Grandparents journal

Zell

Any one know of a good book to record grandparents memories? Was thinking it would be a valuable form to pass on info on our own childhood, family tree, memories, that kind of thing. But to have it in a journal/book form.I have been looking online but many seem too proscribed or geared to American childhood experiences. I think it would be a lovely thing for us to do together and a lovely thing for them to have.
Any recommendations?

looksee

I have one that I was given by my DIL but I have never filled it in. It would be a good idea to do it. It is called Grandparents Book, published by Four Seasons Publishing Ltd for Past Times, Oxford England. The ISBN is 1 85645 096 1, try googling the number, there appear to be a few available.

Jellybaby1

What a great idea. I always meant to do this but no grandchildren as yet so can only offer it to our own children. I've been delving into genealogy for years so a lot of the hard work has been done. I just need to write the story of my own life, such that it is, and pretty boring probably. The hardest thing is to get himself involved as he is not great at imparting memories, its like taking blood from a stone. Zell, assuming you are the grandparents, I suggest if at all possible you get a family member to 'interview' you, in the nicest possible way, with a video camera as well as writing it all down.

Zell

Thanks for the help look see and Jellybaby1. I'll look up that book you mentioned. Yes, the arrival of grandchildren has given me the focus of wanting to pass on my story. I could compile my own book but having a given outlay would probably help.

JuliusCaesar

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I just need to write the story of my own life, such that it is, and pretty boring probably.

It's never boring and the bits you think are boring are probably the most interesting for your grandchildren, when they grow up a bit!

My aunt was looking through an old diary saying how boring it was, "Look, here I wrote about buying our first double bed - it was £xxx.xx.xx from xxx shop!" Well, all of us went what? how much? An uncle was into filming things and filmed the car ferry - but at the time (50s? 60s?) the car was lifted by crane onto the ferry, there was no roll on -roll off ferry then!

Social habits - how people flirted, courted, married has changed a lot over time, our expectations have changed over time - does anyone these days live in a house where the only furniture is a bed, a cooker, and a TV (my first attempt at setting up home with my then partner)?

Jobs that might not exist anymore. The fact that people addressed you as Miss Surname, rather than your given name. What qualifications were needed for jobs: the inter cert was fine for many jobs, the leaving cert for bank tellers etc. Few people had degrees.



tl/dr: the stuff we took for granted is the most interesting to children/grandchildren.



.

annieoburns

My mother is a very active 94 yr old with a great attitude and zest for life. I plan to 'interview' her. An app to record her voice on a smartphone seems the way to go. I think the sound of a person's voice is so evocative and maybe neglected in family records. With children grown up and no sign of grandchildren, we seem to take few photographs and do not seem to think of taking a good camera on outings.

Jellybaby1

I know what you mean Annio, although I have to say I am never without my tiny digital camera. I often see hilarious and misspelled signs around the streets and take a quick photo. I can't be bothered using the phone camera.

I have taken to asking relatives, particularly over Christmas for copies of photos, as after a death in a family these sometimes get lost or given to other family members and are harder then to track down.

We have a video of an aged relative, now deceased, and it has to be transferred over to DVD as soon as we get down to it. It is a great piece of family history, however, we are also aware that this particular person was known to 'wind people up' a bit, so we may have to take some of what was said on the video with a grain of salt!

Teagwee

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

It's never boring and the bits you think are boring are probably the most interesting for your grandchildren, when they grow up a bit!

My aunt was looking through an old diary saying how boring it was, "Look, here I wrote about buying our first double bed - it was £xxx.xx.xx from xxx shop!" Well, all of us went what? how much? An uncle was into filming things and filmed the car ferry - but at the time (50s? 60s?) the car was lifted by crane onto the ferry, there was no roll on -roll off ferry then!

Social habits - how people flirted, courted, married has changed a lot over time, our expectations have changed over time - does anyone these days live in a house where the only furniture is a bed, a cooker, and a TV (my first attempt at setting up home with my then partner)?

Jobs that might not exist anymore. The fact that people addressed you as Miss Surname, rather than your given name. What qualifications were needed for jobs: the inter cert was fine for many jobs, the leaving cert for bank tellers etc. Few people had degrees.



tl/dr: the stuff we took for granted is the most interesting to children/grandchildren.



.

Agree 100% with every word - what seems mundane to us now could be gold for our grandchildren. I have a sort of a journal/accounts book kept by my grandmother in the 1930s. It records month-by-month household income and expenditure - things like the sale of eggs, the purchase of flour and the cost of transport and 'digs' for my father and his siblings away at school/college. Every penny was accounted for and balances were recorded carefully. It's written in a basic notebook (in pencil) and I absolutely treasure it!