50 Questions Family History interview

I talked about one way to get started on your Family History by focusing on a special couple or generations, using the Heritage Calendar to remind you every month to focus on a new one.

If you lack of ideas on what to do to start writing about this people, and if they or somebody who knew them is still alive, you might find this 50 question list useful:

1. What is your full name? Why did your parents select this name for you? Did you have a nickname?


2. When and where were you born?


3. How did your family come to live there?


4. Were there other family members in the area? Who?


5. What was the house (apartment, farm, etc.) like? How many rooms? Bathrooms? Did it have electricity? Indoor plumbing? Telephones?


6. Were there any special items in the house that you remember?


7. What is your earliest childhood memory?


8. Describe the personalities of your family members.


9. What kind of games did you play growing up?


10. What was your favorite toy and why?


11. What was your favorite thing to do for fun (movies, beach, etc.)?


12. Did you have family chores? What were they? Which was your least favorite?


13. Did you receive an allowance? How much? Did you save your money or spend it?


14. What was school like for you as a child? What were your best and worst subjects? Where did you attend grade school? High school? College?


15. What school activities and sports did you participate in?


16. Do you remember any fads from your youth? Popular hairstyles? Clothes?


17. Who were your childhood heroes?


18. What were your favorite songs and music?


19. Did you have any pets? If so, what kind and what were their names?


20. What was your religion growing up? What church, if any, did you attend?


21. Were you ever mentioned in a newspaper?


22. Who were your friends when you were growing up?


23. What world events had the most impact on you while you were growing up? Did any of them personally affect your family?


24. Describe a typical family dinner. Did you all eat together as a family? Who did the cooking?


25. What were your favorite foods?


26. How were holidays (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) celebrated in your family? Did your family have special traditions?


27. How is the world today different from what it was like when you were a child?


28. Who was the oldest relative you remember as a child? What do you remember about them?


29. What do you know about your family surname?


30. Is there a naming tradition in your family, such as always giving the firstborn son the name of his paternal grandfather?


31. What stories have come down to you about your parents? Grandparents? More distant ancestors?


32. Are there any stories about famous or infamous relatives in your family?


33. Have any recipes been passed down to you from family members?


34. Are there any physical characteristics that run in your family?


35. Are there any special heirlooms, photos, bibles or other memorabilia that have been passed down in your family?


36. What was the full name of your spouse? Siblings? Parents?


37. When and how did you meet your spouse? What did you do on dates?


38. What was it like when you proposed (or were proposed to)? Where and when did it happen? How did you feel?


39. Where and when did you get married?


40. What memory stands out the most from your wedding day?


41. How would you describe your spouse? What do (did) you admire most about them?


42. What do you believe is the key to a successful marriage?


43. How did you find out your were going to be a parent for the first time?


44. Why did you choose your children's names?


45. What was your proudest moment as a parent?


46. What did your family enjoy doing together?


47. What was your profession and how did you choose it?


48. If you could have had any other profession what would it have been? Why wasn't it your first choice?


49. Of all the things you learned from your parents, which do you feel was the most valuable?
    What accomplishments were you the most proud of?

   50.  What is the one thing you most want people to remember about you?

This list is from genealogy.about.com

Interviewing great grandparents: such a blessing!

My children are so blessed to have the opportunity to know 2 of their great grandparents, my husband's grandparents. Every time we get to see them I cherish those moments so much.
I never got to know my great grandparents, or my paternal grandparents, lost my maternal grandma when I was twelve, and my maternal granddad when I was 18...
I have very few memories of my maternal grandparents, as we didn't get to see them as often as I would have loved, so  now I do all I can to allow my children to build memories with their grandparents, and even more with their great grandparents...

Last Sunday we had the opportunity to spend at least an hour with their great grandparents before the whole family came back from church, and I decided it was time to ask some questions.
With a pencil and some paper, I started asking them about the day they met, how they fell in love, the job they did, the places they lived in, and much more.
I wish I had asked my husband to record the whole interview in a video format, because my words can barely describe what I was blessed to experience.
Great grand dad Hall suffered from a stroke many years ago, so he is not able to fully and clearly express himself, so it was very difficult to understand everything, but that didn't discourage him from trying to share his memories, and me from making more questions and listening even harder.
When he was telling me of how his sweetheart was always riding the bus and he would notice her while walking, and how one day he just decided to hop on the bus and sit by her so that he could know her, his eyes started to sparkle, and his smile was just priceless...
Grandma Hall would fill in where he couldn't express himself, and I found out so much about them, and also found so many reasons to love them even more, if possible...
They might not be my grandparents by blood, but I love them so much, and I yearn to have more moments like this in the future.
I realized even more how our spirits are so alike... 
That interview is going to be part of a Family history book that will be printed in as many copies as needed for all the descendants interested in knowing their story.
While the purpose of it was so that I could preserve their story for generations to come, I realized that that simply sitting with them and asking those questions was fulfilling an higher purpose: making my children' great grand parents feel loved, know that they are important to us, and that they are going to be remembered.
I am so grateful for this passion to know about my family that I was born with, and for the joy it brings not only to me, but to many others.
I hope and pray that my children might develop the same passion, and that they will preserve all the family memories I am putting together.
They pretty much will have it easy, as their parents' love story is already in a book, completed with pictures and they each of them  will have a copy of it, plus they will have the whole family history storybook, once it is completed.
I hope they will be able to understand the passion and the efforts made so that they would really know who they come from, and learn to love each and every one of their ancestors, and in so doing, love and have more confidence in themselves too.

If you are blessed to have still great grandparents, if you have grandparents that you can still ask questions to, don't wait, it will be one of the best times of your life when you will see that sparkle in their eyes.
One of the greatest desires of every human being is to be remembered.
It doesn't take much. If you have 5 minutes, use them to call your grandma, and tell her how much you love her, and maybe ask even one question.
If you have 1/2 hour, ask her about her youth, how she met her husband, how they fell in love...
If you have more time, go to visit your grandparents, and sit with them, and enjoy and keep sacred those moments in which you know you are giving them one of the best gifts of all: your time, and the opportunity for them to be remembered.
You will be glad you did it, I promise you!

Interview a loved one this thanksgiving weekend.

I don't know how many of you will be reading my blog today, as you will be probably running around for the last thanksgiving dinner shopping or will be stuck in the kitchen cooking everything...
Just in case you should find the time to sit for a moment, and stumble upon this post, I want to challenge you with something you might have not thought about.
Most of us are going to be in contact with at least a family member, either in person or even on the phone.
We have a nice long holiday weekend ahead, why don't we use a fraction of it to interview a loved one?
Choose whoever you feel like: grandma, dad, your child,your sibling, even a dear friend or neighbor.
Just choose to take the time, and let the person you want to interview know that it is very important to you, and you would really appreciate if he/she would sit with you for a little bit to answer the question in your interview.
You can use a tape recorder, a laptop, even just paper and a pen, to record everything, it doesn't matter, as long as it is recorded. You might also want to take some pictures.
You can do it on thanksgiving, or also on Black Friday, instead of using most of your time after those special deals for those things that right night you feel like you MUST have, but that will not last forever.
Getting to know that special person a little more, getting to write his/her story is a treasure that will last forever, something both you and the person interviewed will be thankful for.
Life doesn't always go the way we plan, and  sometimes we loose someone all of a sudden and we realize that we could have spent more time with them, getting to know them better, told them I love you more often...
Take the time now, let them know that they are so important you want to know more about them, and you want to preserve their memory.
Any minute spent interviewing a special person in your life is a minute well spent, one you will never be sorry for.
In case you don't know where to start from with the interview, there are many online tool that have questions you can ask, here is some you might find useful:
Storymaps
How to interview a relative
Fifty questions for Family history interview
Hope this helps!