The other evening I was having a nice quiet evening at home surrounded by plastic sheeting hanging from the ceiling (that's another blog) and enjoying the NFL opening season game when the phone rang. On the other end was granddaughter 3 who is daughter 2 of daughter 3. Still with me? After a little grandfather - granddaughter banter, mostly by me, she finally said, "Grandpa, I need help with my genealogy." Since that is a topic near and dear to my heart, I said, "Sure, what do you want to know?" She asked for our birthdates, birth places, realized she didn't need our death dates and then went on to ask about other relatives. After getting my parents, she asked, "Who are your dad's parents?" I shared all of the relevant information with her, followed by my mother's parents. Then it was off to JoAnn's parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Remember, this was done a little randomly, meaning we didn't always follow a family line, and I'm several hundred miles away on the telephone. When I asked questions the answers were sometimes a little vague. She concurred she was building a pedigree chart, but I wondered why we went to great-grandparents on only one side. That was when she shared she wanted to go back 8 generations and would need to call again! Eight generations is a lot of names.
The next morning I talked to our daughter, her mother, Suzanne, and asked the burning question, "How does Lexi's pedigree chart look." I got this guffaw from Suzanne and she finally said that Lexi came to her and showed that JoAnn and I were cousins. We're not, we aren't from Kentucky (apologies to my family in Kentucky), and were not even remotely from related families. Not that progenitors haven't done that, but not for over 300 years as near as I can determine.
JoAnn and I had a good laugh over the idea we were cousins - maybe even "kissing cousins." This is what makes grandparenting so much fun. We get to see how children interpret what is said and how differently they see the world from us. It is a joy for us to have such wonderful grandchildren and children. Not that we are biased.
6 comments:
How funny. You in Italy, and probably lots of other places, it's still perfectly normal to marry your cousins! I was so confused on my mission with this cute family until I finally realized they were cousins before they were married!
Oh,Dad. I couldn't stop laughing when I read that you and Mom weren't from Kentucky. I love a good Kentucky joke. Allison heard me laughing for so long and asked me what was so funny. It took a second to stop laughing and read her the joke. She didn't laugh as much. I guess she doesn't have enough Hoosier in her yet.
That's funny! I guess you need to be more clear on whose related and whose not!
That is really funny! When I read the title of your post, Kissing Cousins!, it reminded me of the Christmas 2006 in Utah. I remember Alyssa saying she has never kissed a boy and Calvin volunteering to teach her how to kiss! Jeni had to explain to them why they couldn't kiss!!!
That made me laugh pretty hard. Cousins. I wonder what she was thinking that in her head she somehow connected you two having siblings for parents. Such a good laugh.
It was pretty funny when she came and told me that mom and dad were cousins!! Of course by this piont it is at least 10pm and she should have been in bed a LONG time ago! She tells me about it and I just look at her and tell her to go to bed (I am already there!)She tells me to look at her chart - it is all there and it doesn't lie! Being so late - it took me a few min to figure out what she had done!
Post a Comment