The pains of a multigenerational story - any tips?

[AnyaKimlin]

I've spent all afternoon working on the Black family and with five generations still alive it's proving stressful with having more than one grandfather, great-grandparent etc Where possible and natural I've made them Grandpa Bill or Greatpa Wilf... has anyone tried anything similar?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Have you read Len Deighton's series (I forget name) and Naomi Jacob's "Gollantz saga"?

 

[zmunkz]

From what I've seen with friends who have large families, you do tend to use actual names in place of "aunt", "pop", etc., when there are too many ambiguities. Maybe you need to tackle it that way? Sounds challenging... good luck with it.

 

[ralphkern]

Maybe a 'black sheep' will be referred to by their first name versus someone more matriarchal or patriarchal who might be referred to more formally.

 

[Ajid]

With myself and other half who at one point had a family with a living great great Grand Mother it was only her side that went beyond grandmother. As such and her being French we used the French terms for grandparents and parents on her side a generation removed. I.e Great Grandma was Omi, grandpa was pappi etc. When it hit Great Great we just duplicated the grandmother term. No such issues on my side, we live fast and die young.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Ken Follet's Century Trilogy is all about different families and their descendents growing up through the 20th century - might be worth a look, especially the opening sample of Fall of Giants which tackles the problem of a Welsh village where almost everyone has the same Christian name...

 

[Malloriel]

In my own family my grandmother is Nana (still living), and my great-grandmother was grandma, mostly because my mom called her grandma, and she was gone while I was still very young, so there was no reason to change it.

From there, back, my great-grandmother's mother is just called Grandma Rose. It takes too much time to throw in as many greats as you'd need, especially when talking to family members with different levels of "great" removal. When we say "Grandma Rose" we all know about whom we speak.

My boyfriend, on the other hand, uses different terms for his maternal and paternal grandmothers, though that doesn't cross up into the generational aspect. One is "Oma", and I think the other is "Nonna". (He gets grouchy when he accidentally refers to her as his "Nana" for how often he interacts with my grandma these days.)