Success Through the Generations-Rachel Mabie

Rachel Mabie

 

Final History Project Reflection

Rachel Mabie

Success Through the Generations

           

            This project helped me piece together aspects of my family that I never thought of before.  I have done family history projects in the past, but never have I focused a general theme of my family or a trend through the generations.  Picking a topic was easy.  I had known some basic information about Buddig.  I knew that the Buddigs immigrated from Germany ad made a meatpacking industry.  However, it wasn’t until this year that I understood the importance of this family business.  Until we discussed the Gilded Age in class, I was unaware that it is extremely difficult for immigrants to fit in and find work in America, yet the Buddigs fit right in.  I learned from interviewing my grandparents and from reading family books that the Buddigs knew of no life but a successful one.  Therefore, when the Buddigs came over to America, they worked extremely hard to keep the success. 

            One point that I tried to emphasize in my video is the importance of family success.  Without reading books or interviewing family members, it’s pretty clear that my family believes in being successful through the generations, and you can tell this just by looking at the owners of Buddig over the years.  Every owner has had the last name Buddig, and stems directly from the original: John Buddig.  Under family ownership, the Buddig meat industry has been successful for over one hundred years.  After interviewing my grandparents, it was proven that family matters.  John Buddig’s original goal when he came to America was to make a business that would keep the family successful through the generations, and I tried to emphasize in my video that he was successful.

            Instead of telling the story from the perspective of a seventeen-year-old girl who does not personally know any of the original Buddigs, I shared the story from the perspective the John’s daughter, Jan.  I was able to gather enough research through the Buddig Family Books to formulate a story that not only says the facts, but also stresses the importance of family success.  Because I am depicting and eighty-year-old women, I tried to have the most mellow and calm voice that I could. 

            The family is the most important aspect of this project.  In order to stress that, at the end of Jan’s story to make the Buddig story more exciting, I interviewed Buddig descendants from three generations and asked how they like their Buddig meat products.  Through these interviews, it should be clear that while Buddig has clearly been a successful company because it is prospering today, it has also remained original at it’s core.  My grandmother made the ham and eggs for her kids just as Florence made them for hers, as Jan made them for Florence.  As the company keeps improving with each generation, the ham still tastes just the same.

            I think that I did a good job on this project.  I used multiple generations of my family and incorporated them in the movie, I used family books and actual family pictures, I made the story unique by telling it from a different perspective, while still emphasizing the importance of family success throughout the entire project.  I also added history from this period relating to other German immigrants and the lives that they were living compared to the lives of the Buddigs.  This is a perfect final project because while you are still researching certain instances in history, but you are also understanding the themes of your family and learning more about family.