No Regrets - Interviewing Your Older Relatives

It just so happened that my cousin got married the year that my older son had the family heritage assignment.  My grandfather was in amazingly great shape in his early 90s and golfed as much as possible.  Sadly he wasn't physically up to joining the traditional pre-wedding golf day with all the men in the family.  But that turned into the golden opportunity for my son to interview him.  I am so incredibly thankful we got to do that, because he passed away only 6 months later.  But I do have two regrets.  Firstly, most of the questions were pretty superficial (about pets, hobbies, etc.).  That made sense coming from his great-grandson.  But I wish I asked him some more introspective ones.  Secondly, I wish I had given him a microphone to speak into.  We had a room full of people, so at times it was difficult to hear him on the video.  And since I was holding the camera, my voice came in the loudest - which is a painful thing indeed!  I hope to figure out a way to edit out the background noise with Photoshop Premiere, when Michael needs to listen to it for his assignment.

Given how busy the school year is, we will be aiming to interview grandparents over the summer.  I found some great questions online that I would like to borrow.  Thank you Treasure Maps Genealogy for your many great ideas!  I will also be asking my technophile hubby for help securing a cordless microphone.  Please comment with any suggestions you might have.

- Who where the most influential people in your life (relative, teacher, coach, boss, etc) and why?

- What hard-earned lessons have you learned in your life?

- What was a life-defining or life-altering moment in your life?

- What do you want to make sure we know about your parents/grandparents/siblings?

- What predictions would you make for each of your grandchild's lives?

- What wisdom do you want to pass down the generations?

"VI ET ARMIS" By Strength And Arms

Boy, just to talk about this took some negotiation last night!  Michael pushed for not working on this at all until the end of June, but I reminded him of all his extracurriculars that will start up in the Fall.  Neither of us wants to be slaving over this full-time next Spring.

When I read in the description of the cover of the book that there was blood dripping from the leg, he wanted to find it.  Then he asked me to scan it to put in his book.  We're getting somewhere!

"Gules, three dexter arms vambraced argent and embowed, the hands closed proper.

A dexter arm vambraced and embowed argent, the hand grasping an armed leg couped it the thigh and bleeding."

Focus on the Men in Battles

This assignment has been legendary in our town waaaaaay before my time.  Many a mother has slaved hours upon hours creating a beautiful family heirloom.  That was never in the realm of possibility with my non-artistic, analytical brain. 

But on my first go around, I drove my older son to cram in all of the ancestors I was adding to my tree in Ancestry.com back to Charlemagne.  This time we're not going for breadth as much as depth.  (After all, the assignment only requires that we go back as far as the Civil War.)  I'm going to be picky and choose to highlight the ones with life events that would interest my son.  When I consider his favorite books - they usually climax with an epic battle.  So the first tidbit I gave him was from a wonderful book about my maternal grandmother's line, Familia:  La historia de los Armstrong en Puerto Rico.  There's a great story of how the first Armstrong earned his name in Scotland.  I read it to him and he gave me a nod of approval.  Then I quit while I was ahead!

The story goes that in an ancient battle the King of the Scots was unhorsed. His armor bearer Fairbairn, with one arm, picked up the king and sat him upon Fairbairn's own horse. The grateful king decreed that Fairbairn should thereafter be know as Armstrong, and gave him land along the Scottish Border.

Your mission Mom, should you choose to accept it...

Welcome to my first ever post to my first ever blog!

Here on Mission Impossible - Making Genealogy Fun For My Teen Blog, I will be sharing my year-long journey to help my 8th grade son complete his family heritage album.  Not only complete it, but actually enjoy it.  (OK, if not enjoy it, at least not detest it.)  I already went through this process with my older son two years ago.  That ended up being a year of a whole lot of nagging with a final product basically full of names, dates and places, but not much else.  Hindsight being 20/20, this time around I want to find ways to engage my son by making his ancestors come alive and become interesting people to get to know.  It will take some work, but I choose to accept the mission!