Interviewing family members
I talk to a lot of people who say they wish they had asked their parents or grandparents about their families and memories “earlier.” It tends to be something that many aren’t interested in until their relative’s health or memory starts to decline.
Holidays are the perfect opportunity to learn a bit more about the people and events that came before you. Multiple generations sitting around a dining room table, struggling to avoid conversations about politics. Or struggling to come up with topics for conversation at all.
Not sure how to begin? Here are a few conversation starters to get the ball rolling:
What’s your earliest memory?
What holiday traditions did your family have when you were growing up?
What kinds of things did you do for fun as a kid?
How different was your childhood from those of your children/grandchildren/great-grandchildren?
Did your family ever take vacations? Where did you go?
Where was your first house?
What were your friends and neighbors like where you lived?
How did you decide on your profession?
How did you and your significant other meet?
Why did you give your children the names you did?
Can you tell me about your grandparents or great-grandparents?
What can you tell me about the relatives I’ve never met?
What do you wish you knew about your ancestors?
When your conversation ends, think about what you learned that you had never heard before. What new questions do you have? Need help finding out more about the people and places you heard about? Contact me for help.hone
How to record audio on an iPhone
Open the “Voice Memos” app. This can typically be found under “Utilities.”
Tap the red circle to start recording.
When you want to stop recording, tap the red square in the white circle.
Recordings can be shared, moved to a folder, saved to a file, and more, by tapping the three dots in the circle at the top right of your recording list.
One of my mother’s childhood memories
