Several of my friends have recently purchased this book – To Our Children’s Children by Bob Greene.
To Our Children’s Children
They’ve been telling me how wonderful it is and since I love knowing all about my grandparents and the times in which they lived, I decided to get the book and hope to preserve some of my memories for Chad. On the cover, it says “Preserving Family Histories for Generations to Come”. It’s a book full of questions/prompts to help you remember details you would like to write for your future generations. I read some of the questions to Vince and he says . . mere trivia! I told him this is the kind of “trivia” I would give anything if I knew about my grandparents — the memories they have, what life was like for them as kids and then young adults, the changes they saw, the struggles they faced, etc.
I think Chad will love having my answers which will probably end up being hundreds of pages because there are hundreds and hundreds of questions and each one brings back more memories and things I want to write for them to remember. Even if he doesn’t enjoy it or if Addie and her sisters or brothers don’t enjoy it, I’m loving writing all my answers/thoughts.
While vising with my uncle, he knows so much about my grandparents, their brothers and sisters, their lifestyle as young adults — things I have never heard before. My uncle told us about how he raised and picked cotton as a kid in high school (or maybe it was junior high) – three acres I think he said . . picked it all by hand and made a large chunk of money back then. Can you see most of today’s kids coming home from school and tending to a cotton crop in order to have spending money? Back then, it was more like money to help feed the family . . which is even more unlikely that today’s youth would do something like that.
I asked my uncle if he would answer some of the questions and he said he would love to so I had a book sent to him and it will probably get to his house before he gets home. Together, we’re creating a treasure for sure!
If you enjoy this kind of writing, I highly recommend this book. With every question, I am reminded how much I would love to have had every one of them answered by my own grandparents. Not only will I pass my answers along to Chad, but I will pass the book along to him and hope that he will also answer the questions for his kids and grandkids . . oh to be a fly on the wall and read some of his answers . . I’m betting there’s a whole lot that went on that I don’t know about . . and probably do not want to know about! 🙂
Deb@asimplelifequilts says
I’ll have to order a copy… my daughter would LOVE it -my son not so much but maybe down the road he or someone else in his future might. Thanks for sharing.
Lee says
This interests me. I looked at it at Amazon via the link, but that didn’t answer a question I had, so I’ll ask you since you have a physical copy. The book appears reasonably thick as opposed to a pamphlet of questions, so does one write IN the book in space provided, or do you write on paper/computer separately from the book, that does appear to be the case? And if so, then it must truly be filled with hundreds and hundreds of questions. Thx Judy
JudyL says
The writing would be done in a separate journal or notebook. There is not room for writing in the book itself.
Diana in RR Texas says
Galen’s Mother kept notebooks of day to day happenings. Galen has several of them. She was also good about keeping the family history up to date. One year Galen had calendars made with family pictures for his brothers.We ended up having more made for the nephews and niece. Some of these pictures were from the late 1800’s. So if you come across pictures of the past, scan and add those. Our 8 yr. old grand niece was most interested in who everyone in the pictures were, how were they related, stories about them.
Tracy says
I have this in my Amazon cart right now. I was just waiting to find something else to get free shipping…cheapskate that I am!
Oh to go back in time to visit with the old folks and ask them these questions! I am lucky to have my grandma’s diaries. They’re only the 5 year ones where you only get four lines to sum up your day but still that’s better than nothing!
Susan says
Gosh, Judy, I would have sent you the one my ward did in January for free, for the express purpose of writing family histories! This is what I do every Monday night on a blog. It’s amazing the things that come to my mind when I remember one story, and then I have to hurriedly write the second one, which often reminds me of yet a third one! I’m also recording things I find out about ancestors as I research them, photographs I have or discover online, and posts with the actual genealogy of some branches of the family. Like you, I’d give anything to know even the tiniest bits of information about how a grandmother or great grandmother or father or ANYONE faced trials, losses, celebrated happy times, or just what their favorite book or meal or flower was!
Jackie says
What a delightful idea! I’ve thought often of putting some memories and things in writing for my two boys but honestly just didn’t know how to get started. This would be a tremendous help!
SewAlice says
Thanks Judy–I looked at this on Amazon. What great questions. Not just the usual ones about name, parents’ names, etc. I ordered 2–one new for my 100 year old aunt (who still has “all her marbles”) and another used one for my husband and I to do individually and together.
Mary Mekelburg says
I have owned that book for many many years. About 15 years ago I took a “”Writing Your Life” class from Mary Borg, a writing professor at The University of Northern Colorado, who wrote a book on the subject. I started my project and somewhere along the line I discovered Bob Greene’s book and it has been a priceless inspiration. The writing project has been ongoing as things come to me and I have time to work on it. I have found it is not the kind of thing I can sit down and do Beginning to end, obviously!! I will say that I have been all the way through the book and periodically go back to parts I found challenging and impossible to complete at the time. Happy writing to all of you who are taking the challenge. Your children will love it.
Linda Steller says
This sounds really interesting. I’ve been researching the family history for a while, most recently getting some of my father’s service paperwork reinstated. He was in the group who’s records were destroyed in a big fire in 1973. It’s fortunate I happened to have some of them.