Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Ask Your Questions Now

I've mentioned that I'm a bit of a genealogy buff.  Unfortunately, I'm the only one of my generation on either side to care much about the family history.

Also unfortunate is the fact that my parents are both the youngest children in their families by a significant margin and that I was not born until my parents were in their late twenties.  My grandparents were all born between 1906 and 1910, so by the time I was old enough to have any meaningful conversation with them, they were well into their 70s, and the last of the four passed away almost fifteen years ago.

All of which is to say that, when I have family history questions, there really isn't anyone around to ask anymore.  I do have one great-aunt on my mother's side still living (the youngest of the 18 children in that family!), and on Dad's side, a sort-of cousin of my grandmother's by marriage, but that's it other than my parents and their siblings.  And as far as I can tell, Dad wasn't paying much attention to his extended family when he was a kid.  ;)

So, all of this is also to say that, if you want to know anything about your family history and there is still someone around to ask, do it now!  That won't be the case forever.  Also, having a person fill in the story behind the simple facts you can get from old census records, etc, or tell you what the people were like really makes the history come alive.

*climbs off soapbox*

1 comment:

  1. Absolutely, I agree! My last living grandparent, my father's mother, passed away 10 years ago. I had time to ask about her things, but I never really did. Being young and all, it just never occurred to me. Such a shame.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments...please share yours!

Yeah, It's Been A While

These days, a lot of what happens in my life relates to my kids, and as they get older I am less comfortable sharing their stories.  I will ...