The Burge Family Reunion Steering Committee invites you to contribute to a captivating initiative - Burge Family History Writer's Project. This project aims to capture our living history in words, preserving it for ourselves and future generations. Our family's compelling backstory, stretching from the 18th century to the present, is a tale worth telling in print, filled with accomplishments, joys, and a shared love of learning and unity.

"The Burge Family story is worthy of telling in print." - Cherryale Burge

Who Can Participate? This is an information gathering project open to all members of the Burge family. We encourage everyone to submit their immediate family histories, as well as overall Burge family history. We encourage young members aged 11 to 17 to become our reporters, interviewers, and writers, contributing to this periodic update of our Burge Family history for prizes. Read below how youth reporters can prepare.

Submission Deadline: All submissions must be received by June 16th, 2024.

How to Submit: Use Google Docs to write your history. Submit a shared link to your document using the form below.

Scoring Criteria:

• Content and Depth (40 points): The essay should provide a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the family history. It should include significant events, stories, and cultural or historical context.
• Creativity and Originality (20 points): The narrative should be presented in a unique and engaging manner. Creative approaches to storytelling, such as incorporating family anecdotes or traditions, are encouraged.
• Research Effort (15 points): The extent and thoroughness of the research conducted through interviews and other sources. Evidence of personal engagement and curiosity in uncovering family stories.
• Writing Quality (15 points): Clarity, coherence, grammar, and overall writing style. The essay should be well-structured and enjoyable to read.
• Presentation and Format (10 points): Adherence to the submission guidelines, including  formatting, and any additional materials (e.g., photos, illustrations).

Prizes (only for Ages 11 - 17):

• 1st Place: $500 and a personalized certificate of achievement.
• 2nd Place: $250 and a personalized certificate of achievement.
• 3rd Place: $100 and a personalized certificate of achievement.

We believe that this project will not only preserve our rich family history but also strengthen our bonds as we share and celebrate each other's stories. The collected histories will be considered for publication in a Family Souvenir Book, ensuring that our legacy is passed down through generations.

This initiative is also supported by our connections with two major institutions: The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which serve as repositories for our story.

Let's make 2024 the inaugural year of this ongoing project and set it into motion with your participation. Together, we can document the Burge Family saga for posterity.

How to Prepare:

"Every phone conversation, every in-person encounter I have had with family over these many years has been fun to have had. From my vantagepoint, I take immense joy in hearing about the accomplishments we are making as we live our lives. I know you do, too.  We embody the joy of living. We wear self-confidence comfortably, elegantly. We have a love of learning. We want to share each other's company by reuniting every two years.  We actively support the educational aspirations of our children. How do these commonalities happen amongst us? " - Cherryale Burge

Here is a listing of questions constructed to help stimulate easy conversation during your interviewing process. Let the questions be your guide and incorporate them into your upcoming interview as you like.  

I am recommending that you tape the interview(s).  Reviewing responses to your questions and writing an accurate account (memoir) is made easier.  Also, you will know better what additional questions need be asked in a follow-up interview.  Your computer or your communications device takes dictation and can be used to record the spoken word.  

Share the questions and prompts with interviewees ahead of your interview.  The person(s) being interviewed can look back in time and recount twenty years of living and more. These questions seek to gather vital statistics, a portrait of family life, development of career paths, political influences of geographic location on family life, family philosophy, the embrace of an extended family philosophy, shared values about community and education, successes, and the will to reach back with a helping hand. 

This may be your awakening to a brilliant writing career.  Investigation and information gathering is what you do every day in school.  Interviewing people about whom you already know a good deal will deepen your understanding of them and yourself.  Please consider the value of recording and writing down the recollections of Family life and times for the purposes of publication.  Have fun!! 

QUESTIONS and PROMPTS: 

1. Ask your parents about their parents... Names, birth dates, state in which they were born, educated, married and lived in after marriage.  Ask about their parents' successes and the joys they experienced.  Get your parents to describe the atmosphere in the homes in which they grew up. What were the politics of their parents' era?  Find out about family traditions that might continue even now. Ask about what their parents saw them accomplish (including having children). Ask about brothers and sisters and extended family they had, too. 
    
2. Ask your own parents about themselves.  Where (state) were they born and reared? What were their education interests, recreational pursuits and career goals.  On what occasion and where were the two of them when they met? What were their goals as a couple?  What are  their plans and dreams for their children?
3. Ask your parents about living life in the mid 1950s, 1960s and 1970s when civil rights issues for Black Americans commanded this country’s attention? What events live vividly in their memories?  What organizations, news events, and music captured their attention in those times?
4. Get your parents to talk about the alliances and friends they have made and are making and maintain and why?
5. Ask your parents about the music that touched and still moves them the most?
6. Ask about how anchored they feel in a particular philosophy of life?  Was there a family mantra like “there is no such thing as can’t”?   What role does religion have in their lives?
7. Ask your parents to reflect on the strengths they saw in their parents that they incorporated into their own thinking and demeanor. 
8. Get your parents to talk about what self-confidence, perseverance, purpose, leadership and the willingness to follow have to do with success and satisfaction.  
9. Ask about the kinds of skills and expertise each parent has acquired that readied them for success, i.e., planning, analyzing, listening, leading, mentoring, directing, setting goals and timelines.
10. Enjoy your parents!