Breaking the Silence: Healing Family and Adding Voice to One Sailor’s Story (Webinars)
Presented by Lauren Peightel, M. A. on 21 Sep 2023.
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When faced with significant hardship many turn to silence believing that no one wants to hear about what happened or how terrible it was, to not relive it, to not be viewed differently by loved ones, or as an unconscious coping mechanism to trauma. While silence can also be a personality trait, connected to a time and global experience, or a character trait often associated with faith, hard work, and determination, taught and inherited generational silence can lead to unhealthy behaviors and a continued cycle of complicated relationships and emotional immaturity. Without needing to place blame, one pathway to break this cycle and begin healing is to build knowledge and awareness around examples of this behavior and its impacts on the family. One way to do that is through family history research.
On a quest for personal healing, connect with Morris Farrell, Coxswain SV6 USNR, and his unyielding silence on an emotional dive into Peightel’s personal family history and Farrell’s religion, perspective, and individual experience aboard LST 504 during World War II. Walk away with a better understanding of how to research someone’s state of mind, how to apply compassion and empathy back into understanding our stories, and tools to begin healing in our families.
Lauren Peightel, M.A. is an educator who is passionate about storytelling, teaching history through play, and food as a vehicle to making lasting personal connections. Peightel carries an academic background of art history and entrepreneurial studies from Seton Hill University, a graduate degree in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University, and continuing education certificate in Leadership and Administration in History Organizations from the American Association for State and Local History. Before leaving central Pennsylvania for Indiana, she worked for almost ten years in youth camps, academic and public libraries, small historical societies and galleries, and in collections for the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. Currently part of the Education and Engagement team at the Indiana Historical Society for the last seven years, Peightel has created hundreds of classes and fun learning programs for thousands of guests and served as content and outreach chair for the bi-annual Midwestern Roots family history conference in 2019 and 2022. She is also the creator of the IN 4D sensory-based research method for more experiential research and storytelling for genealogists which she often coteaches with Curt Witcher, and co-hosts a quarterly program with the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. In addition to speaking for the Indiana Historical Society, Midwestern Roots, and local organizations and universities in Indiana, she has presented for the Illinois State Genealogical Society Conference, Ohio Genealogical Society Conference, Michigan Genealogical Council, was faculty for Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy in January 2023, and faculty for History Leadership Institute in 2022 by the American Association for State and Local History. Peightel has also served on the board of the Nationalities Council of Indiana, on a strategic planning taskforce for the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, and continues as a consultant to her hometown’s historical society.