 Historical
Society tracks your past!
January
2, 2004 - by Bimbo NL
 Turning
a new year makes it natural to look ahead, but also to learn from the past.
Recently Mazaloom Historical Society was founded, and in this article the
founder, Sven Hornsby, discusses fragments of our history.
December
5th the Mazaloom Historical Society was founded here in Simmerville. I
decided to interview the founder, Mr Sven Hornsby, and I expected a brief
meeting. They were just established (and I must confess that history isn't
just as appealing to me as espresso), so I was surprised to find that this
society already has a very long list of thoroughly planned and interesting
projects.
Sven
Hornsby has been living in Simmerville for a long time, ever since his
Grandfather bought the house. Eight years ago both Sven's parents
and his younger brother, Ronny, died in a car crash, and being left alone
he started to trace more distant relatives.
-
Yo, Sven Hornsby. Your new society has a series of interesting plans -
interesting to those into genealogy and local history, of course - but
before we dive into your notes book, I think you must explain the name
Mazaloom to our distant readers.
- Of
course. Mazaloom is the old name of the county where you find Simmerville.
The name has been used for at least 300 years, and Mazaloom County include
a total of 7 hoods. This particular area has a lot of common history with
3 neighbouring counties, namely Rolley County, Cave County and Appleton
County [details listed to the left - Bimbo NL]. Today we hardly use these
names, as we more often refer to the SimCity district. It has naturally
to do with the community administration of modern ages which was gradually
centralized in the city over the past century.
We
chose the name Mazaloom Historical Society because we want to write a family
history book for the entire Mazaloom district, although we will of course
start with Simmerville. In this work we will also do a lot of research
on the counties of Rolley, Cave and Appleton because many families moved
a lot, especially back when children needed to look for new ground for
farming. Mostly they had to rent a house, which meant they ended up rather
poor while the landlords made good profit.
-
Can you please tell us about your biggest projects.
- I'd
love to, but although the ideas and plans are many, the society will need
to discuss them over at a meeting taking place in Simmerville this weekend,
in accordance with the huge Community Event. I would think that genealogy,
old days' everyday life, and the family history book are projects that
we will take further, and we might also start working to build a Center
for Local History or a Museum/Library here in Simmerville. We also have
a deal with Chris JB who will help refreshing and framing old family portraits.
I guess he will deliver the first set this weekend, already.
-
Will all these details be available on the web?
- Yes,
you know they will. We just discussed that, hehe. Portraits will be available
from the Simmerville site quite soon, and over the next months we will
publish the family trees of the families that have resided Simmerville
the longest. We start with the Mervils, the family that gave Simmerville
its name, quite an interesting fact, don't you think? Our history is full
of facts like that; thousand pieces of our history were put together to
form the hood like we recognize it of today.
-
Can you answer a question I always had; did they drink espresso and read
glossy magazines in old times - say like 10 years ago?
- Hehe,
well, time wise our focus is 100-300 years ago, not only 10, and I don't
think anyone knew about espresso back then. The better families had books
to read, but magazines were an urban phenomena introduced about 50 years
ago in SimCity. You obviously have a lot to learn from our work.
-
Well, I think 10 years ago is a long time - not to talk about 300 years
- WoW, way cool! Well, let's go on... The Mazaloom Historical Society is
just established and you welcome new members, right?
- Yes,
we are in need of local members to help with our many upcoming projects.
Both older and younger sims are welcome. Sims who lives elsewhere than
in Mazaloom county must found their own societies, but they are of course
welcome to follow our example and our progress.
-
Is there any qualifications needed?
- In
fact there is, at least we needed a way to pick those most suited for our
projects. Currently our new members must live or have their family roots
in the Mazaloom County, and the total of their Neatness+Logics+Weather+Technology
should be at least 20. Working with historical facts, finding connections,
keeping track on information and being able to read statistics etc. will
benefit from these qualifications.
-
Weather?
- Yes,
most sims who are interested in weather are used to read weather statistics
or forecast analysis, these kind of sims are often focused on local environment
and traditions, too. But if you are neat, have good logic skills and are
very interested in technology, then we will of course not require any Weather
interest at all.
-
Thank you, Sven Hornsby. Is there anything you like to add?
- Yes,
we also hope that our initiative will inspire other counties or hoods to
establish historical societies. Start by arranging a local meeting, then
come back to this web site where we will publish a series of articles about
the Simmish history. Most of today's hoods do belong to similar constellations
of hoods and share a more or less common history regarding produce, trades,
laws and other community aspects. That is why we think it might be of interest
to other areas as well to have their own historical society and to learn
about their past.
Okey,
Thanx, Mr Hornsby. Simmerville web will unfortunately not provide a new
HISTORY section, but all future content will be listed in the SCIENCE section. |
Sven
Hornsby
