Use Your Voice with Jean Alicia Elster

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of America, how is your family’s story a part of that history? Join us at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library for a free National Reading Month program to find out how one author answered that question!

Jean Alicia Elster gathered stories from her Michigan family, also named the Fords, to write her books. Her presentation will focus on learning and sharing family history through oral histories. Elster will share portions of the oral histories she obtained from her family and will read passages from her Ford family historical fiction trilogy, Who's Jim Hines?, The Colored Car, and How It Happens, to show how she used oral histories to create the narratives in the books.

Elster will offer tips on obtaining oral histories from your family members during family gatherings such as reunions, holidays and other celebrations.

Registration is not required.