The Day I Learned All My Grandparents' Names

(For another post on this same topic, see Clan Loyalty, Genetics, and Fear of Heights)

This is very exciting for me. I knew a few of my paternal grandparents' when I was 10, when I was given a family tree assignment in school. But dad only wrote down his adoptive parents, and besides that he wrote them in Japanese so I didn't how they were pronounced. I lost that tree a long time ago.

This morning we had a large breakfast of the typical style I described a few days ago. My mother came by as well, then left after breakfast to meet my stepfather and so some gardening.

Dad seemed very relaxed, sitting back and reading the Sunday New York Times.

I asked him if he could do a favor for me and he gave me a suspicious look.

"I'm putting together a scrapbook. Could you write down your family tree?"

"My family tree is too withered."

"Just anything you can remember. You don't have to write it in English." I gave him a sketchpad and walked off and did something else for a while.

He wrote down his adoptive mother and father, in English.

"Could you add in your adoptive sister? And your biological parents?"

"Too many names! I don't remember."

"I know you know your biological father's name."

I walked off again.

He drew a dotted line to "biological FA". He gave his biological father's real name and pen name. I know he was a left-leaning intellectual in the early 20th century. The pen name is a major, major, major piece of information. With a bit of quiet help from someone living in Japan, I could find some kind of biography. Over his adoptive parents' names he put "stepfather" and "stepmother".

"You know your biological mother's name, don't you?" I walked off again.

He put his mother's name, "biological MO" and a notation that she was not married to his father.

"THAT IS IT! NO MORE!"

I took the hint and removed the family tree. "Thanks Dad!" It's now scanned and uploaded to my private Flickr account. Whew. This was a lot easier than I thought it would be.