Writing Workshop: Family Gatherings – Roen

Family gatherings can be small or large, and they occur for all sorts of reasons. For instance, some families gather at their grandparents’ house every weekend, spending hours in conversation and they prepare and then enjoy tasty recipes that have been passed down for generations. Some gather every weekend in the fall to watch a television broadcast of their college or professional football team’s games. Some gather every summer at the family’s vacation home to spend a week together—perhaps disconnected from any digital devices. Others have family reunions every two years. With the busy lives that many families live these days, even a week night dinner with immediate family members could be considered a family gathering. Some families use virtual meeting platforms so that family members can enjoy one another’s company even though they may be physically separated by thousands of miles. In this workshop, we will share our stories about the ways in which our families gather.

Duane Roen has been tracing his roots since his teenage years, building a database with more than 32,000 ancestors. He and his wife, Maureen Roen, have also been recording their family history since 1978 by writing more than 19,000 daily journal entries on their children and other family members. Combining his professional and personal interests, Duane worked with colleagues to establish courses on writing and recording family history at Arizona State University. He also is founding coordinator of the Project for Writing and Recording Family History in the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at ASU.

Click here to download and print the class handout