Thanks to modern day medicine and improved health most of us survive to be great-grandparents. Of course there are some cases where you have people who are proud to have hit the great-great grandparent mark and then, although even rarer, you have the possibility of a number of adults today who may get to be great-great-great grandparents due to their offspring becoming parents themselves in their very early teens. Basically though most of us can expect to be great-grandparents and be able to enjoy that special position in the family for a good few years. That is a special time for the people closer to the top of the family tree to talk to the younger generation about family life and share stories and traditions that have endured through the family over the decades. But what about those descendants of yours who are not yet even a twinkle in your son/grandson or daughter’s/granddaughter’s eye…? those members of your family who will not be born for decades and who you will never, ever meet or know but may have your ears, your chin or your height or who will have inherited those old jewelry beads of your own gran’s…?

I was thinking about this recently as I have spent the better part of the past twenty years putting together our family history so that my children will know where and who they came from and so that they too can pass the information on to their own children and grandchildren. When the grandchildren start arriving it will be something I will be talking to them about, and maybe – touch wood – the great-grandchildren, and they will have their own memories of me when I am well out of this world. But their own great-grandchildren and THEIR great-grandchildren will only have photos of me and their dad to go by – if they are at all interested – and this is what got me considering the idea of sending a letter of some kind to descendants of mine who will not be born until well into the next century.

We were thinking about filming a ‘chat’ to our future descendants where we would talk about us, our family and the things we like to do. In it we would show the family car that we are driving now – seeing as cars will surely be different in the next century – we’d also show around the home, our local area and where we take our children – their ancestors – to play. Also we will talk about what is happening in world events, what we are watching on television, what things cost today and today’s technology…the X-Box, the laptops, mobile phones…heaven knows what kids will be playing with in 2115! of course we would record this all on a disc and naturally technology will have moved on in leaps and bounds by then, but updating and transferring this precious family documentary so that it adapts to future technology over the years will be a task that not only will be something for us and our children to undertake but for our future family members who will be around long after we are all gone. This will become our own family time-capsule and hopefully a family tradition for future generations to carry on.