Disasters, Epidemics, Catastrophes, etc Top Level Project

Question

Interest in a Disasters project has been voiced before on G2G. I think it's a great idea. I think a top-level project which encompassed all these sad sorts of events-not just natural disasters or man-made catastrophes and crashes, but also epidemics and the odd life changing events, I think we need a name, and then there are a lot of projects that exist that will be subs (like the Titanic and maybe the Holocaust), and well as a lot of project ideas that can move forward now with the new top-level in place.

I am trying to figure out the best name to name the project, as well as gather those who are interested, including a Leader(s) for the top-level, if interested (Paula and Kitty, are you up for this or just some of the disasters you've discussed in other posts?).

What name could we use? Catastrophes and Calamities? Tragedies? Travesties? Your input is appreciated!

Comments

An odd thought that crossed my mind when considering this:

Would this project restrict itself to calamities that were destructive of people, or could it also include calamities that were destructive of genealogical resources -- namely all those fires, floods, and acts of war that have destroyed records?

Of course some such events destroyed both people and records, so they clearly would be included. But I'm thinking about the fact that genealogy researchers need to be aware of adverse events that destroyed records for a particular place, and a project could encourage developing information about records-destroying events on free-space pages and category pages.

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Look interesting ... not too creative with names... but -- aside from war -- aren't they usually called "Acts of God?" ... or does that sound too much like insurance?:)

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Hi Ellen,

That's an interesting view. I think my inclination is yes, let's. I think that those pages are just as valuable to researchers as adding profiles are. Thanks!

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Bree,

 I think most tragic events would qualify-natural disasters like weather and fire, accidental events like ships sinking and train wrecks, epidemics like the flus and cholera, famines, massacres-the tragedies throughout history. Not all of those are Acts of God, though that sounds at least a little more poetic than what I've come up with so far.

 

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Thoughts on terminology:

Don't call these "Tragedies." Too dramatic (thinking here of Greek tragedies and Shakespearean tragedies), and too not sufficiently value-neutral (when Indians burned down a town and drove settlers away, it may have been a tragedy for the settlers, but probably not for the Indians).

Disasters also isn't good. To me, Disaster implies a larger magnitude event than some of the events I'd want to include in this category. For example, a fishing boat that was lost at sea with 10 people aboard doesn't seem big enough to be a disaster, but in a tiny fishing town the consequences would have been severe -- for example, there might be poems and songs commemorating it. Catastrophes also implies "big" -- and it normally implies suddenness (not applicable to an epidemic).

Calamities -- or Calamitous Events -- might work. To my ear, it doesn't imply the large scale of "disaster" or the value judgments inherent in "tragedy." The definition of calamity I find at https://www.google.com/search?q=calamity has a usage example that I think it consistent with that perception: "she has survived more calamities in the past three months than most people experience in a lifetime."

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Abby, can you help me understand the way we'd use such a project relative to our ancestry? I'm not yet seeing the exact link to genealogy and family history. Perhaps some examples would help me and others understand. Thanks.

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Hi Jillaine,

Several projects have been sitting in the suggestions list that all they focus on events that ended in tragedy of some sort, like epidemics, the sinking of ships, famines, massacres, and natural disasters. It may be that the focus of this is too broad, and that is why the name isn't coming. All these events were important to our ancestors and work well as projects, but so many events of these sorts have happened through the ages that they need to be looped together a bit, to make them easier to manage and give direction.

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Here's an example of an "event" tha tmight qualify-- although I don't think it rises to the Project level-- maybe just a category.

In 1696, a ship carrying 52 settlers from New England to North Carolina was shipwrecked near Cape Fear. The settlers were saved and many of them settled in what became Christ Church Parish in northeast North Carolina. I think this is genealogically interesting for these reasons:

1. It's an example of an early migration of a decently sized population of people from one part of the early American colonies (New England) to another part (North Carolina). 
2. It would be a great way of identifying who those individuals were. Ideally, there'd be 52 profiles categorized as a survivor of that shipwreck. One of those people is John Whelden/Whilden and his family. I'd like to see others so identified.
3. This creates a genetic bridge linking early colonial families between the NE and the SE.

Another example of a genealogically interesting "disaster" is the famine of southern Germany during the 1840s. This "disaster" led one town to calculate the cost of feeding their poorest vs. the cost of shipping them off to America. They figured it was cheaper to ship them off. My ancestor was on the list of those to "be emigrated". I have created a project and category for this one as part of my effort to track the descendants of this group. See:

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Schwenningen_emigrants_of_1847

and

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Schwenningen_Emigrants_of_1847

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Exactly, and thank you for the ideas. The smaller events, like the ship one you mention, would make great Free-Space sub-projects for this. Not really big enough for a regular sub-project but worthy of research, categorization, and organization. Many of these we'll see would actually fit well into the geographical Projects we already have-like your Schwenningens but others are more difficult, like some of the epidemics that were world-wide. This discussion is definitely helping me sort out how to continue :-)

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Abby, what would be the purpose of a world-wide epidemic project? Let's take the flu epidemic of-- what was it? -- 1917. Or the bombing of Hiroshima. Would we be categorizing the profiles of those who died from the epidemic or the bombing? How would we otherwise link such worldwide events to profiles? Still not quite sure how that would go...

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A newspaper office near where I live burned down and local flooding has always been problematic for buildings near waterfronts during harsh storms. Older buildings also tend to burn down more easily due to lightning strikes, they are also more eaily damaged by flooding, ice storms that cause roofs to collapse, water damage from windows deteriorating, flooding, animal and human scavenging are also real problems with maintaining records that have not been digitized for safekeeping.  I am interested in assisting with research on all sorts of calamities and disasters through eras of time. Let me know if I can help out!

Answer 1

I agree with 'watching' the name that is chosen. Might scourge be too strong?

Merriam Webster for scourge:

: someone or something that causes a great amount of trouble or suffering

: a whip that was used to punish people in the past

 

Answer 2

One of my sources is a book that is titled ...County Crimes and Calamities: Reports from the Local, State, and National Press...

So how about Catastrophes & Calamities for a name?

BTW, I'd love to work on this, but I'm too inexperienced to be the main leader...

Answer 3

The Worldwide Disasters project is now up. It covers any event that exceeds the local society's ability to manage. This is a huge project and we can use some help! Please join!  Take a look:

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Worldwide_Disasters

Ps. Don't forget to click on our Worldwide Disasters Space Page!

Comments

Armageddon suggests catastrophes and cataclysmic events owing to the "hand of God".  I always use this term to describe the reason why shoppers feel compelled to  buy supermarkets out when a two day (or more) holidays looms.

I am going to checkout Worldwide Disasters wikitree now. It seems to be a good neutral term for such world shattering events.  OMG I am starting to sound like the newspapers and TV News..