Exercise #2: Family Environmental History
Instructions
For Exercise #2, you will bring the environmental concepts home by looking at your own and your family environmental history.
Our lives and present environments are products of history. Our parents and grandparents grew up in very different environments from those of today. In our study of environmental history, it is helpful to think about our families’ past environments and their meaning for us today.
- Write an informal essay, between 700 and 1100 words, reflecting on your personal environmental history going back to your grandparents, parents, and your own generation. See the Exercise 2 Samples for a guide to this exercise.
- In formulating your response, consider the environments in which they and you have lived. Where were they located? What natural resources sustained your families and their communities? To what extent were those environments “natural” or human-made, native, or exotic (that is, transformed by European or other non-native species)? How have your families helped to transform their environments? Does your own ethnic and class heritage or gender play a role in the way you and your family have related to and valued the environment? How did the relationships your grandparents and parents had with their environments differ from the ones you have had in the past and wish to have in the future?
- Post your response by clicking ‘Add Submission’ below.
- Please note, you should write and edit your submission in a separate file then copy and paste it into the submission box. Once submitted to the HIST 3991 trubox site, you will not be able to edit your post.
Are you a student of HIST 3991? Click here to add a submission to this assignment.
Submissions
Family Environmental History
June 14, 2022 By: Brett Mathews
All four of my grandparents were first century European immigrants to Canada either during or post WWII. Three were from Holland, the other from either Poland or Ukraine, that Grandma is not sure about as the chaos of the war confused borders and she was young and fleeing. My Opa grew up in Apeldoorn, Holland. I know the most information about this grandparent so this paper will focus on him, then my mother, then myself. He was about 14-18 (oldest child of 10) during the years of Nazi occupation, his father was one of the leaders of the Jewish Rescue…
Family Environmental History
May 31, 2022 By: Tina Ihas
Like many people in North America, I am a Heinz 57. Both of my grandmothers were first-generation Canadians. My paternal Grandmother’s parents immigrated from Italy to Trail when they were teens. My Bisnonno (great Grandfather) and Bisnonna (great Grandmother) came to Canada with their large families and went on to have eight children of their own. Those eight children had more than 20 children, of which my Dad was one. Many of my Dad’s cousins remained in the area, working at Cominco and raising their families. When I was a child, it seemed as if everyone was Italian and everyone’s…
Family Environmental History
May 25, 2022 By: XUECHUN YAN
From my grandparents, parents, and ourselves, my family members have lived in different environments and had diverse experiences. It is acknowledgeable that environmental situations have changed immensely from my grandparents’ time to the way they are today.[1] The following section traces such changes, focusing on how each generation, starting from my grandparents on my mother’s side, my parents, and I have interacted with the environment. My grandparents have lived in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China, all their lives. They were born in the colonial era of Chinese history. Before the devastating effects, my grandfather recalls that they used to live in…
My Family Environmental History
May 14, 2022 By: Melissa Harding
My family is from all over western Canada, and have lived in a variety of different environments. My maternal grandmother was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, and my maternal grandfather was born in Bellevue, Alberta. He then lived on a small farm in that area before moving to Lethbridge. My maternal grandparents met living in Lethbridge and moved together to a few other small towns in Alberta before settling in Calgary, Alberta. My mother was born in Morinville, Alberta and moved to Calgary where, other than a short time in Grande Prairie, she has remained until present. My paternal grandmother was…
Family Environmental History
April 20, 2022 By: Charlotte Knudsen
My family history is a little all over the place. The majority of people in my family have been teachers, four people in total including my grandmother, grandfather, great aunt and great grandmother. I currently teach English as a second language remotely online to Korean adults, so I guess that it comes naturally in my family. Other members have been chefs, doctors, film workers and I also desire to work in film one day. I no longer have contact with anyone on my fathers side due to personal reasons. I do not know much about this side of the…