At this time in my life I have six great-grandchildren, and a great-great grandchild is a not-too-distant possibility. I also have several great-great nephews and nieces – perhaps even a great-great-great. At times it become a bit confusing.
One point of this is to mark the relatively brief history of the United States. My grandfather Jordan was born in 1841. His grandfather, my great-great grandfather, was born in 1750, Thus a few generations of my family cover the entire span of our American republic.It is a sad fact is that I know very little about my ancestors. I chastise myself for not talking more to my father about family. I learned almost nothing from him about my paternal grandfather or grandmother or those who had gone before. It’s also true of my mother and her family. That is one reason I started this blog. My children will certainly know a lot about me and their grandparents. I trust they will pass it on.
Jordans-Journey 
Sandy,
I completely agree with what you say. My GM told me a lot about her family and my GF’s family when I was young and I wish now that I had listened closer. A lot of what she told me sounded pretty unbelievable then but now my research is verifying everything that she told me. I urge everyone that has ANY interest in family history to go talk to their oldest relatives NOW and to find out everything that they can and to write it all down. If you’re like most people life is too busy to work on genealogy until you’re retired and by then you’ll forget a lot of what you were told and the people that told it to you will be long gone. Also get DNA samples from the older generations ASAP. Having DNA even from an non-direct ancestor such as an uncle will make finding how how you are related to your DNA matches MUCH easier. Thanks to General Sherman’s army there are gaps in the records for some of my families and DNA is the only way that I was able to find the correct families and was able to PROVE my connection to them.
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