Don’t Forget to Ask

By

Gerry Niskern

We’ve all seen ads for Ancestery.com and a few other companies who will look up your family history.

I have a better idea. While you still can, ask your parents about your family history. Just take the time to have a conversation or two with a parent, grandparent, Aunt, Uncle or even some cousins. Maybe you have planned to have one of your elders on a video while you ask questions. Great idea, if you ever get around to it and if they are really comfortable with recording.

Just get a plain spiral note book and start writing everything down. Don’t worry about editing. Just keep writing before you forget their stories. When you start those long over due conversations, ask where the grandparents were born. Where did they go to school? Where did they meet? Marry? Ask what the grandfathers did for a living. What was your grandmother’s life like?

I’ve talked to tons of people who’s parents are gone that all say the same thing, “I wish I had taken the time to ask questions while I could.”

Several said they would ask, “What was your childhood like? Where did you and dad meet? What attracted you to him?”

Another wanted to know more about her grandmother’s stories about growing up in Germany. What were her feelings when she left? Who did she work for when she got here?

One friend whose  parent’s marriage was arranged in the Middle East would ask her mother what her true feelings were at her wedding.

A friend from an Asian country told me she grieved that there were no baby pictures taken of her and wants to know why.

Several wanted to know what kind of day it was when they were born.

I personally would ask my grandmother about the sadness of leaving her infant daughter in Europe in a grandmother’s care when they immigrated to America.

So forget about finding a famous Prussian General, an exiotic princess or an aristrocratic head of government in your ancestry. You can learn about your family tree by starting those conversations with those who are here right now. There are several publishing companies who will publish a small book of your information and photos of your family if you wish for posterity.

Do it now. Don’t wait!