Different Names For Grandparents

Genealogy for Geeks, Part 3: Published Histories

Genealogy isn’t all about names and dates. There is a real personal side to it, if you look past official records and read published histories that include information about your ancestors and the lives they led.

I recently found a treasure trove of information about one ancestor, Joseph Van Doren Davison, who had previously been a bit of a dead end. I didn’t know much about this great, great grandfather of mine, despite having spent time with my great grandmother, his daughter, many times in my life (she lived to be 103; I was 23 when she died). But online searches, both at Ancestry.com and in Google Books, revealed many clues. I learned more about his family and how he spent his life.

I learned that Joseph Van Doren Davison was a textile merchant, owning his own business after having worked his way up by being a clerk and even being in charge of a muslin department at one concern. When he ran a shop of his own, the shop was known for the quality of its goods. He left the shop in the (hopefully) capable hands of his sons when he retired. In addition to his day job, he also had a very active role in the community in Mercer County, New Jersey. He was president of the Board of Health. He participated in the Sunday school and board of trustees of his church. He was on the police committee and was a member of two different fraternal orders. He owned many houses that he rented out. He was even able to travel abroad. He who was previously just a name to me now had a whole life history.

Anyone can search for biographical information on the lives of those in their family tree. These histories are sometimes written about family groups, or kept by churches, but the ones I found for this particular ancestor were all centered around geographic areas: cities, counties, and states. Fortunately, this branch of my family lived in New Jersey for quite a long time, so the story was easy to follow once I found the trail. My research also gave me more evidence of my paternal family tradition of giving children middle names that were family maiden names.

I highly recommend researching your family history both with Google books , and on Ancestry.com . I found plenty of information in both locations, and interestingly, there was little to no overlap in my search results from the two places. Google Books was very helpful with research such as this. They have excellent search capabilities, and if the book is public domain, you can just save the whole thing to your bookshelf. You can perform additional searches on the books you find, and view them in a variety of formats.

Name. Grandma. What Are Some Different Names for Grandmother ...

I fully understand Lauren Charpio’s parents’ thinking when they didn’t want to be called the traditional names of Grandma and Grandpa.

In my own book, Who Gets to Name Grandma? I included stories ranging from a dyslexic child’s naming her grandmother Mugga , to a friend who called her grandma Rick-Rick because she smoked, to a friend of mine who adopted the name G-Mom , as hip and smart.

Boomer grandparents-to-be , author Chapio’s parents wanted names more suitable for their self-image.

Out of this experience, author and mother Lauren Charpio wrote You Can Call Me Hoppa! The Grandparents’ Guide to Choosing a Name That Fits . The book lists both traditional and different names for a grandmother by describing the stories from friends and family about how they came to have their grandmother and grandfather names .

Grammie and Hoppa became the author’s chosen grandparent names – Hoppa because their granddaughter could not pronounce “Grandpa.” And, for the same reasons we are all charmed by the cute stories that come with made-up names, they all quickly adopted the unique “Hoppa.”

Charpio has collected dozens of stories. From “ Boo ,” for the grandmother who was always playing Peek-a-Boo, to the former Wall Street executive who wanted to be called “Chief,” and the former surfer, who’s now called “ Grand-Dude .”

Charpio’s sweet stories capture the angst for Boomer parents of being thought of and called grandparents that is so at odds with our vision of ourselves.

Charpio has turned this life-changing event into a series of charming vignettes about how grandparents have come to welcome not only the fact of grandparenthood, but the image of themselves as grandparents . She has incorporated photos and designed pages to highlight the short stories. There are chapters for traditional , cultural , personal and baby-named names.

There is even a form where you can submit your own story, for possible inclusion in the next book.

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