Heritage Hints From Mama – Getting in Touch With Your Living Ancestors
Getting In Touch With Your Living Ancestors-
Hello from the Deep South, home of magnolias, sweet tea and sweltering hot summers! I am Christy’s Mama and have been invited to share a little wisdom gleamed from my years of experience. Some of it may come in handy and others may just be a little bit of rambling thoughts from my cobwebbed brain. You can take either with a grain of salt. If you have any comments or suggestions along the way, they will be welcomed. Remember, I am getting old so coddle me a bit. Well, here goes!
Today I want to talk about our living ancestors. Do you have a grandparent, older aunt, or uncle living? If so, call today and set up a time for a visit. It doesn’t have to be in person if they live a little far off from you. A phone call will do nicely. I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome and I’m sure your relative will be more than willing to talk with you. They are some of your family’s most precious resources- connect with them!
Is there a favorite food you enjoyed as a child that was prepared by someone in your family? Have you ever wondered about how family traditions started? Or have you ever thought about tracing your family tree? Your older relatives are the easiest way to solve these mysteries and sadly, once these relatives pass on, their knowledge goes with them.
Take a week or so, to think about growing up and some of the memories that come to mind. Make a list of questions you would like answered. You will probably be surprised at the things you think of. Christy hears of so many people that enjoyed a certain food when they were small and long for just one more taste of it. Most of the time it is an everyday food that was prepared from memory and just can’t quite be duplicated. All it would have taken was a few minutes to watch it being prepared and taking a few notes. But when that relative passed on, the recipe was lost forever. Don’t let this happen to you.
If you have ever thought of taking up genealogy as a hobby, your relatives are your best and easiest by far resource for getting a great start. Ask about grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Take detailed notes and list any names, locations, birth dates, marriages, deaths, etc. Let your relative talk about whatever crosses their mind. You will learn much more than names and dates. You will learn about the where and why that made your family what it was.
If you are able to, take older relatives back to where they lived and went to school, church, etc. It is amazing the stories that they will recall. I have done this with my mother who is 80 years young and even though I had asked questions a thousand times with no answers, it was amazing some of the things she remembered when taken back to the places where she had carried on her day to day life.
Also ask your older relatives if they have any old family pictures. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. By sure and list who the people are in the picture. Believe me, I am speaking from experience. You will probably forget Aunt Sophie’s sister’s name and where they were when the picture was taken. Nowadays, it just takes a quick trip and a little cash to get a picture copied. The old pictures don’t mean a thing if you don’t know who is in them. Old pictures are some of my most prized possessions and I’m sure they will become some of yours too!
To get you started, take a minute and think about what you would have liked to know from relatives who have passed on. Then, you may just realize the importance of taking advantage of the resources you have before they are gone. We are all busy and even though we have good intentions, it seems like we have a hard time getting around to some of the important aspects of our lives. Please make an appointment to take care of a little family business before it is too late. This is just a little advice from me to you.
I’d love to hear some of the wisdom or family history you have uncovered just by taking the time to talk with your living relatives. Please feel free to chat with me in the comments section below. I’ll read them all and look forward to answering!
I’ll be talking with you from time to time but until then, remember Mama loves you and I’ll see you soon!
~Mama
“There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children – one is roots, and the other, wings.”
~Hodding S. Carter
I sure hope the younguns (well, younguns to me…that is…lol…) take this post to heart….and soak up all the special things only the older adults in their family can share.
Thanks for such a thoughtful post. Ü
What a lovely, and thoughtful thing to do. This is what I so love about Southern people it is the value that we place on tradition and family. You have wonderful and useful tips and I appreciate reading them. In my family my aunt ask each family member (and being from the South I mean all my cousins as well) for a favorite recipe and a story about that recipe. She put together a Combs family cook book with so many great stories about those who have gone on. I love going to the Old Home Place and the cemetary that is there. It is so good to get in touch with your roots and makes me greatful for those who gave me such a great life.
Now that is great idea for a very special Christmas gift. It would take some time but not much money and would mean the world to everyone. Thanks for the great comment. Mama
Thank you Christy’s momma.
We just got back from a funeral for a man that attends our church. He was 64 or 65 and seemed to be in great health. He was very active and worked a lot, kept a beautiful garden which he loved. He would keep everyone in his family supplied with fresh vegetables. Friday he picked some fresh peas for his mother (who is 84 and can work the socks off me). She asked him how he was doing and he said great. Saturday morning his wife thought he was sleeping a little late, checked and found him dead in their bed. We just don’t know when it’s someone’s time to go. Take advantage now of remembering to tell them you love them, hug and kiss them and make sure you ask about their childhood memories and memories of older adults long gone.
One of my hobbys is genealogy and so many times wish I could ask my mom or dad something about their past that I didn’t think to ask while they were here.
I learned so much about my Mama over the years. She was one of nine children, who worked the fields and when their crops were taken care of, her Dad would farm them out to the neighbors. There wasn’t any money for toys so she made her a doll from a flat rock and painted a face with poke berries and wrapped it in an old rag for a blanket. She’s gone now but her stories will be with me forever. I did get her recipes for all my favorite foods but no one can make biscuits like Mama.
My grandmother made me a doll out of a rolled up towel. Even though I had lots of dolls, this is one I still remember playing with. I think I felt like I had went back in time a little. I still have a little rubber doll that my grandmother made an outfit out of the colored part of a bread sack. She used rubber bands to hold the clothes on. Do you see this Christy??? Thanks for the comment! Mama
Hi Mama,
I enjoyed reading your post. I have so many memories about my MaMaw. She was the dearest woman I have ever known and I miss her terribly. I never heard her say a mean thing about anyone. She wouldn’t join in on the gossip that sometimes went on around the kitchen table after dinner. She would just say “bless their hearts” and start with clearing the dishes. MaMaw made a cake every year at Christmas that was to die for. She called it appropriately “Christmas Cake”. It was a chocolate layer cake with a pineapple filling. I have always regretted not getting the recipe. She died when I was 15. I did ask family members years later for the recipe, but no one had it. MaMaw’s “Christmas Cake” is now just a childhood memory. I like to think she took the recipe with her to heaven.
I sometimes wonder if we had the recipe if it would taste the same. The love would be missing. I would love to eat a meal at my grandmothers just one more time. We don’t realize how great the meal tastes until we not longer have it. I hope that I have caused everyone to take a nice trip back in time. That is the hope of my posts and, of course, letting me ramble a bit. Take care, Love, Mama
Well done, Ms. Janice! There’s certainly no doubt where Christy received that special talent that she has for putting her heart on paper! My favorite story from Daddy is when he was 15, he and his buddy decided to “hobo” from north Louisiana to the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair. They rode the rails with very little in their pockets, but plenty of adventure in their spirits. One evening after walking around until they were about to drop, they found their way back to their motel, which was actually a small cave. They’d managed to bring back a couple of pieces of corn bread in their jacket pockets that they’d hoped to have for the next day…except the rats were hungry too and that took care of that. As they finally started making their way back home, the 2 boys parted ways. Daddy was alone, hungry, and still about 100 miles from home. He laid himself down across the railroad tracks and was just going to “end it all” when an elderly black man found him, fed him and helped send him on his way. The times were simpler, but the human heart has always been able to mete out so much kindness – something Daddy certainly never forgot!
That is a wonderful story.
Thanks for the encouragement! I really enjoyed the story. Boy, you can sure see that times have changed. My daddy talks about riding his bike to visit old friends after they had moved. It would have been about 15 or 20 miles. Could you imagine a mother giving them permission to do that? He got hungry on the way and asked a lady if he could pick some apples off her tree. He still talks about how sweet the apples were. I think the hospitality make them sweeter. As they say, those were the days! Janice
My grandson’s seventh grade class worked on this very thing this spring. They asked we grandparents to write about how things were when we were growing up. They asked a series of questions to give people an idea of what they wanted from us. I enjoyed doing mine and the kids loved hearing about what to them seemed eons ago. They were open mouthed when I talked about nickel ice cream cones and coke from a soda fountain at our local drug store. Saturday afternoon at the movie was a ten cent admission and you could stay for both features on that one thin dime. I remembered passenger trains, canning our food for winter, and roller skates that fastened onto your shoes. It was a fun project for me as well as my grandson so maybe your local schools would like to try it.
I am so glad to hear that some of the teachers realize what a treasure this will be to children in years to come. I hope that my grandchildren’s teachers will do this. Two of my grandson’s have expressed an interest in genealogy and I have printed off pictures of great great grandfathers for them. I always list the relation that the person is to my grandson at the bottom. That is a tip that a friend of mine who has been a great help to me in research for my family. The other tip he gave me is to always put a person in the picture who is an ancestor whenever you photograph a grave and let the tombstone show the encription in the photo. Thanks for your comment!