Robert W. Galler, Jr is a resident of St. Cloud and a Professor of History at SCSU. The oral history research his students conduct in his History 141 course allow families to teach us important lessons.
Each fall when I teach my U.S. history survey course (from the Civil War to the Present), my students conclude the semester by digging into their own family histories. While many know about their contemporary family members here in Minnesota and across the nation, most report learning fascinating new elements of their family’s past. Asking questions over Thanksgiving dinner tables produced new perspectives on their relatives, and thereby a new dimension to their own life stories. If college is a time in life to chart pathways and imagine new life goals, this exercise helps them to look forward from a deeper context of their own family histories.
As I have reported in previous years, not too surprisingly, SCSU students are a diverse lot of individuals who arrive from families of varied ethnicities, religious traditions, experiences, and service to their communities and country. My unscientific survey from this fall’s class alone revealed ancestry from nearly two dozen nations. While many came from German or Norwegian heritage, other students claimed family members also from Finland, Japan, Mexico, Vietnam, Poland, Somalia, and other countries. Some students attend SCSU as foreign exchange students and others can reach back five to six generations in their family trees into the 1700s.
Like immigrants arriving today, our students’ relatives faced numerous challenges in the processes. They had escaped civil war, religious persecution, Anti-Semitism, and poverty—while also leaving behind loved ones. Some came via refugee camps, as orphans, or with family members through Ellis Island. Their ancestors frequently lived in Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and many other states prior to settling in Minnesota.
Like many Americans, Husky relatives exhibited cultural persistence and social adaptations. Many spoke their native languages like German for the first few decades, but over time the next generation became proficient at English. Still, they continued to attend churches, synagogues, and mosques; maintained family traditions in farming, and introduced traditional delicacies like lefse and lutefisk to their children.
SCSU students come from people who made varied contributions to American society and the economy. They worked for car companies in Detroit, the granite industry in Melrose, served as a longshoreman in Duluth to support their families. One relative hunted and trapped to earn money to buy Minnesota farmland, others gained land through the Homestead Act, and many raised large families on those farms. Others were entrepreneurs, and opened businesses including a bakery in St. Paul. One even ended up in jail for selling whiskey during Prohibition.
Students learned about family members who contribute to this nation. Many learned of military service in their family histories. Huskies have relatives who stormed the beaches at Normandy on D-Day, participated in the Battle of Britain, and served as a Green Beret in Vietnam. Others joined suffragists in promoting the right to vote for women, formed the first Jewish synagogue in St. Paul, or worked for civil rights.
As psychologists note, one of the key factors for success in life is an understanding of how one’s family includes individuals who overcame challenges in life. Those who see themselves as a part of a larger group meet more success in life. The study of family history can help us all see ourselves as part of a larger group who contributed experiences and skills to our community. When we ask questions about ourselves and our past, lessons emerge to help us move forward.
