PRESENTATIONS BY CLAIRE GEBBEN,
author of The Last of the Blacksmiths and the family memoir How We Survive Here: Families Across Time

(these talks can include vivid powerpoint images using maps and art and photography, if projection is available)

Creating a Legacy from Family Papers and Genealogy
Many of us share a pressing concern: we possess family documents, artifacts, and oral histories, but have no idea what to do with them. This session examines formats, ideas, organizational tips, and inspiration to ensure the stories of our ancestors, and our own life stories, are not lost.

Explore the Rhineland-Palatinate
The wine-making Rheinland-Pfalz, or Rhineland-Palatinate, in southwest Germany is rich in history, museums, local festivals, and wine tours. This presentation offers an overview of the region, why so many left over the centuries, and sights to see today. An exploration of the region’s more intriguing aspects for travelers, genealogists, foodies, and anyone who enjoys learning about other cultures, places, and times.

Reading German Handwriting
Old German Gothic handwriting (known as Sütterlin or Suetterlin) and print are very different from the Roman script used in English-speaking countries. This 30-minute presentation offers resources to help us read, transcribe and learn Old German Gothic.

German Immigration Patterns
Since the 17th century, millions of German-speaking emigrants were leaving Europe for places far and wide, especially North America. Who were they? Why did they leave? The answer? It’s complicated. This talk explores waves of emigration in historical context, including wars, religious oppression, human and civil rights, weather, economics and other factors. Presentation also includes a look at patterns of settlement of German migrants on arrival in North America.

A Hidden Heritage: German Immigrants of the 19th Century
Nearly one-quarter of Americans claim some German ancestry. In the mid-19th century, millions of Germans came to the New World in search of a better life. What influence did these German Americans have on the culture, politics, education, economics and family life of the day? And what has become of them? Author of The Last of the Blacksmiths Claire Gebben shares insights uncovered while researching her novel about the buried legacy of the 19th century German immigrant experience.

From Pikeman to Pennsylvanian: Swiss Ancestral Origins
Investigating “Pennsylvania Dutch” origins can turn up fascinating stories. A pikeman was a soldier in an elite Swiss fighting force. Claire Gebben’s maternal great grandmother, Annie Elizabeth Salome Line Lindsey, was a fifth generation descendant of Swiss pikeman Henry Carpenter / Zimmerman (1673-1750) and his wife Maria Salome Rufener (1675-1743), emigrants to William Penn’s Pennsylvania province in 1706. Evidence of the Zimmerman / Carpenter ancestral story was at first conflicting and scanty at best, but a deeper dive uncovered an unexpected bounty of family history and the Swiss German legacy. In this presentation Claire shares their story, as well as often-untapped resources and glimpses of the adventurous lives and times of some of the earliest Swiss settlers to North America.

For the Record: Memoir, Oral History & Family Life Stories
Your life and family stories comprise an important legacy, but writing them down gets complicated with decisions– which format to choose (memoir? autobiography? genealogical narrative?), what to include, what to leave out, and more. In “For the Record,” author and archivist Claire Gebben leads participants through exercises and strategies for writing about the past, especially in the creation of memoir. This session guides you to the art, and heart of telling your story.

Getting It Down: Writing Family and Life Stories
Writing family and life stories ensures that our knowledge will be shared, inspires others to care, and keeps important traditions alive. Getting it down on the page means digging deeper into what it was really like in past times, adding to the why and how of our ancestors, and how we got to where we are today. Presentation provides tips and techniques for digging deeper into former times, via primary sources, newspapers, photographs, artifacts, ephemera and more. Recording family stories and personal stories creates a legacy for future generations.

Beyond the Nutcracker: German Christmas Traditions — online presentation
The decorated tree, the song “Silent Night,” the story of The Nutcracker and more are contributions to Christmas in the U.S. by German immigrants of the 18th and 19th centuries. Other vibrant, lovely traditions have been lost in translation but continue in Germany today. Talk includes a handout with recipes, links to music, history and more.

Christmas Markets of Germany
Each year during the weeks leading up to Christmas, German cities, towns, and villages come aglow with Christmas festival lights, artisanal vendor stands, and unique displays: giant spinning Christmas pyramids, live nativities, the golden Christkindl and more. Visitors to the markets keep warm meeting friends and sipping hot mulled wine. Presentation offers the next best thing to going in person: a sparkling glimpse into German Christmas Markets from the most famous to the lesser known, with a look at unique traditions, key words to know before you go, must-see sights, and more.

German Christmas Stories
A look at time-honored German Christmas stories, including story excerpts and illustrations that bring out the shared traditions and culture of the holiday. Recounted to German children for centuries, tales such as “Christmas Eve,” “The Elves and the Shoemaker” and others bring the true spirit of Christmas to life.

The Big Picture: Writing history into family narratives
Our ancestors did not live their lives in isolation. Rather, they lived within a broader community and historical period of time. This talk offers resources for uncovering historical details specific to the time and place of our ancestors, as well as writing tips for including relevant history into family narratives. The big picture adds to the why and how of our ancestors, and helps make our histories come alive. A Powerpoint with vivid imagery and a handout accompany the talk.

Tricks of the Trade: Historical writing that rings true
The characters in our historical novels do not act in isolation. Their stories are brought to life by the broader sweep of history, and by how people thought and lived in former times. But how do we as 21st century authors access the thinking and experiences of the past? And what do we include, and not include, in our scenes? Presentation offers methods of accessing former times — “portals” into the past – and ways to bring history alive on the page.

All Is Not Lost: Tips for using research beyond the book
In writing fiction, nonfiction, or memoir, writers do a ton of research, but only a fraction of it can be include in the manuscript. How else might we make use of the fascinating details we’ve learned? Presentation explores ways to use research both in our manuscripts, and beyond the printed page.

Marburg, Germany, historic capital of Hessia
The town of Marburg, Germany, with its Marburger Schloss castle, museums, cathedrals and 16th century half-timbered houses, was once the seat of the Hessian government, thus the homeland of many early German immigrants to the U.S. In addition to Hessia’s cache of genealogical records, Marburg is home to many intriguing stories, having been at the crossroads of significant events throughout history. In the 1200s, Elizabeth of Thuringia cared for the sick there; the stories of her sainthood and miracles live on through the majestic medieval St. Elizabeth Cathedral. In addition to its Catholic roots, Marburg is the location of the first Protestant university. In 1529, at a key moment of the Reformation, whether or not the various factions of Luther’s Reformation could agree hung in the balance at the Marburg Colloquy. At one time the town was home to the Brothers Grimm. In her powerpoint presentation, Claire Gebben shares sights and history about Marburg she learned while visiting there in 2016.

For high schools: 19th Century Immigration
With the true story of 15-year-old immigrant Michael Harm, author Claire Gebben explores the mid-1800s wave of immigration, those who left Europe in search of a better life, due to famine, hardship, and failed rebellions for democracy across Europe. What did these immigrants find on their arrival in the U.S.? And what impact did they have on U.S. history? Through compelling powerpoint images, Claire Gebben brings to life the topic of 19th century immigrant history.

Team-taught offerings (these sessions can be designed to fit a one-hour session, or in-depth three hour workshops)

The What and Where of Novel Research
As writers, how do we determine what kind of information we need to populate our stories with realistic characters and furnish them with believable settings? And once we know what we need to research, where do we find key resources to answer our questions? This session offers tips and tricks for researching your novel. It is co-taught by Claire Gebben and Michele Genthon.
*Claire Gebben’s novel The Last of the Blacksmiths (Coffeetown Press, 2014), is the compelling tale of a 19th century German immigrant who pursues the American dream. Extensive research for the book has led to invitations to speak on topics ranging from genealogy to German food and wine to blacksmithing to travel in the German Rhinelands.
*Michele Genthon writes about historical Venetian women and her novel Child of the Red Priest was a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association’s 2014 literary contest. She incorporates her research into her blog, in which she writes about American women who achieved “firsts” as women.

Novel Research: Ready, Set, Go!
Co-taught by Claire Gebben and Roz Ray. Session offers insights and experience for researching a novel and in-class opportunities for participants to formulate a research to-do list and consider new research directions and opportunities. Participants are encouraged to bring a current writing project that needs research.
*Claire Gebben’s novel The Last of the Blacksmiths (Coffeetown Press, 2014), is the compelling tale of a 19th century German immigrant who pursues the American dream. Extensive research for the book has led to invitations to speak on topics ranging from genealogy to German food and wine to blacksmithing to travel in the German Rhinelands.
*Roz Ray is a Seattle historical fiction writer. She studied history at Western Washington University and Assyriology at Johns Hopkins University, and graduated from the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts in 2014. She recently finished her first novel (forthcoming), set in Seattle in 1889, and is researching her second novel. She was a top three finalist for the Mixer Publishing Literary Science Fiction Contest. When she’s not writing, she builds houses and teaches novel-writing residencies in elementary school classrooms.