I had a great-grandfather who married three times in the mid-1800s and had 22 children, although, of course, in those days many women (two of his wives) died in childbirth and many children didn’t live to adulthood. He was prolific, but not imaginative, as proven by the fact that he named both four sons from his second wife and four sons from his third wife John, Jacob, Joseph, and Peter. My great-grandfather was also named Jacob and had a brother named Peter living on a neighboring farm who used the same names for his sons. My short-lived interest in genealogy was an attempt to figure out who was who.

Although I’ve had a lifelong fascination with names, I soon realized names and dates can only tell us so much. It’s our stories that tell us who we are.

The Quirky Fact

I chose the quirky quote above because I have a disdain for pretentiousness that probably comes from having absolutely no one in my known family tree who could give me any right to pretentiousness. For that reason, I have also always liked the fact that the highfalutin word “pedigree” has a lowbrow root that means “crane’s foot,” referring to the shape of a crane’s footprint in the sand. In the example above of one branch of a pedigree chart, my name would go on that first line, and my parents’ names on the next two lines, and from their names would sprout two more lines for their parents’ names and so on. Pedigree, schmedigree. (Couldn’t there have been just one duchess somewhere?)

The Question
Have you ever made a smile journal? By this I mean a journal of stories – long or short – that make you smile. Stories that are told so often that a single word can bring on the grin.

One of the joys of living on Florida’s coast is that sea turtles come onshore to lay their eggs in the sand each spring. It usually happens late at night when the beach is quiet, and if you are lucky enough to bear witness, you will never forget the miracle.

One May, relatives of my then husband were visiting from Munich, and he told them excitedly that after dark we would be walking down to the beach to see the giant 200-pound turtles come on shore to lay their eggs. Maybe he even said 300-pounds because some are that and more. Unfortunately, he forgot the word for turtle (die Schildkröte) and said instead, die Taube – which means pigeon. The memory of the look on his cousins’ faces as they imagined 200-pound pigeons flying down beside them to lay their eggs still sends me into giggles.

Sometimes just one word floods the memory. Write it down. Preserve it.


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The exercise below is excerpted from a longer set of writing prompts available as “Family Stories” in the Wiser Now store under individual exercises. Access it here.