Losing a grandparent is often the first significant bereavement in a person’s life. For many of our customers it is the loss of the person who taught them to make scones, who let them stay up late watching the cricket, who picked them up from primary school on Wednesdays. The relationship is specific and unrepeatable. A grandparent memorial gift, given to a grieving parent, sibling or cousin, should reflect that specificity rather than reach for a generic phrase.
Below are nine personalised memorial star map ideas built around a grandparent’s life. Each is drawn from real astronomical data for the exact place and time you choose.
1. The night Nan was born
For many families this is the most resonant date. A map of the sky over the regional town where she was born, drawn from astronomical data for that night, becomes a small fixed point in the family’s history.
2. Their wedding night
An anniversary star map drawn for the wedding night of grandparents — sometimes in postwar Australia, sometimes in Greece or Italy or England before emigration — is one of the most-requested memorial pieces we make.
3. The night they met
If the family knows the story — the dance hall in Wagga Wagga in 1956, the country show in Geelong in 1962, the ship from Naples in 1955 — a night-we-met star map draws that beginning.
4. The night the first grandchild was born
If the deceased grandparent had a particularly close relationship with one grandchild, the night that grandchild was born can be a meaningful choice — the moment their grandparenthood began.
5. The night they emigrated to Australia
For first-generation Australian grandparents, the night they arrived at Port Melbourne, Fremantle or Circular Quay is a date many families know within a day or two. The map renders the sky over the harbour on that night.
6. A pair of dates on a single map
For grandparents who passed within months of each other — as long-married couples sometimes do — a single map can show both dates, with two small lines of text beneath the chart.
7. A family star map showing the births of all the grandchildren
For larger families, a composite map can show the sky over the home town with small markers for each grandchild’s birth date. We are happy to discuss this by email — see our FAQs.
8. The night of their last big birthday
The eightieth, the ninetieth, the hundredth. If there is a photograph of the grandparent at the party, a map drawn for the date of the party can hang beside it.
9. The night they passed
The hardest choice and the one fewest grandchildren make first. Often this comes later — sometimes after a smaller map of the birth date has lived in the house for a year or two. We have made second and third memorial maps for the same family, ordered three or four years apart.
What to write underneath
We allow a small line of text below the chart. For grandparent maps, the most common choices are:
- A first name, or a family nickname: Nan, Pop, Yiayia, Nonno
- A pair of dates separated by a small em-dash
- A single short phrase the grandparent used to say
- Nothing at all — many families prefer the map to speak for itself
If the grandparent had a strong cultural identity — Greek, Italian, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Irish, English — the text can be in that language. We have set lines of text in Greek, Italian, Vietnamese, Arabic and Mandarin without issue. Email us with the exact text and we will set it correctly.
For young grandchildren
If the grandchild receiving the gift is a child, consider hanging the map at child height in their bedroom. A small shelf below the frame can hold a single object from the grandparent — a watch, a pair of glasses, a knitting needle, a small ceramic figure. Together they make a quiet, child-sized memorial that the child can return to as they grow.
For adult grandchildren scattered across the country
For families with grandchildren in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns, ordering multiple smaller prints of the same map — all showing the same date and place — is one of the most common things we do. Each grandchild then has the same fixed point on their own wall, in their own home. Pricing for multi-print orders is on our prices page.
If you are not sure where to start
Our gift card does not expire. For an extended family member buying for the bereaved parent or aunt, it lets them choose the date themselves when they are ready — often many months after the funeral. We have had families redeem cards more than a year after they were given.
Browse the full range on our shop page, or message us with a date and place if you would like help choosing a layout.
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Personalised star maps for this moment.
Looking for a gift that never misses? A gift voucher lets the recipient design the star map that means the most to them.
Looking for a meaningful anniversary present? Read cotton anniversary gifts.
