After a lot of thought over the break, I've decided that it would be interesting to incorporate GIS into my final project.  I spent a great deal of time looking into the information I have on my grandfather's path through Europe during World War Two and I believe it will be enough to create a map using GIS to digitize his travels. I was also thinking about writing an essay on the experience of a World War Two soldier and using my grandfather as an example. I remember Dr. Ross telling us in one of the first classes that he wrote an essay on a video but there was really no avenue for him to display it until he created a website on it (I hope I'm remembering this correctly!). I thought I would go off that idea and create a map and do research on what life was like for an English soldier in the trenches during the war.
I'm a bit apprehensive about using the GIS software because the only experience I've had with it was during class that one day, however I think this idea will be really cool and interesting and will incorporate my love for history and my interest in my family's past.

Project Ideas

When I started thinking about project ideas I immediately thought it would be interesting to do some sort of digital family tree.  The majority of my family is from Europe, and I've very much focused my history degree around courses dealing with Western European history.  In addition, I'm interested to find out more about my mom's birth mother's family (my mom was adopted and in recent years we've come to know her birth mother, which has led to meeting dozens of half-aunts/uncles/cousins and siblings we didn't know we had). Therefore, although I'm aware of some of the history from my dad's side and from my moms parents, I now have this whole different blood line I'd love to know more about.
However, thinking about the project more I came up with another idea.  I've always been fascinated with history and never tired listening to my grandfather tell me detailed stories of his years on the front lines during World War Two.  Remembering his stories sparked another idea, one which I'm not sure I'd be able to create and that I'm still trying to work out the details for.  Before he died, he left me a map that shows his path across Europe during the years he fought for the British army.  Starting with where he was trained, it shows the path he sailed to Africa, where he marched through the northern countries and eventually sailed for Sicily, then finally back to the western front. I was thinking I could digitize this map and collect more information on his battalion to perhaps add battles he participated in or other significant events during his involvement in the war.
Just some initial thoughts on my project.  I'm looking forward to doing the research for either one of these topics, should they work, however I do feel a bit nervous translating the information in a "digital" way as this course is my first introduction to it! Nonetheless it will be interesting and a new skill to work on.