Grandparent interview--please read & do this

fiazo

Since Peeper posted that her grandma died I got motivated to start on something that I have been putting off for some time. I have wanted to interview my parents & his so that DD & any other siblings she may have will have some hstory. Unfortunately, my FIL passed away in Jan & I really regret I did not have the chance to do this with him. He had stories galore. I only hope that MIL will be able to give me some of his history as well as DH.

Some Q's include about their grandparents, their parents, siblings, spouse, education, jobs, life. I have so many Q's which I have copied from numerous sites. I just started with MIL & let me tell you----she has no answers for her grandparents, she never met them, knows nothing about them. I think that is so sad. I really want my DD to know all about her grandparents & there is so much information that I do not know. I mean yeah I know my own parents but do I really know about their childhood? No. there are so many simple Q's you can ask them. Our kids will probably be baffled that our grandma's had to wash clothes by hand or that they only had school til 7th grade in Europe or how their grandparents met.

I only started with my MIL so far. I think she was touched that I want Sienna to know about her. She is 79 & not in the best of health so Sienna won't know her for too long. My parents are going to be tougher as they mainly speak Polish so their is translation confusion sometimes. But  my dad has lots to talk about.

So anyway I just wanted to share this with you all & hope those of you who could to do this. I will eventually take old pictures along with the info & make a book for DD. Maybe give it to her when she's older, like graduating or getting married. Just a thought.

I have a great list of Q's in a word file if anyone wants I can email it to you or if you can tell me how to attach it here somehow I can do that.

 

Peppernut

What a great idea!  I would love the list!  la_biscuit at hotmail dot com.

 

shelby9201

This is such a good idea.  On my wedding day, my grandmother gave me a book she had been keeping for me.  I was amazed at all the great stories she had captured about her childhood, her mom and her grandmother.  When she passed away a few years later, that book became so much more valuable to me.  Now Madison will know something about her great grandmother, great-great grandmother, and great-great-great grandmother.

stever

Awesome idea!

KD288

Really great idea! I would love that list. If you don't mind please email me at kfox914@gmail.com. Thanks!

peeper72

I would love that list. monicapeeper at gmail dot com

All of my grandparents and mom are dead now but DH's family is still alive and kicking (minus one grandfather). It would be great to provide Ada with some kind of history.

superaunt

So this post brought me to tears. Sabrina's middle name is that of my maternal grandmother's (hers is Gisela, we made it Gisele because of the -ah ending in the first name). My maternal grandparents meant the world to me (paternal grandfather passed the year I was born and my paternal grandmother never liked me bc i looked like my mother who divorced her son). Fortunately my Oma is still here but she's 87 (in a couple weeks) and is pretty much ready to go. It kills me but I suppose that's life. My Ota passed several years ago already. It was so important to me that Sabrina meet my Oma so she's spent time with her once a month now since she's been born. I can't even describe how much that time means to me... and I'm sure my Oma, too.

Anyway, I'm fortunate (I suppose) because Oma's shared her stories with me - over and over again. As did Ota prior to his passing. Ota even wrote his story down and typed (manually) it and printed it all out so that his children and grandchildren could all have a copy. Incredible. 

We have so much to look up to in older generations and not a lot of people realize this - or it's realized too late.

Sorry for the ramble. It's just a long way to say I think what you're doing is awesome and Sienna will be so lucky when she's able to understand all of it!

KristelRobin

Fantastic idea!  Would you please send me the list too?  kristelrobin at gmail dot com.  Thanks!