Getting Started

How to conduct an interview for a family history.

Before starting the interview with a family member, do some background research. Read any information collected in the past, including anything like diplomas, old letters, death certificates--- even looking at old family photographs. Becoming familiar with the interview subject's like is an important piece in a successful interview.

If these interviews are successful, other family members may want to join in. Collecting stories from the elderly family members may also be a priority for those in delicate health situations.

Prepare an outline of questions to ask during the interview. Record the interview with a tape recorder or a camera recorder. If you don't have them, bring paper and pens to jot down the answers or to take down stories.

Suggested questions to ask for family history.

Not sure how to start? Here is a list of questions to ask when collecting oral histories from family members.

1. What is your full name?
2. Does your family name have a special meaning?
3. When were you born?
4. Where were you born?
5. What is your nationality?
6. Who were the first family members to settle in this country? What were their names?
7. Where did they first arrive?
8. Do you know any stories they might of told about what life was like for them before they came here.
9. Where did they first settle when they came here? How did they make a living?
10. Do you know when and where your grandparents were born? Their full names?
11. Do you know where they are buried?
12. What are the full names of your parents?
13. When and where were they born and brought up?
14. What were your parents like?
15. Who were your favorite relatives and why?
16. Did you have any brothers or sisters? What were their names and when were they born in relationship with you?
17. Do you remember any special or funny stories about them?
18. Where did you live as a child, and what was your home town like back then?
19. What are your earliest memories?
20. Did you have a nickname? How did you get it?
21. How much schooling did you have? What were your favorite subject? What subject did you hate?
22. Did you have a favorite teacher?
23. Did you work as a child? What did you do?
24. Who were your best friends and what did you do together?
25. What is the happiness memory in your childhood and when did it happen. What was the saddest?
26. Did you go to college and what did you study?
27. When did you first meet your husband, wife?
28. What was he or she like when you first met? What attracted you to him or her?
29. How old were you both?
30. How soon after meeting did you marry?
31. Where did you live?
32. Did you or your spouse go to war? Which war? Where were you stationed and what was it like? How long did you serve and in what branch?
33. When did you have children? (Ask for names, dates and place each was born.)
34. Who was each child named after? (If children were adopted or came from other marriages, ask about the events surrounding these events.)
35. When you think back on your children when they were very young, what stories come to mind about them? How did the children change your like?

You probably can come up with a lot more question? These are just a few suggestions to get you started with interviewing a family member.