6/1/2000
By Lynn Bonsey
Make a game of your family history. Here's how to create your own "Jeopardy!" or "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," step by step.
Can you list your great-uncle's three favorite hobbies? Was your great-grandmother's middle name Amelia, Ophelia or Adelia? Is it true your father played poker while your mother gave birth to you? Why did your brother skip first grade?
You can not only track down the answers to such questions but also preserve and share them — by transforming your family's trivia and history into a fun-filled, personalized game.
Several years ago, the boom in trivia games inspired my sister and me to create just such a Christmas gift for our parents. Our game, which we called It's All Relative, combined our family's history with contemporary events. At first, it included just a few dozen questions and answers. Today, this living family legacy contains more than 1,000 historical (and, in some cases, hysterical) questions. Each Christmas our parents, spouses and children add new questions and answers to this keepsake; then three generations play the game, sharing memories and laughter.