Climbing the Family Tree

"Did Grandma ever wear pants when she was a little girl?" Grace, 6, asked me the other day as she was looking through some family photos my mother-in-law had sent. I told her I wasn't sure, but when Grandma came for Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks we'd be sure to ask her.

As Grace studied the pictures, the ancestral inquisition continued, "Why did Aunt Rose always wear a hat? Didn't she have pretty hair? What kind of animal did Tete's fur coat used to be? What did Pop-pop call his dog?"

Her curiosity inspired us to write down some questions for Grandma's upcoming visit and call to ask her to bring even more pictures with her when she visits. Since our families are scattered over the United States, being together is an anticipated event that gives us rare access to one another's memories, recollections, and thoughts. Holidays are prime time for doing family tree research, so with Grandma and Grandpa's help, we plan to spend this Thanksgiving recording as much information as we can about the "old-timey people in the pictures," as Grace calls them.

To get in the spirit and expand her knowledge of family history, Grace has been interviewing her father and me to create "biographies." I bought mini-scrapbooks for each of us, and with a few photos and Grace's illustrations, we're on our way to being immortalized in print.

It's been hysterical to field her questions — and an interesting exercise in historical accuracy. "Did you carry little blackboards to school?" she asked earnestly the other day, only to be sorely disappointed to learn I was not a contemporary of Laura Ingalls Wilder. "Well Grandma must have, then," she insisted.

When Grandma and Grandpa visit for Thanksgiving, we'll all make a Handprint Family Tree, in which Grace plans to feature her little brother, Luke, as a "nut."

I told her that every family has a few if they're lucky.