Hi! Joined SF to ask a simple question.

Do your grandchildren know your full name?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 5 50.0%

  • I think so...

    Votes: 1 10.0%

  • Probably not...

    Votes: 2 20.0%

  • No.

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • Total voters
    10
jsitea

jsitea

New Member
Location
Newport Beach, CA
Hi all, I'm Josh,

I'm a middle-aged (50+ haha), married father of three living in the Newport Beach area. I joined SF to share an experience I had and ask something from the community; hopefully I'm not being too intrusive so please excuse my forwardness with me asking.

I just have a simple question: Do your grandchildren know your full name? I was at a friend's place this week for a Friendsgiving celebration and, with the presence of his older parents, the conversation of leaving behind a legacy sprang up. Since I grew up in a household full of family, always exchanging stories, I just assumed that he knew basic things about his parents like where they grew up, where they met, and what early career paths they took. To my surprise, he stumbled to get even the basic facts straight about his parents!

What confounded me further was the fact that his parents are relatively interesting people with backgrounds in scientific discovery and venture capital. The final nail in the coffin was when we tested my friend's teenage kids to give the full names of his grandparents (who don't even have middle names) and all they knew was the first name of the grandmother!

So I'm wondering, in addition to my first question "Do your grandchildren know your full name?" How much of your life do you think you've successfully passed down to your kids? And with Thanksgiving right around the corner, I'd love it if some brave people on this forum can test their children/grandchildren to see how much is ACTUALLY known about your life.

Thanks for reading :)
Josh
 

Last edited:
Hi welcome to the forum..

I do't have grandchildren myself, so I can't nswer that part, but I was the same growing up, I know little about my grandparents, and even less about my great grandparents.

Our family was a closed book, and even tho' we visited our grandparents we knew only their first and last names..

We ddn't know if they had middle names, when or where they were born or if they had siblings,,,until after they died....
 

hollydolly said:
Hi welcome to the forum..

I do't have grandchildren myself, so I can't nswer that part, but I was the same growing up, I know little about my grandparents, and even less about my great grandparents.

Our family was a closed book, and even tho' we visited our grandparents we knew only their first and last names..

We ddn't know if they had middle names, when or where they were born or if they had siblings,,,until after they died....
Click to expand...
That's interesting, yeah the more people I've asked this question (outside of this forum) the more I found that people just don't pass their stories/general information about themselves down. On another note, have you made an effort to preserve your life story and pass it down to your loved ones?
 
jsitea said:
Haha no problem, don't know the etiquette here when it comes to age. I am over 50 yes :)
Click to expand...
Thanks, Josh. We have people joining sometimes who didn't read the part about needing to be over 50 to join. Middle aged to me is 35-45, so I asked. All that and I can't even help you... no grandchildren, but a fantastic daughter, so maybe someday. And yes, I knew my grandparents' full names.
 
CallMeKate said:
Thanks, Josh. We have people joining sometimes who didn't read the part about needing to be over 50 to join. Middle aged to me is 35-45, so I asked. All that and I can't even help you... no grandchildren, but a fantastic daughter, so maybe someday. And yes, I knew my grandparents' full names.
Click to expand...
I'm glad I fit the criteria! Thanks for your response as well, it's part of an effort I'm undertaking to understand how information/stories are lost between generations and your answer helps.
 
jsitea said:
That's interesting, yeah the more people I've asked this question (outside of this forum) the more I found that people just don't pass their stories/general information about themselves down. On another note, have you made an effort to preserve your life story and pass it down to your loved ones?
Click to expand...
yes... I did a deep dive into my ancestry.. and learned quite a bit about them, still not enough, but more than I ever knew.... only to find my Gen X daughter is not interested ...
 
CallMeKate said:
Not sure if this will help you or not, but I have a really nice padded blank book I bought around 20 years ago... probably Amazon, and every page has a question that you fill in with your answer (things about your life, likes, dislikes, memories, etc.) and then when full and the time is right, you pass it down to your children.
Click to expand...
Ok so I actually saw something similar to this that one of my wife's friends bought for their parents. But when it came down to pass it down to the kids, none of them really cared to actually read through the book! I guess most people, especially kids, want to watch the movie, not read the book.
 
hollydolly said:
yes... I did a deep dive into my ancestry.. and learned quite a bit about them, still not enough, but more than I ever knew.... only to find my Gen X daughter is not interested ...
Click to expand...
Yeah I feel like kids, even looking at mine, won't care about where their family came from until they get to about my age, I'm just kicking myself that I didn't ask my grandparents more before they passed, even though we shared a ton of stories.
 
jsitea said:
Yeah I feel like kids, even looking at mine, won't care about where their family came from until they get to about my age, I'm just kicking myself that I didn't ask my grandparents more before they passed, even though we shared a ton of stories.
Click to expand...
well I thought the same, I thought ok.. she'll be more interested when she gets closer to me age, wich at the time was abut 50... now she's 50 next birthday.. and she could care even less....

I just feel sad about it... because I really do think she should know where she came from....
 
cd735482d16925d0f6829e8e51c40098.jpg
 
hollydolly said:
well I thought the same, I thought ok.. she'll be more interested when she gets closer to me age, wich at the time was abut 50... now she's 50 next birthday.. and she could care even less....

I just feel sad about it... because I really do think she should know where she came from....
Click to expand...
Yeah that is unfortunate :( I was thinking to try and get the kids involved with making something for their grandparents this Thanksgiving, kind of like a video memoir. Maybe they'll be more interested in that rather than a book. I will report back how it goes and maybe you could do something similar for your daughter.
 
jsitea said:
Ok so I actually saw something similar to this that one of my wife's friends bought for their parents. But when it came down to pass it down to the kids, none of them really cared to actually read through the book! I guess most people, especially kids, want to watch the movie, not read the book.
Click to expand...
"The kids" probably shouldn't be gifted the book until they're old enough to appreciate it or turning 18. They'll be glad for it at some point, but I didn't even consider handing it to my daughter until she was 18.
 
CallMeKate said:
"The kids" probably shouldn't be gifted the book until they're old enough to appreciate it or turning 18. They'll be glad for it at some point, but I didn't even consider handing it to my daughter until she was 18.
Click to expand...
My thoughts as well, so many things in life are taken for granted until an older age. I'm just really curious about how far we can push back the age boundary regarding the interest of family history. I think the medium through which a story is told matters a lot, but that's just a hunch that I have that I'll test over this week with the family.
 
jsitea said:
Yeah that is unfortunate :( I was thinking to try and get the kids involved with making something for their grandparents this Thanksgiving, kind of like a video memoir. Maybe they'll be more interested in that rather than a book. I will report back how it goes and maybe you could do something similar for your daughter.
Click to expand...
LOL..I think she's too old to be interested in that kind of thing..believe me she's not interested in any way, I just feel that gen X are very like this generally speaking...
 
I haven't grandchildren, but my son does know my full name and late husband's full name. I knew all my great grandparents, grandparents and parents full names as well. My son knows my parents full names.

106186980_10221931013415147_6123068629626815247_n.jpg
 
Lewkat said:
I haven't grandchildren, but my son does know my full name and late husband's full name. I knew all my great grandparents, grandparents and parents full names as well. My son knows my parents full names.

View attachment 468820
Click to expand...
Thank you for the welcome! That is fantastic to hear and very impressive compared to what most children seem to know about their grandparents these days. Thank you so much for sharing
 

You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top