How to interview family members

After you've exhausted your home sources within your own abode, it's time to visit or contact your parents, grandparents or older relatives- to interview them and ask questions about your family. Hopefully you'll run across your family historian--every family hopefully has one. When preparing for your visits, gather a list of questions you'd like answered and some means of recording that information- either writing down what they say or asking their permission to record their voice on a tape recorder or video. Sometimes older relatives are more comfortable with you just taking notes, but you'll loose their exact words which you might want to quote in sharing this history with others.

At the beginning of the visit, take time to just converse and catch up with what is happening with their lives before you launch into 20 questions. Show genuine interest and love for them and their opinions. Tell them of your desire to write or at least gather some history and background of your family to share with the young'uns. Find some topic that interests them to start with...maybe their favorite hobby or time in their life. For men, military service experiences can get them going. One question will lead to another.

Ask open ended questions like...How did you feel about that? What happened next or how did that change your life? Don't try to ask all your questions in one setting. It can also be done through emails or letters or phone conversations that can be taped with their permission if you live a long ways away. The main thing is keep it fun and not tiring. Visiting and talking is a skill most of us could develop. Taking time from our busy schedules to visit and listen shows others we care, and that their life's experiences are important to us.

Home Sources

Start to gather tidbits of information about your family that you have floating around your house. I call them HOME SOURCES. Look for certificates, news articles, obituaries, letters or post cards, old photo albums, programs, invitations, etc. Put them in a box, folder or large envelope by family surnames to sort later. (Hint-Include scrapbook stuff about yourself in case you decide to write your life story later. )

Old family bibles if you have one or can locate one from your older relatives have wonderful information including names and dates of important occasions such as family births, deaths and marriage. (Sample on the right is from my Dad's bible-shown above. His mother had written in the vital record information on his parents, and grand parents plus his marriage to my mom and my birth. It was published in 1926 when he was only 10 years old. Don't know when she gave it to my dad, but he read it clear through before his death in 1945.)

Now would be a good time to visit or contact your parents, grandparents (if they are living) or any elderly aunts, uncles and cousins who might have this kind of information around their homes before they die and it gets lost. Remember it's never too late to start as long as YOU are still living. Write what you remember about your family members-parents or grand parents who may be deceased. Later we'll talk about Internet cousins who are distant relatives that you can find while doing family history research online. I've received wonderful old photos and histories that way.

How to get started

1. Plant the desire/commitment to want to share memories of your life story with your descendants by doing something, then ACT!

2. Write down your earliest memories of your parents. What were they like? Where did you live, etc.? How did they influence who you are today? Include good or bad examples, trials, triumphs, siblings, etc.

3. Share fun or unique experiences you had with your grandparents. How were they part of your life, etc.? Where did they live? What occupations or hobbies did they have? Do you have any photos of them? Did they serve in the military? What political views did they have? Personalities?

4. Any tidbits of information or stories about your great grandparents? Where were they from, any ethnic celebrations or traditions that were a part of family celebrations? What was happening in the world when they were raising their family?

5. Type on the computer or write down a little bit each day as memories come, to edit and organize later. Write freely, you are making a rough draft that you can go back to and refine later. If you don't know the name of your grandparents or great grands––hold the fort, in a later blog, we'll talk about researching but do check with your oldest living relatives for what they know. More on interviewing relatives later.

6. ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE, you've started writing your family history!