I feel so blessed in that I have such a great relationship with my extended family members. My mom grew up as the younger of two children. I just had a phone conversation with her brother—my uncle yesterday. I talk to my grandmother frequently, and even her dad, my great-grandpa. I know many people don’t have the chance to grow up knowing their grandparents, much less have such a great relationship with them.

I consider it a huge blessing to know where I came from, and I want my children to continue to have close relationships with their grandparents, and great-grandparents.

A while back I mentioned a project I was so excited about, well here it is. I was blessed with the opportunity to have 5 generations of my family under one roof (mine!) for a weekend in April. I couldn’t let the moment pass without documenting it. We took plenty of photographs and video, but I wanted to create something special. I thought it would be fun to create a video time capsule, sharing some of our thoughts and opinions on life.

I wrote down five questions for each of us five to answer (there were actually 10 questions but I narrowed it down to share online). It’s amazing hearing the wisdom in the voice of my grandmother and great-grandpa, contrasting with the innocence of my daughter.

Here are 5 interesting tidbits to note about this video:

1. We all have ‘J’ names. In case it’s not clear, John is my great-grandpa, his daughter is Joy, my mom is known in the family as Joy Lynn, I’m Jennifer Lynn, and my daughter… Well you know her as Lil’ J, but she also shares the Lynn middle name.
2. My mom comes across slightly dull in the video at times, but she’s really hilarious, and if you knew her you’d see the humor in her answer to being “funny” (without a smile on her face). She’s silly and sarcastic, and she’s sneaking it in the whole time we’re filming.
3. None of us were camera shy. I guess it runs in the family.
4. My great-grandfather is 95 and now has three great-great-grandchildren, two of them are my children, and one is my 1-year-old nice.
5. This was the first vlog for three out of the five generations. Of course the youngest two generations are already well familiar with YouTube.

I’d encourage you to reconnect with your family members. You never know when you won’t get another chance. If you can, sit down and ask them about their life and record it on video. I promise you it’ll be something you will save and cherish forever.

I also sat down with my grandmother and grandpa and interviewed them, as well as another interview with my great-grandpa and asked them about their history and life. I’ll share some of those at a later time as well as a printable for interview questions for your grandparents.

Let me know what you think, and share with your friends!

Tags: 5 generations interview, 5 generations video, documenting life, family, family history, journaling, LDS, love, memories, time capsule, video, vlog