Can You Name All 4 of your grandparents?

[Momo]

From a recent survey only %47 percent of Americans can name all 4 of their grandparents.

 

Only 4% can name all 8 great grandparents.

 

Kind of sad.  Even before I did genealogy I knew all of their names.

[Mother]

Yes to my grandparents and to most of my great grands.  Considering I AM a great grandparent I occasionally have senior moments. 😀

[Annarchy]

My mothers side of the family has a tradition, dating back before the 1700’s, 
sadly I can only remember a few generations.  It is on a piece of paper, given to the first born female….  ( I was 2nd born, so I didn’t get it.)

 

…Dora… Florence Dora, Sharon Florence, AmySharon, Desiree Amy, Amanda Desiree….  Etc.  

 

Dora being born in the 1800’s.

 

We had papers, listing all generations, but only back to the late 1800’s, early 1900’s. Hopefully, someone in the family still has  them.  I had them for a while & passed them on to the younger family.

 

[Annarchy]

Dad’s side, each first born male, was named after the father… 1st 2nd, 3rd, (I, II, III, IV etc.) My little brother, didn’t have a boy, so it stopped with him. 

[Becca_Anne]

I have been doing my Genealogy for over 30 yrs so have many generations back now.  Have preserved what I can on family trees in multiple locations and on paper in the hopes that the information is there for future generations. Now working on scanning in and writing up memories of the most recent generations to preserve that information too.

[Littlesister]

I can name the grandparents on mother's side but just the grandparents whom I spent a lot of time with growing up and my great grandparents as well. Though my great grandmother passed away when I was about 3 years old.  My father was adopted, so never new anyone or anything about his side of family. 

[Dee]

I can name all 4 grandparents. However, I never knew my paternal grandmother.  She died when my dad was 16.  I knew one great grandparent but can name 3 of them.

 

[pauline]

I can name my grandparents on both sides as well as my great grandparents on both sides just don't ask me to name all of my dad's siblings as there was 21 of them between the 3 marriages of his mom and dad 5 full siblings the other 16 half siblings 12 was from his dad 4 from his mom

[Momo]

Even though I knew all 4 of my grandparents  names, my parents led us to believe that my grandfathers were both dead.  It wasn't until years later that i found out that I could have actually met them both if only I had known in time. I still don't know why they did this.  I do know my Mom was embarassed about her poor family background. I actually didn't find out much  at all from my parents.

[Homesteader]

A few years ago, I created a monthly calendar that highlighted an ancient family member each month. There was a photo and paragraph or two on their life. My family has been bugging me to do it again. Now that I have countless totes of my deceased mom's photos and slides, I may just take up the challenge once again. Too bad genealogy sucks up months of my time. 

[Virginia]

I have both family trees in my Baby Book my mother completed. Think I can give the grandparents names, but not all the great grands.

[Mt_Rider]

Annarchy...that's such a cool tradition.  Keeps the names passing down but gives parents the freedom to chose the first name.   

 

 

My recent trip back to Iowa was a double family reunion of sorts.  Dad's side... his 96 yo brother was able to get to the burial.  And met uncle's son from first wife, a cousin I've never met.  Exchanged email addresses with him cuz he's doing genealogy but hasn't started this side of the family yet.  I've got stuff to get him started.  His mom remarried so we're closely related strangers.   

 

And the rest of the previous generations on dad's side were at the two cemeteries.   Stood by great aunt M's grave and thanked her for saving my dad's life as a baby with pneumonia.  Remembering her and also great aunt P.    Great grands were there too.

 

Then in a different location in Iowa, my mom was the Matriarch of Honor at a Cousin Reunion pulled together just because we'd be passing thru going home on I80.  EVERYONE in my generation was there.  Two have died and we saw those graves and those of the previous generations.  It's a big deal in the midwest {or just that side of my family?}  to always keep graves cleared of debris and put real flowers out frequently.  My mom's mother died when she was three.  She was thrilled to "see" her again.  And her sister and brother who have passed in recent years.  Was nearly dark at the military cemetery when we finally found my uncle and his son there.  I took photos of all of the headstones....for future reference. 

 

Of course we'd have NEVER found those last two if my niece hadn't "Googled It".  Didn't know you could do that!

 

....yeah, I knew all the grandparents [except mom's birth mom]  And the dear great aunts on my dad's side.  I know the great grands names but don't think I was born within any of their lifetimes. 

 

I do know the names of the first three generations to live in "the Virginia colony" in the America's on my mom's dad's side.  Her maiden name is on a town out east.  With some effort, we discovered finally last year that yes, that's us!!    Actually, we can follow the line down to Grpa and my mom.  Mahitable was a Great great great........grandma.  What a name! 

 

MtRider   

[Homesteader]

9 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

It's a big deal in the midwest {or just that side of my family?}  to always keep graves cleared of debris and put real flowers out frequently. 

 

In Des Moines, I think my family used to call it decoration day. They went out and decorated all the graves for the summer. When we lived in Indiana next to a cemetery, they did the same thing. Was wonderful to walk through and see all the people remembered by their children.

[Jeepers]

Decoration Day is actually Memorial Day. All the graves are decorated up. Not just the military ones. All of them who have family left. My grandma kept real flowers on all of our family graves (3 daughters and 1 husband and 2 in-laws) in what they called urns. My poor grandpa had to keep them watered all summer long. Every evening after work they went to 'water the flowers'. Luckily the cemetery has water pumps throughout the grounds so they didn't have to haul water from home. I think most of the cemeteries I've been in have hand pumps. As a kid I remember a lot of graves had real flowers on them in urns or nice wire baskets. Then they went to the vases on the marker for artificial bouquets. 

[Mt_Rider]

The new cemeteries have rules for only flat head stones and zero decorating except flowers laying on the ground.  They just mow over the whole thing so the stones have to be lower than grass height.  Some still allow memorial sitting benches.  

 

MtRider    Nothing interesting about that. 

[Momo]

Decoration day is still big around here.  It is usually around Mother's Day.  Our local paper tells when each church/cemetery will have theirs. It's not as big as it was but it is still alive and well in these parts.

[euphrasyne]

I can name everyone on my mom's side quite a few generations back, but only a few on my dad's side.    My daughter is a 5th generation first born child down a maternal line that was still living.  I have a pic of my great grandmother, grandmother, mother, me,  and my eldest bio-daughter all together.  Sadly great-grandmother passed a few years back at 98.  Those are memories to cling to.