I wish I would have asked my parents detailed questions! In doing ancestry research I've found out that so many of the things I thought were true, were not. I've found out that Grandma wasn't born where we thought she was, and my great-grandfather listed different names for his parents, and different dates of birth, and birthplace for himself. My Dad's side was always very "secretive" and it's been a journey to untangle! Wished I had been more inquisitive when I was younger!!

I wish I'd written down what my grandmother told me about our family on my Dad's side. But I'm piecing some more of the history together from talking to my aunts. They all love family history as much as I do, Thank the good Lord. Dad's youngest sister has been into geneology for years, and I hope to get a copy of all of that before too long.

One can obtain a copy of death certificates. Quite often there is interesting health information depending on how much the doctor wrote. Older records are sometimes available through the local or county Historical and Genealogy Societies. If not through those groups County Vital Records have everything recorded.

We adopted our son and he is as much family to my grandmother as I am. He is endowed with my heritage and my husband's heritage and he is a part of both families right down to the core. My son is going to be 50 soon and he knows who he belongs to and the stories from my parents and the stories from my husband's parents and he knows who he is. His history is us. Edie

Children who are born to a family or adopted into a family, are welcomed into a family that has history. That history belongs to the child- whether he/she is naturally conceived, artificially conceived or adopted. Nothing more need be said about it!

There is so much I wish I'd asked my mother throughout the years. My dad's mother was divorced and had 2 daughters. She married my grandfather in 1915. I'd love to know about the divorce; it just wasn't done back then!

I contacted my aunt and several cousins asking info on their families (they were all in my life when I was a child). All were so supportive and gave me so much info for the geneology book I put together for Mom for Christmas that year. I just wish I had asked about family stories they had.

My 17 yo grandson is thinking about an engineering major in college. That brought to mind that both my father and grandfather were engineers. My grandfather was a civilian employee of the Army in the Phillipines before WW II. He was captured and died in a POW camp there. I told my GS about that and also that I've decided to tell him and his sister family facts and stories when I think of them. Both GKs listen respectully when I talk; whether or not they'll remember in a few years is a different story. LOL But how I wish I'd ask Mom more.

While my Dad passed away almost a year ago, I still wish he would have talked about his childhood. He had no desire at all to discuss it...he'd simply say it happened and it's over. I know he and his family had a decent growing up yet he didn't feel it important to share tidbits of it. Good or bad, I'm who I am and right now I like myself so I guess that is the best history I can have :)

Thank you - a lady after my own heart! Edie

I am like everyone else in that I wish I had paid more attention to my relatives' stories. So, my advice is to start some sort of family history (stories, marriages, deaths, people's personality, etc) on the printed page. Record people's voices as they tell the history. Then give a copy of it to your children and other relatives. Your local library and any genealogy library is a great place to house these records for future generations. A friend of mine has found pictures of relatives from the 1800's at a local library in Texas and another in Mississippi.

A few years ago, my husband and I started video recording his dad telling stories and just talking and bs-ing with us. Half of the time we were sort of sneaky about it and he wasn't aware we were taping him. The last year of his life, as he aged and became ill, he became cranky and difficult. (I honestly believe this was his way of making his passing easier for us to take.) A year or so after he passed, we brought out the videos and were showing them to my SIL. She cried and was so thankful we had them, because it reminded her of the way he was before he got cranky. She said it helped replace those sad, painful memories with good, happy ones.