Questions

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Tips for Interviewing

1st: Interview your oldest living relatives as soon as possible.
2nd: Plan your interview ahead of time.
3rd: Prepare for the interview by making a list of questions to ask and by testing your equipment. Take extra tapes and batteries with you for the interview.
4th: Ask "open-ended" questions about family memories, parents and grandparents, school days, vacations, dating, marriage, children, military service or wars, hobbies, and so forth.
5th: Preserve the audio or video tapes in a safe place, type a transcription, and share copies with family members. You may also wish to donate to copy to a local public or university library or historical society, along with your transcription.

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 your grandparents name on your dad's side and your grandparents names on your mom's side?
6. What were your uncle's names?
7. Where were you born?
8. Where was your mom and dad born?
9. Where was your mom's parents born and your dad's parents born?
10. What was the date of your parents wedding and where?
11. What was the birth and death date of your parents and grandparents?
12. Where are your grandparents buried?

Just for fun questions to ask:

1. Did you receive an allowance? How much? Did you save your money or spend it?
2. 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?
3. What school activities and sports did you participate in?
4. Do you remember any fads from your youth? Popular hairstyles? Clothes?
5. Who were your childhood heroes?
6. What were your favorite songs and music?
7. Did you have any pets? If so, what kind and what were their names?
8. What was your religion growing up? What church, if any, did you attend?
9. Were you ever mentioned in a newspaper?
10. Who were your friends when you were growing up?
11. What world events had the most impact on you while you were growing up? Did any of them personally affect your family?
12. Describe a typical family dinner.
13. How were holidays (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) celebrated in your family? Did your family have special traditions?
14. How is the world today different from what it was like when you were a child?
15. Who was the oldest relative you remember as a child? What do you remember about them?
16. What do you know about your family surname?
17. Is there a naming tradition in your family, such as always giving the firstborn son the name of his paternal grandfather?
18. What stories have come down to you about your parents? Grandparents? More distant ancestors?
19. Are there any stories about famous or infamous relatives in your family?
20. Have any recipes been passed down to you from family members?
21. Are there any physical characteristics that run in your family?
22. Are there any physical characteristics that run in your family?
23. What was the full name of your spouse? Siblings? Parents?
24. When and how did you meet your spouse? What did you do on dates?
25. What was it like when you proposed (or were proposed to)? Where and when did it happen? How did you feel?
26. Where and when did you get married?
27. What memory stands out the most from your wedding day?
28. How would you describe your spouse? What do (did) you admire most about them?
29. What do you believe is the key to a successful marriage?
30. How did you find out your were going to be a parent for the first time?
31. Why did you choose your children's names?
32. What was your proudest moment as a parent?
33. What did your family enjoy doing together?
34. What was your profession and how did you choose it?
35. If you could have had any other profession what would it have been? Why wasn't it your first choice?
36. Of all the things you learned from your parents, which do you feel was the most valuable?
37. What accomplishments were you the most proud of?
38. What is the one thing you most want people to remember about you?

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Rebecca Maloney USGenWeb Kidz Project Coordinator.