Kelli had to add a couple of college classes to her summer schedule to keep her full time status so the class Marriage and Family was added to her schedule. It’s funny…so far she says said she has learned the most practical day to day stuff in that class over any other class she’s taken in all the years she’s gone to school.
One of her latest assignments was to make a family genealogy chart. Thankfully my sister Judy is up on my side of the family so Kelli got that info quickly. This was her first draft. We have since corrected a few errors.
She had to list all of her 1st cousins and their kids. Thankfully it wasn’t any further than that!
My side has 22 grand kids….48 great grand kids. Can you believe that there are 9 of the grand kids that haven’t even had children yet?! That 48 number is bound to grow!
Hubby’s side has 16 grand kids, 16 great grand kids and 3 great great grand kids…. On his side 9 of the grand children don’t have children yet so those numbers are bound to grow too.
I had know that it was getting harder and harder to attend everything but until Kelli showed me the numbers I never realized how many kids there were and really didn’t realize that my family had so many more.
A few weeks ago I had written a blog post about how hard it was knowing who to invite to events, which events we need to go to. Overwhelmingly blog readers told us to go with who we feel closest to regardless of that they are family or friends. Sadly, I can only see that this problem is only going to get worse as the years pass.
Long ago Hubby and I decided that being our families are both pretty big and being we both work extended hours that if there’s an event on my side of the family, it’s up to me to decided whether we go. Often Hubby can’t go because of work-then I make the decision whether I want to go myself or take some kids with. I’ve gone to many events on my own and that’s okay. It’s all part of being a farmer hand’s wife.
On my side of the family we have given up on getting together for holidays as a whole group. Each of us siblings has our own get together with our own families. Hubby’s family still gets together with the immediate siblings. For us that day typically lands on Hubby’s boss’ family get together day or on the day we get together with our own kids. It’s just hard.
Hubby makes the decisions on what we go to on his side of the family. If he goes I go unless I have something else I can’t get out of. If he’s working, I stay home.
Part of me is sad that I don’t see my family as much as we used to just because it has grown so big. I really wish my mom could have seen the family grow. She loved children. She loved being a mom and grandma. She was always quick to comment on how this child looked like mom or that child looked like dad.
…it’s interesting how families evolve.
Anyway that the ramblings in my mind after helping Kelli with her genealogy chart…I am just so thankful that we didn’t have to do second cousins too. That would have taken up a couple days to get that all figured out.
Jo, be sure that Kelli puts in ALL the birth dates and death dates of ALL the people on her genealogy chart. She will need that information at some point further on in her life and this paper will be Very Useful! It’s a great way to keep track of people! Good Luck!
Yep, big families.
Maybe it is time to start those epic once-every-three-years GIANT family reunion weekends?!!! Although my dad’s side of the family tried that and none of the cousins my age (50) and younger came. Very disappointing.
I have cousins, with children I haven’t met, and they have kids now! It’s hard!!!!
There are a lot of really good, really easy-to-use genealogy programs out there. They are not that expensive, and for a family the size of yours they will really help you get control of the cousins and second cousins and first cousins once removed …..
I understand all to well! My Mother was the youngest of 10! I was one of 30 grandchildren (I was #28)!! My mother became an Aunt at the age of 4 and my cousins have children who are actually older than I am!! I love my big family!!