This is the seventh installment in my series about conducting a life history interview with an older family member or friend. The series is based on William Fletcher's book Recording Your Family History. Previous posts in the series provided an introduction to recording your family history, questions to ask the interviewee about their grandparents, parents, siblings, questions pertaining to their childhood (birth to 11 or 12 years of age), questions pertaining to their youth (adolescence through the teenage years and into the early twenties), questions pertaining to courtship and marriage, and questions pertaining to parenting.

Today's post focuses on grandparenting. In introducing this section of his book, Fletcher notes that this discussion is one of the most important in the guide. He argues that there is a lack of communication between grandparents and grandchildren. "As a result, young people today lack a personal historical perspective," Fletcher states. "Most of them have not acquired the personal feel for history that comes from absorbing a sense of the past from daily or frequent contact with older relatives."

Fletcher attributes the lack of intergenerational communication to mobility, urbanization and cultural forces. I would add one more factor: longevity (or lack thereof). I was 17 when Fletcher first published Recording Your Family History. Presumably I was part of the generation he viewed as having limited connection to grandparents. In my case, however, I had little opportunity for contact with older family members. My maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother had died before I was born. My maternal grandmother passed away when I was 6. And although my paternal grandfather lived until I was 24, I did not know him.

It's a similar story for my children—with the exception of their maternal grandmother, who is alive and well. My children's maternal grandfather passed away before they were born, and their paternal grandfather died when Shane was 1 and I was pregnant with Mel. Their paternal grandmother passed away when Shane was 13 and Mel was 11. However, unlike my mother, who lives just an hour from my children, Chris' mom lived seven hours away. Moreover, she spoke only French, a language my children were familiar with but not as fluent in then as they are now.

It is difficult to say what level of connection I might have had with my grandparents had they lived longer or that my children might have had with their grandparents had they lived longer. But this situation does impress upon me the tremendous opportunity we have when our grandparents, and even our parents, are still alive at the time when we recognize the value of intergenerational connection.

As with the interview about parenting, you can conclude the interview by asking your interviewee to record a message for each of their grandchildren (and great-grandchildren). You could say, "Imagine your grandchildren (great-grandchildren) listening to this interview in the distant future when you are no longer around. What would you like to say to each of them?"