SampleIssue

a history and genealogy

magazine for children

Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln:a tribute to our 16th president

How Do I Create My Family Tree?:

Tips and Ideas for Beginners

Noblesville: Who Was Pete Smith?

June 2009

Archaeology: Connecting the Past with the Present

The

History

Tree

Plus, poems, games and so much more!

The History Tree MagazineSample Issue

June 2009

The History Tree Magazine, LLCPO Box 146

Carmel, IN 46082

www.thehistorytreeonline.com

Co-founder/Editor: Katie Potterkpotter@thehistorytreeonline.com

Co-founder/Editor: Valerie Moorevmoore@thehistorytreeonline.com

©2009. The History Tree Magazine, LLC.All Rights Reserved.

“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.”

-Alex Haley, author of Roots

Who Are You? Getting Started pg. 4

Happy Birthday, Mr. Lincoln pg. 6

Archaeology Connects the Past with the Present pg. 8

Who Was Pete Smith? pg. 10

Lincoln: a poem pg. 7

Karla’s Pick: Little House in the Big Woods pg. 14

Table of Contents

3

the

historytree

Sample IssueJune 2009

Who are you? Your Family History:

How and Where to Get Started!By Katie Potter

Do you know who you are? Really? Of course you know your name, your favorite things to do, your favorite food and things like that. But who are you?

What does your last name mean? Why did your parents give you your first name? What was your mother’s last name before she married your dad? What does that last name mean? Have you ever been told you look just like so-and-so? Just who is that

so-and-so? So, I’ll ask you again. Who are you? Well, researching your family history is a good way to find out.

I’ve been researching my family history since I was sixteen years old. Starting out at such a young age gave me a huge advantage in uncovering information about my family. I have been able to talk to one great-grandmother, two grandparents, one great-great aunt and countless great-aunts

and uncles about what it was like “back then.” Not only that, but many times they have told me priceless memories of other ancestors that have long since passed.

Over the past eight years that I’ve spent digging up my family history, I’ve encountered several other genealogists (that’s the fancy term for a family history detective). The majority of them had one

thing in common: they were all over the age of fifty. As a young genealogist, I was a loner. Which led me to ask, why do people wait so long to learn about where they come from? If we wait, we run the risk of losing many valuable people with whom we could have spoken, and once that happens, a huge chunk of your family history is lost forever. Your ancestors may become merely names to you, and you will have

lost the chance to learn their stories – to find out what they were really like. Don’t let that happen to your family! Because I have news for you -- you are not your own. You

are a composite of every ancestor that’s gone before you. Your hair is from them, your smile, your eyes, your mannerisms, even your accent. Every experience they had has shaped who you are today. And I’ve

got some exciting news for you – you can start learning about them right now, while you’re young, while many of your family members are still living. Your grandmother may right now be just a little old woman who gives you a light kiss on the cheek every time you see her, about whom you know nothing. But you’d be surprised by the kind of stories she has to tell. So go ahead,

ask her! Ask her about her parents and her grandparents; ask her about her childhood. Ask your grandpa too; and your parents and your aunts and uncles. If they live far away,

write them a letter! Everyone in your family has a story to tell, and with every person you talk to, you piece together the story of your family.

So ask away. And when you learn about the stories your family has to tell, share them with the rest of us. But make sure you have permission first – some things we like to

keep to ourselves and that’s okay. We need to respect that. But if you do receive permission, write up your story and send it on in. We would love to hear what you’ve learned. And who knows, maybe a story from your family

will show up in our next issue. So what are you waiting for? Go call your grandma!

4

5

1. Ask an older member of your family about an exciting

event in their childhood. Perhaps it was their favorite birthday or holiday, or maybe it was just an everyday game they

loved to play with their siblings. Record them telling the story and pay special attention to the sensory details they give. What season

was it? What kind of sights and sounds were involved? Then write the story down as fast as you can – just write what comes to you. These

sentences will be the most striking parts of the story to you. Then revise. Change words, move sentences, and add more details. Con-

gratulations! You have successfully preserved a valuable piece of your family history.

ENG 4.5.1, 4.4.10, 4.4.11, 4.4.12

2. Perhaps the simplest, most telling question you can

ask a relative is, “Where are you from?” Where a person is from can usually tell

you a lot about them. Once you know, do a little sleuthing on that place. Find out the

history of the county and the town. When was it founded, and by whom? What kind of traditions

do the people of the area celebrate? Does your relative have memories of these traditions?

There are many resources that can tell you about loca-tions all across the world. Look in print and online encyclopedias, county websites, even contact the

county historian. Make sure you give proper citation to your sources! Ask your teacher for a book or website to show you how.

ENG 4.4.6, 4.4.7

TRY THIS!

We want to know what you learn!

Send your submissions to us by mail at

The History Tree Magazine, LLC

PO Box 146

Carmel, IN 46082

Happy

Birthday,

Mr. Lincoln

By Steve Mayhew,

retired US History

teacher

On February 12, 2009 a birthday celebra-tion was held in the small town of Hodgenville, Kentucky to honor their native son, Abraham Lin-coln. Lincoln was born in a small log cabin about two miles from the high school gymnasium that on this day was hosting the bicentennial birthday affair. The small gym was only about half-filled as local citizens, a couple of Lincoln impersona-tors, and some state officials, including the gov-ernor, filed in around mid-morning to honor the former president. The school band and several speakers contributed to the occasion and to the Lincoln legacy, making all who attended proud to be there on that bright, crisp Thursday morning. But why should this occasion make us feel proud? Could it be that Lincoln possessed many of the qualities that we all strive for in our lives today? From such a humble beginning, Lincoln not only rose to the presidency, but he led a di-vided nation through a bitter civil war to preserve the nation established by our forefathers. In her book, A Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin describes how Lincoln showed great patience and coping skills in working with politicians, many of whom felt superior to him. His ability to prioritize, look at the big picture, problem solve, and effec-tively converse with his political rivals, allowed him to win many politicians over to his way of thinking, thus helping to compromise the radi-cal solutions of the civil war proposed by others. At the beginning of the Civil War, Lin-coln felt that his top priority was to preserve the union at any cost; whether that meant having the country half slave, or with slavery allowed eve-rywhere, or with slavery not allowed anywhere. It did not make any difference to him as long as

the union of all the states was kept intact. Winning the war proved difficult, so he enlarged the scope of the war to also emancipate the slaves in those states still in rebellion against the union. He figured this would keep England out of the war since they had outlawed slavery years before. He assumed Eng-land would trade less with the south which would hurt the south’s economy, and hopefully would cause the war to come to a swifter conclusion. This meant that slavery would still be legal in the border states of Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware and Mary-land, as long as they stayed in the union. Lincoln simply did what he had to do to achieve his goals. Another problem Lincoln had to confront was deal-ing with northern generals that proved ineffective in winning battles. As Commander-In-Chief he used a variety of ways to confront, encourage, plead, and even threaten his officers to press on to win the war. This shifting of generals finally produced the winning ways needed to bring about victory in April of 1865. It had been a costly war−over half a million soldiers on both sides were killed. Millions of eman-cipated slaves were set free, but with nowhere to live or work as the solutions to their freedom had not been totally worked out. And most importantly, what would become of the defeated and destroyed south? Unfortunately Lincoln’s leadership was not to be had for this important chapter in American his-tory. An assassin’s bullet at a theater ended his life shortly after Grant’s big victory over Lee. As politicians scrambled to deal with the aftermath of the war without Lincoln, most would fall short of Lincoln’s abilities to lead a stricken nation, heal its wounds, and begin to establish a just and last-ing code of civil rights for all Americans. Ironi-cally it took exactly one hundred years to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1965, to end the segrega-tion of race, which finally made Lincoln’s Eman-cipation Proclamation of the slaves a reality. We as a people and a country should feel grateful to Lincoln for setting us on the right course during this difficult time in our nation’s history, to be the democratic nation we were intended to be. All we have to do is to revisit Lincoln’s Gettysburg Ad-dress or his second Inaugural Address to realize that personal or national victories aren’t enough. In the end our country can’t just be about winning a war 6

Check for Comprehension:

1. What is the main idea of this piece?

2. The author shows in this piece his great ad-miration for the character of Abraham Lincoln. What is your opinion of some of the decisions

Lincoln made, such as emancipating the slaves?

3. The author mentions “Grant’s big victory over Lee.” Who are Grant and Lee, and what

did this victory mean for America?

SS 4.1.7, English 4.2.9

and setting up a democracy that insures only per-sonal liberties. We must be committed to do more, to carry on the Lincoln legacy of reaching out and caring for the less fortunate; for if we don’t, we could have a country where most people just fend for themselves, and sadly not a country that we or Lincoln could be very proud of, or a country that re-ally lives out the true meaning of the word democ-racy. To continue to grow and prosper as a nation, Lincoln had it right when he closed with…. “and the government of the people, by the people, and for (all) the people, shall not perish from the earth.” As I sat in that small Kentucky gymnasium on the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, all these kinds of thoughts ran through my mind that day, and I felt closer to one of our greatest Americans than I ever had before. I was proud of what Lin-coln’s hometown did and what Indiana, Illinois, and our nation’s capital did that day to honor the soft spoken man who with the homespun ways saved a nation and set it on a better course than our forefa-thers had dreamed of. Driving back to my home in central Indiana, I wondered how the next hun-dred years would go for our country. Would we be faced with such new and huge challenges that our country would need another Lincoln? Only time would tell. But on that day, I was glad to have had the opportunity to be a part of the cele-bration to honor Abraham Lincoln and his ideals.

Lincoln: a PoemBy Allie Wright, Carmel Elementary

Abraham Lincoln was a jolly good fellow,

Who was born on February 12, 1809 in a cabin that was built out of logs.

Abe Lincoln’s grandfather was killed,And Abe wrote “when he was

laboring to open a farm in the forest.”In 1816 the Lincolns moved to Indiana “partly on account of

slavery.”But when Lincoln became the 16th

President of the USA he put slavery to an end!

Digging deeper:

What does the author mean by “from such a humble beginning”? What do you know about Lincoln’s childhood? Find

a book in your library and read a lit-tle about what it was like when he was growing up. What kind of impact did

these circumstances have on his character and ideals?

7

There are many ways in which you can con-nect with your ancestors. You might look at old pho-tographs, read family history documents, listen to sto-ries told by your relatives, and more. Have you ever thought, however, about how archaeology can help you understand the past and make that connection?

Archaeology is the study of past lifeways, cultures, and the investigation of what items peo-ple have left behind. Cultures are studied which may take us back in time hundreds of years, and archaeologists analyze things which you might not have even thought of or learned about! Perhaps some relatives have talked about what it was like to attend a one room schoolhouse. Can you imagine going to a school with just a few

fellow students and learning all together in one room? Archaeologists record one room schoolhous-es which might still exist, and their investigations can tell us about the activities which took place and what types of items the students might have used. We can, therefore, compare how today’s learning en-vironment might have differed from that of the past. Have you ever heard your relatives talk about the way things used to be? Has Grandma ever shared with you the types of toys that she used to play with? Archaeological investigations help us learn how things have changed, and perhaps how things have stayed much the same in terms of our everyday items. For example, look at the glass marbles (left, d) which were recovered from a historical archae-ological site in southern Indiana. They look like marbles which you might play with today. Howev-er, look at a-c, which are fragments of ceramic pipe bowls. We don’t see people smoking using items just like these today do we? The photograph below shows some broken pieces of a doll dating to the early 1900s which has been found at an archaeolog-ical site in Indianapolis. She doesn’t resemble dolls that young people might play with today, does she?

Archaeology Connects the Past with the Present

by Amy Johnson, Senior Archaeologist and Archaeology Outreach Coordinator,

Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology

8

Think about wanting to wash your hands. Hundreds of years ago, you might have had to gather your water from a brick lined well in the backyard. What hap-pened though, when the well was no longer needed? Often it was filled in with dirt, and trash, and the items which were deposited there can now lead ar-chaeologists to tantalizing clues about the everyday lives of our ancestors. The archaeologist in this picture (above right) is down in an excavated well handing out items that were found in the bottom.Try and connect your past with the present. Visit an archaeological investigation and actually help with the activities which will be happening at a “dig.”

Some things from the past might have been dis-cussed with you, but maybe you don’t know much about them. For example, when you hear about out-houses or a privy, do you know what that means? Many young people today might not realize that for many, many years, houses didn’t have bathrooms in the actual house! Try and imagine that if you had to go to the bathroom, you needed to go outside to find the “little house out back.” Archaeologists some-times discover lots of information from digging in places even such as these! Look at the brick founda-tion (below) that shows the outline of a former out-house in Indianapolis. Within the soil that was used as fill was a good deal of interesting artifacts that fell or were thrown in. It is not always the glamor-ous type of adventure that you might see in movies, but the science of archaeology can help us appreci-ate the secrets that even unusual places have to share.

Maybe you can screen for, and find, artifacts like the young people shown here. Piecing together the puz-zle of the past is important, and can help us under-stand the world in which your ancestors lived!

To learn more about archaeology, and how you can become involved, get your parents’ permission to visit the following webpages:

http://www.nps.gov/archeology/PUBLIC/ kids/index.htm

http://www.saa.org/ForthePublic/FunforAllAges/tabid/92/Default.aspx

http://www.in.gov/dnr/historic/3676.htm

http://www.sha.org/EHA/splash.cfm

Photograph Credits:

Artifacts- fromRotman, Deborah L.1998 Archaeology and Preservation at the Ben Schroeder Saddletree Factory and Residence: Deciphering Nearly a Century of Domestic and Industrial Activity. Archaeological Resources Management Service, Ball State University.

Doll, outhouse foundation, and well- fromMullins, Paul2009 Ransom Place Archaeology, African-American Culture, Consumption, and Race in the Circle City. Electronic document, http://www.iupui.edu/~anthpm/ransom.html, ac-cessed April 28, 2009. Department of Anthropology, IUPUI.

9

No matter how completely people may believe their local history has been recorded, there are always stories that get left out. Pete Smith and his contri-bution to the city of Noblesville is one of those stories. Smith was a Black man and was the first non-Indian to live in the Noblesville area. It was through his efforts that the first white settlers were able to survive. He left no records himself and the information we do have is based

on reminiscences written down sixty years or more after the fact. Nevertheless, his story illustrates some important facts about the early settlement of the area and should be told if we are to understand how this community was created. What we know of his life begins in the year 1819. The Treaty of St. Mary’s, signed in 1818 between the Delaware Indians and the federal government, had opened the land that would become Hamilton County for settlement by whites. There were some non-Indians already living here – fur traders such as William Conner, who had arrived in 1802 and had helped to negotiate the treaty. With the signing of the treaty, the fur traders either left for new territory or, like Conner, began working to purchase government land to resell to later settlers. In April of 1819, a group of these settlers set out from southern Indiana to stake a claim in the new territory. The group was made up of the Finch, Shirts, Bush, and Chapman families, along with some other individuals. Originally from places like New York, Penn-sylvania, and New England, they came to this area via the Lafayette Trace. This was an ancient Indian trail that came up from the Whitewater River valley through what would become New Castle and Anderson, crossed the White River at Straw-town, and continued northwest to the Wabash River and the area that would be-come Lafayette. The group turned south when they reached the White River and followed another Indian trail to a large bend in the river where there had once been a Delaware village. The cleared flat land in this bend was perfect to begin farming and was called Horseshoe Prairie. The group set up tents to live in until they could get cabins built. In order to be able to purchase the land, the settlers would have to make improvements – build a house, clear the land, and begin growing crops. They almost immediately suffered a disaster. A limb broke off of a tree, falling on one of the tents and shattering most of the dinnerware that the group had brought with them. It was an inauspicious beginning. However, they persevered and began to create a community in the wilderness. It was at this time that Pete Smith appeared. There were some Delaware Indian families who had not left the area yet. Smith was living with one of the families

WHO WAS PETE SMITH?

The Mystery of Noblesville’s

First Settler

By David Heighway,Hamilton County Historian

10

and simply showed up at the settlement one day. Described later as “fine looking” and “intelligent”, Smith attracted attention since no one expected to see a Black man in this area. He introduced himself, but told the settlers nothing about where he had come from or why he was there. At first, they weren’t quite sure what to make of this man, but he soon proved his worth. One day in June, after visiting friends, Mehitabel Chapman Finch left her mud-dy shoes outside of her cabin. When she looked for them later, they were gone. This was of serious concern, as that was her only pair of shoes. The nearest place to buy shoes was Connersville, sixty miles away, and the Finches had no money to buy them with. Some Delaware Indians still remaining in the area were suspected to be the thieves and the settlers wanted to confront them. However, Pete Smith intervened and asked the settlers not to take any action. He told Mrs. Finch just to be patient and her shoes would come back to her. The settlers decided to take him at his word and did nothing. The next morning, her shoes reappeared at the cabin door. Smith refused to say what he had done or where the shoes had come from, but, as one settler later said, “He was the hero of the little colony”. It was very fortunate he took the action he did. A few years later, a confrontation between the Indians and another group of settlers would end in horrific tragedy and become known as the Massacre on Fall Creek. He became a trusted friend of the settlers and proved his worth again and again. That summer, the settlement was ravaged by malaria. George Shirts’s wife was the first to die and Smith helped Shirts to raise his corn. Others would die and many would be too sick to work. Smith continued to help but the food began to run short. The settlement survived by buying corn from William Conner. He charged them $1.00 a bushel, roughly the price of a full deerskin. The sickness subsided at the beginning of the cold weather when the mosquitoes, which caused it, disappeared. In 1820, Smith worked for William Conner raising corn, as well as doing some trapping on his own. 1820 was a busy year for William Conner. In May, at a meeting at his house, the site for the capital of the state was chosen and would be named Indianapolis. In August, most of the Delaware Indians left Indiana. A few stayed in Hamilton County and established homesteads. Conner’s wife, a Dela-ware named Mekinges, left with her people – taking with her the six children she and Conner had produced. Conner stayed behind, and three months later, married Elizabeth Chapman, Mehitabel Finch’s sister and the only available white woman 11

in the area. In all probability, Smith was helping the settlers and working for Conner because he planned to stay with the settlement. He did not leave with the Indians when he had the opportunity to do so. He may have been planning to establish his own home and farm. Sadly, this was not to happen. By 1821, land buyers were coming in from all over to speculate in these newly

available western lands. Early that year, a man came up from Kentucky to purchase land to resell. Accord-ing to later accounts, he saw Smith, returned to Kentucky, and soon reappeared in this area with a gang of men and some sort of papers saying that Pete Smith was his runaway slave. Smith said that he didn’t even know the

man. The settlers and the Indians confronted the Kentuckian and as one of them later said, “It created intense excitement and there might have been a lynching of the slave-hunters”. However, at this point, William Conner happened on the scene. Conner was a man of influence in the county and the settlers appealed to him to intervene to free Smith. Conner would disappoint them. He examined the Kentuckian’s papers and then announced that they were legally correct. He said that if anyone attempted to stop the Kentuckian, they would be guilty of breaking the law. The settlers were anti-slavery, but law-abiding, and without this support, there was nothing they could do. Conner also warned the Indians that any action they would take might bring a military response. The Kentuckian and his gang then took Smith away. The settlers never heard from him again. Not long after this, Conner sold the corn that Smith had raised for him. The settlers would soon experience for themselves the difference between what was legal and what was right. They had been improving their lands so that they could buy them from the government. In 1822, William Conner’s brother, John, would go to the land office in Connersville and buy their land out from beneath them. He allowed them to stay on the land just long enough to harvest their crops. Most of them moved to Wayne Township. In 1823, William Conner and Josiah Polk established the town of Noblesville just north of the old settlement at Horse-shoe Prairie. Was Pete Smith a runaway slave? We will never know the answer, but some guesses can be made. Since Smith made no attempt to leave after the first appear-ance of the Kentuckian, it would seem unlikely that he knew the man. Then what was happening when the Kentuckian claimed Smith? Tragically, there are many

Digging Deeper William Conner’s old home has been preserved at

the living history museum Conner Prairie in Fishers. There is also a reenacted Delaware

(Lenape) village onsite. Visit Conner Prairie with Pete Smith in mind. Imagine him there and what life was like when he lived among the Delaware Indians

and the new white settlers.

12

instances in early American history of slave-hunters kidnapping free Blacks out of the free states. A man like Pete Smith would have been worth a lot of money in the slave markets. The documents used to capture slaves were often rudimentary de-scriptions that might have applied to anyone. Any solitary Black male was a likely target. It was possible that Smith was actually just a trapper and fur trader. His easy familiarity with the area and his ability to communicate with the Indians suggests that he had been living here for some time. There were other examples of Blacks in the Old Northwest who were fur traders, the most famous being Jean Baptiste Du Sable, the first settler of Chicago. It is encouraging that the settlers tried to stand up for Smith. When they talked about him in their later reminiscences, they would describe him as having a “good disposition”, “a kind heart”, “ready to assist”, and “thoroughly honest”. One hopes that Smith did not end his days on a Kentucky plantation. There may be a clue un-covered by a group called Indiana Freedom Trails, which is dedicated to the study of the Underground Railroad in Indiana. They have found a story about a slave named Peter escaping from a Kentucky slave owner in August of 1821. He was nearly recaptured in 1825 in Wayne County, Indiana. However, a group of local people broke into the jail where he was held and freed him. He escaped and was not heard from again. To live out his days in freedom would be much more fitting for Pete Smith, No-blesville’s first settler.

Sources consulted:Helm’s History of Hamilton County, 1880, p. 34Noblesville Independent, March 11, 1887, p. 1, article by A. F. ShirtsLetter from James G. Finch, December 18, 1893Indianapolis News, March 19, 1896, p. 5, article about Fabius M. FinchIndianapolis News, April 2, 1896, p. 8, letter by A. F. ShirtsIndianapolis Journal, December 18, 1898, p. 17, article by James G. Finch

SS 4.1.6, ENG 4.2.9

Check for Comprehension - How would you describe the population of Hamilton

County, Indiana around the year 1819? - What happened in 1820 that drastically changed the popu-

lation? - Can you summarize in your own words the impact Smith

had on the settlers and the future of Hamilton County?- What do you think would have happened if the white set-

tlers had rejected Smith’s help?

13

14

This magazine you hold in your hands is one of the first of many issues of The History Tree. It is appropriate, then, that we start by talking of another first- the first book of the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Little House in the Big Woods, which is what the first book is called, tells the story of a little girl called Laura, who lives in the woods of Wisconsin. Life, as Laura knew it, was very different from what we know it to be now. With our worlds so connected when it comes to TVs, radios, cell phones and other things, it’s easy to forget that at one point people would spend months without talking to someone other than their own family members, and that lives were kept busy by doing chores that gave their lives purpose. Laura, for example, had to “Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, Rest on Sunday.” I remember that after the very first time I read Little House in the Big Woods, my mother decided to cook pancakes. She passed me the syrup, and I discovered how much more I knew about syrup because of what Wilder wrote in her book- I knew that it came from a maple tree, the sap gets boiled until it gets to the right consistency, and that, for some families, collecting a good batch of syrup meant not having to go to town to buy some more. Though the Laura that is talked about in the book has the same name as the author of the book, their lives are a little bit different. Laura Ingalls Wilder shared many experiences with the girl from the book, and wrote down what stood out to her. Her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, helped Wilder write and edit the books that talk about many things Wilder herself experienced up until her first four years of married life. This book, the series it comes from, and the magazine that is introducing you to it, are all ways of connecting with the past in a way that helps you understand more what people felt, thought and experi-enced. I hope that in this magazine, and in this book, you find a way to connect, and I also hope to review many more books for you- happy reading!

KARLA’s PICK:Little House in the Big Woods

By Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little House in the Big Woods was first published

in 1932.

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born February 7, 1867 in

Wisconsin.

Little House in the Big Woods was the first book

publsihed by Wilder.

Karla Aguirre is an avid reader and writer. She loves sharing books with others and is excited to pick different books to share with chil-dren in The History Tree.

Have you read Little House in the Big Woods? Did you like it? Who was your favorite character?

If you haven’t read this book yet, you may want to visit your local library to borrow a copy.

15

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www.AmericanSrCommunities.com

BCA 91094

Volunteering in a senior community can be a very rewarding experience. Giving your time, talent and skills can truly make a difference in the lives of others. As a volun-teer, you could be that much needed friend, that ear who will listen about fascinating stories of the past and present.

Along with the word ‘volunteering’ comes many ideas and images about what it means to be a volunteer. In reality, it simply means being a friend. Many volunteers have reported a feeling of great pride and satisfaction knowing that they made some-one’s day a little easier, or a little brighter.

Seniors enjoy many of the same activities as you do. Here is a list to get you started thinking of some ideas. Remember, no idea is too big or too small!

If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering, call The History Tree at 317-437-3977.

The History Tree317-437-3977

Email: thehistorytree@yahoo.com

WITH THE HISTORY TREE

• Share stories

• Play tic-tac-toe

• Do a crossword puzzle

• Play checkers

• Put together a puzzle

• Engage in a trivia game

• Sing songs together

• Engage in a card game

• Drink afternoon tea

• Play board games

• Take a walk

• Scrapbook

• Show how a digital camera works and take fun photos together

• Watch a movie and pop popcorn

• Make fun things with clay

• Visit with small pets

• Share and compare family photos

• Be crafty with painting, flower arrangements and calligraphy

• Have a picnic