56 essential questions to ask your parents to capture their personal history

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If y'all're reading this, congratulations—you're on your way to a well-nigh enjoyable and important journey! Who are y'all interviewing? A parent? Grandparent? Beloved aunt or uncle? Whomever information technology is, clearly their stories matter to you, and I am thrilled to be able to help yous capture them through an oral history interview.

Print out this guide or use it every bit inspiration to develop your own list of topics and questions for your loved ones. I've got three primal tips at the lesser of this mail to help ensure that yous capture these of import family stories successfully, and I am ever here as a resource to help guide you lot on your journey. Whether I can one day help you turn your stories into an heirloom book or help you become the ball rolling on a DIY projection, my bulletin to yous is this:

Commencement at present. Don't wait . I tin recount too many tales of people telling me "I wish I had asked my begetter…" that it saddens me deeply. Information technology is my mission to convey a sense of urgency to everyone. Perhaps you have a picayune extra fourth dimension on your hands correct at present… Please, ask your parents and grandparents the questions that matter now, earlier information technology's besides belatedly.

Family history interview questions

Childhood & Family Life

  • Draw the home y'all grew up in.

  • What were you similar every bit a child?

  • Do you have memories of what your parents said you were like equally a baby?

  • What was a typical 24-hour interval like in your family when you were little?

  • How does your family tend to testify their honey for one another—through physical amore including hugs and kisses, gift giving, reaffirming through maxim "I love you" or another phrase, etc.?

  • What would y'all say makes your family unit unique from other families?

  • What did you practice when you lot were bored as a child?

  • If you had to create a family motto, what would it be?

  • How did you feel well-nigh school, and what blazon of student were you?

  • Did you lot have a best friend, and if so, how did that relationship play out over the course of your life?

  • When you were little, what did you respond to the question: "What practise you want to be when you lot grow up?"

  • What were you like equally a teenager?

Nutrient Memories

  • What meals would exist in your family'due south cookbook—the foods that make you feel nostalgic for your babyhood or for abode?

  • What are your oldest recipes and where did they come from?

  • What smells ship you to this day right back to your babyhood?

  • Who are/were the best cooks in the family? Tell me about them.

  • What family dishes would you miss the most if you never tasted them once again?

If cooking and food were an integral part of your subject's life, explore xx more food-themed questions hither.

Life Transitions & Milestones

  • Tell me about your experience…

…deciding where to go to college

…pursuing your career

…getting married

…getting drafted into the state of war

…serving in the military machine

…becoming a mother/father/grandparent

…falling in love for the start fourth dimension

  • Tell me about your first job.

  • Did anyone always throw you a surprise party?

  • How did yous feel on your wedding solar day? What memories of that day stand up out for you?

  • What tin you tell me about the beginning fourth dimension y'all experienced loss? Who died? Did y'all go to the funeral? How old were yous? How did it effect your outlook on life?

Decisions & Lessons

  • What is the all-time determination you ever fabricated?

  • What is a memorable time you accept failed, and how did you recover from that experience?

  • What lessons(s) do you most call up learning from your parents? Grandparents?

  • Did you have a favorite teacher in grade school, or another function model who had a major impact on your life?

  • Can you share almost whatever hardships (in history, such equally the Depression or a war, or in their personal life, such as a divorce or unemployment) that you experienced in your life, and how yous survived/thrived/coped?

  • Tell me nigh a significant time you said "no."

  • Practice you accept whatsoever regrets? (Encourage elaboration here; sometimes a prolonged silence is the best invitation to speak.)

Traditions

  • What holiday did you virtually look forward to while you were growing up?

  • What were some of the traditions your family observed related to that holiday?

  • Practice y'all have whatsoever family traditions that have been passed downward for generations in your family unit?

  • Does religion hold a potent place in your family? (If "yeah," there are a diverseness of follow-up questions to enquire to pursue this thread!)

  • What is the most memorable gift you take ever received? Given?

  • Are in that location any specific family unit heirlooms yous inherited? Why do they concur pregnant for you?

  • How are/were birthdays celebrated throughout your life?

  • In what ways accept you lot/your family kept your civilisation live (through language. foods, cultural traditions, for example)?

Fun & Games

  • What songs take held special meaning to you over the years?

  • Who was the trickster in your family?

  • Practise y'all accept any funny stories from your past?

  • What's your favorite family unit story to recount effectually the dinner table?

  • Did you play sports growing upward, and if so, what were those experiences like?

  • What was the main form of entertainment in your family when you were a kid (board games, listening to the radio, playing music/singing, reading books, putting on shows, etc.)?

  • Draw what family unit vacations were like, and if there were any destinations that you traveled to often?

  • Tell me virtually a time yous were incredibly embarrassed.

Large-Motion picture Questions

  • What values would you similar to pass down to the younger generations of your family?

  • How did you acquire resilience?

  • What would you tell your 20-year-former self?

  • What would you like your legacy to be?

  • Are there any questions y'all wish yous had asked your own parents?

3 keys to capturing the best stories

  1. Ask open-ended questions.

    Sometimes just planting the seed of a memory yields the well-nigh thoughtful and meaningful stories. "Yes" or "no" questions do not promote conversation, then avoid them in favor of questions that help prepare the scene ("recall when…") or probe your subject's personal history in unique ways ("imagine if ________ hadn't happened…" or "what about _______ do you lot wish yous remembered better?").

  2. Consider this a conversation more than than an interview.

    Mind generously, ask follow-upwardly questions, and let your interview subject field go off on tangents that yield interesting stories and prompt unexpected memories. Your goal should exist to get the most meaningful stories from your loved one, and if that means waiting some other day to discuss what y'all thought today's topic was, then so be it!

  3. Ensure successful preservation.

    Use more than i style of recording your interview. If you are using a vocalization recorder, use two. Ensure your subject feels comfy, that the environment is quiet, and that the recording device is shut enough to capture their voice. Find more specific tips (including equipment recommendations and fifty-fifty more family history–themed questions) in this guide from the Smithsonian Eye for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

More than free resources

Visit my Resources Toolkit to for more free downloads, including lists of questions to spark Thanksgiving and Christmas story sharing; a guide on how to apply family photos as prompts for writing life stories; plus more tips for writing almost your life in brusk vignettes.

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