Social media campaign encourages family connections under lockdown

The History Begins at Home Twitter and Facebook accounts suggest questions you can ask your older relatives to learn about their lives


A new national campaign is encouraging members of the public to overcome coronavirus loneliness by discussing their older relatives’ memories of the past.

Every week, the History Begins at Home campaign shares a prompt for family members from different generations to discuss together on Facebook and Twitter.

This week, for example, the questions are about food memories, including “What is one of the earliest memories of a food you either loved or loathed?” and “Tell me some of the foods you remember from when you were growing up and why?”

Gary Tuson, county archivist at Norfolk Record Office and campaign lead at History Begins at Home, said: “COVID-19 has created all sorts of challenges such as separation, isolation, hardship, the need for resilience, the power of community and the desire to help one another.

“History Begins at Home is the perfect antidote during this period when people can’t visit their family members due to the current restrictions.

“It’s a fun way to pass some time together on the phone, via FaceTime, Zoom, WhatsApp or other apps.”

History Begins at Home is a joint initiative between the Chief Archivists in Local Government Group and the Archives for Wellbeing Network, and supported by the Archives and Record Association. The project is funded by The National Archives and the Norfolk Archives and Heritage Development Foundation.

Rosemary Collins is the staff writer of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine

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