCorps," and my preparation for teaching public speaking that inspired me to develop this activity.

Personal narratives, both written and spoken, have a long tradition in classes at all levels, including in kindergarten. The London School of Journalism, the University of Exeter, the University of Tasmania, Arizona State University and Boston University are among many colleges and universities offering courses and even certificates in personal and family history writing and genealogical research.

Librarian Carmen Nigro, of the New York Public Library, identifies 20 reasons to write one's family history and offers valuable resources to do so. "First-person narratives and family histories are important historical documents," Nigro observes. "You are an important person. You and your family are important to somebody, probably many somebodies."

Russia and its people have stories to tell. Russia is vast, with a land mass covering roughly 7 million square miles, the largest country on Earth, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans and from Europe to Asia, spanning tundra, subtropical beaches, forests and 11 time zones. However, Russia's population is only 145 million, of which nearly 18 million live in the mega-city of Moscow.

In Russia's 2010 census, there are nearly 200 national and/or ethnic groups represented along with the major groups: Russian, Tatar, Ukrainian, Bashkir, Chuvash and Chechen. Others are not specified or not identified in the census. I have, for example, a student who is Tuvan, from the semi-nomadic Turkic Tuva people of southern Siberia with a history in China and Mongolia and who have a genetic connection to some of America’s first indigenous peoples.

Over the millennia, borders in this part of the world have been amorphous. Although my paternal grandfather’s Army papers clearly state that he was born in Grodno, Russia and served in the Russian Army from 1901-1905, Grodno is now part of Belarus, where the city is Hrodno. Belarus was formerly Byelorussia, formerly Poland-Lithuania, formerly ... well, you get the idea. Yes, my students and their families have stories to tell.

I’ve been listening to StoryCorps on NPR’s "Morning Edition" since the weekly broadcasts began in 2005. "StoryCorps' mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world."

Over the years, StoryCorps has expanded to include the September 11 Initiative, the Military Voices Initiative, StoryCorps Historias, the StoryCorps Justice Project, which focuses on "documenting the experiences of youth of color in the juvenile and adult justice system in New York City," StoryCorps OutLoud, "dedicated to recording and preserving LGBTQ stories across America," the Memory Loss Initiative, the Griot Initiative, and StoryCorps U, a "cross-disciplinary, youth-development program" for high school students.

While StoryCorps U offers an outstanding curriculum, it isn’t geared to my purposes, so I designed my own multipart, multiskill activity.

Part 1: Who am I?

Key terms: genealogy; naming traditions; DNA; family tree

Large group discussion

On the board, create a mind map of students’ responses to:

  • What do you know about genealogy, naming traditions, DNA and family trees?
  • Does your family tell family history stories?

Examine the terms genealogy, naming traditions, DNA and family tree, and define the terms together.

Individually

Students write answers to:

  • What’s your full name? Are you named after someone? Who is it? Why are you named after that person or those people?
  • Do your family, culture and/or religion have naming traditions? What are they?
  • Does your name have a meaning? What is it?
  • When and where were you born? Do you know what time and day you were born?
  • Have you had your DNA tested? Is it popular to do in your culture or country? Why/why not? Do you want to have your DNA tested? Why or why not?

Pairs/small group (no more than three/group)

Students share their answers (or as many as they're comfortable sharing) to the questions above.

Large group discussion

Do you want to have your DNA tested? Why or why not?

Part 2: Who is my family?

Pairs/small groups (no more than three/group)

Students tell each other what they know about their families and what they want to know.

Students create a family tree; include details of each member.

Individually

Students freewrite about a family member (living or dead), focusing not only on obvious details but also on stories they know and things they wonder about the person.

Students create a list of information they want to know about the person and write about why they want to know the information.

Students create a list of questions to ask the person. If the person is dead, students also create a list of people who they can ask about the person.

Pairs/small groups (no more than three/group)

Students share the list of information they want to know and why they want to know and their list of questions.

Classmates offer insights and suggestions for additional questions or different questions.

Part 3: Listening to StoryCorps

All students listen to all three of these interviews (as often as they need to), take notes, identify vocabulary they want to learn and answer: What essential messages and lessons have you learned from these interviews?

Students listen to one of the following interviews (individual student choice), take notes, identify vocabulary they want to learn and answer: Why did you choose to listen to the interview you did? What essential messages and lessons have you learned from these interviews?

Part 4: Setting the stage

Ask students what they think the next step of the activity will be.

Students make predictions: What do they think they will learn about the person?

Students make arrangements to interview the family member they have identified as wanting to know more about: Students will need to have the family member’s agreement to participate and be recorded.

Tell students that eventually, they will make a presentation about the person they’re investigating, so students should collect photographs and other personal items to use to bring their presentation to life.

Part 5: The interview and reflection

Students conduct the recorded interview; ask for photographs and personal items of the person they’re investigating.

Following the interview, students review the information they’ve gathered and discern if they need to ask follow up questions. If they do, they arrange for a second interview.

When the interview is complete, students compare their predictions to the answers they’ve received and reflect upon what they’ve learned.

  • What has surprised them?
  • What have they learned?
  • What do they want to learn more about?
  • With what other family members would they like to conduct interviews, and why?

Part 6: Presentation

Students prepare and present a PowerPoint presentation based on their family member.

Classmates respond to each presentation by listing what else they’d like to know about the family member.

Part 7: Reflection

Students write a reflection about what they've learned from this activity.

As you design your own version of this family history project, you can use online rubric creators, including Rubistar, iRubric and Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything, and the umbrella site for rubrics, The Best Free Online Rubric Makers to produce the assessments you need.

As I learned too late, compiling family history becomes increasingly valuable and challenging as we age, which has been a compelling reason for me to develop this activity. In his StoryCorps interview about accompanying his mother, an interfaith chaplain, to minister to the residents of the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center near Boston, 9-year-old William Chambers tells his mother, "[Visiting with the elderly] made me think you should enjoy life as much as you can 'cause it won’t happen forever."

And exactly because life won't happen forever, we should capture its stories — our stories — while we can.