Kathleen Donahoe Interview

Because of her interest in our family’s history, I decided to interview my older cousin Kathleen Donahoe. Even though she’s young, I thought she would be the biggest help with this project because she would actually enjoy answering my questions and she is very knowledgeable on the subject. I know typically a grandparent is interviewed, however, my grandma and grandpa were not first-generation immigrants from Czechoslovakia or Ireland, so I decided Kathleen would be a better source of information. In general she’s a history buff which is why she has a history degree and works as an archivist for the University of Pittsburgh. She is always going through our grandparent’s attic looking at photos and old letters, and she has done a lot of research into our ancestors. As someone who definitely appreciates culture and history, I believe she could give me a lot of answers about our roots. I never thought of my family as particularly cultural, and I had a hard time trying to think of customs and traditions we have when I was writing the …show more content…
As I previously mentioned, I never really thought much about my culture and I had trouble coming up with traditions my family had. After the interview though, I realized my family does have some traditions that go quite far back in our ancestry. Because of this, I feel more in touch with my heritage. It feels like it’s something I’m a part of and that’s a part of me instead of the meaningless identifier it came to be when I was asked where my family came from. It has peaked my interest in the subject. My cousin mentioned my grandfather used to tell my older cousins funny stories about his family which makes me excited to see him again so he can tell me some of the stories for himself. I’ve learned plenty of information about my family through this project but there is still a lot more to learn I believe and I am excited to delve deeper into my