How long will YOU be remembered?

On my recent travels I came across this 1997 bit from the newspaper The Taylorsville Times: "How long will you be remembered? In a national Gallup survey, 1005 adults, 18 years and older, were asked if they knew the first names and occupation of their great-grandparents. Only 2% knew the names of all their great-grandparents and more than 60% did not know the names of any of their great-grandparents. Only 8% knew the occupations of their great-grandparents, including the predictable answer of any great-grandmother being a housewife. More than 40% did not know the occupation of any of their great-grandparents. So how long will you be remembered?

In the spring of 2010, I had the privilege of helping with a class of gifted 10-14 year olds wanting a genealogy lesson. Being average age of 12, that put them born in 1998. Their parents would be (on average) born in 1973 and their grand-parents after World War II. Great-grandparents were really ancient history! What will these children know about their ancestors who participated in the world wars, the Civil War, the Revolutionary War? Will they care about the occupations of these "ancients?"

What will they care?? If you were born before World War II and if you have descendants, what will they really know and care about you, your life and what you did?? And if you care that they do know, what are you doing about it????

Food for thought on a hot July day, 2010.