Family History Interview Questions

Childhood & home

Where did your story begin?

1. What is the first home you remember?
2. What did your neighborhood or town feel like when you were young?
3. Who lived in the house with you?
4. What did a normal school morning look like?
5. What chores were yours?
6. What did you do for fun when nobody was telling you what to do?
7. What sound, smell, or food takes you straight back to childhood?

People & relationships

Who shaped you?

1. Who made you feel safest as a child?
2. Which relative could always make everyone laugh?
3. Who taught you something you still use today?
4. Was there someone in the family everyone talked about but you barely knew?
5. Who did you resemble, in looks or personality?
6. What family friendship or relationship lasted for decades?

Work & everyday life

What did ordinary life really look like?

1. What was your first job and what did you earn?
2. What job taught you the most?
3. What was something people did every day then that would surprise younger people now?
4. What did your family save money for?
5. What did you repair instead of replace?
6. What household object do you remember that nobody seems to use anymore?

Traditions & food

What made your family feel like your family?

1. What meal meant a holiday was really happening?
2. Who was known for a particular recipe?
3. What tradition would you hate to see disappear?
4. What sayings, nicknames, or inside jokes belonged to the family?
5. Where did everyone gather?
6. What happened at family reunions, Sundays, birthdays, or other regular occasions?

Military service

If you served, what do you want the family to understand?

1. What made you enter the service?
2. Where did you train, and what do you remember most about it?
3. What was your unit, job, ship, squadron, company, or assignment?
4. Who were the people you remember most clearly?
5. Is there a place, photograph, patch, medal, or letter that needs its story explained?
6. What parts of your service are you comfortable having future generations know?
7. What was coming home like?

A person never owes anyone a painful memory. Let the veteran decide what they want to discuss and what they want to leave private.

Turning points

When did life change direction?

1. What decision changed your life more than you expected?
2. When did you first feel truly grown up?
3. What was one difficult period that changed how you saw the world?
4. What chance did you take that you are glad you took?
5. What event in the wider world do you remember exactly where you were when it happened?
6. What did you believe when you were young that you see differently now?

Photographs & objects

Let the things in the box ask questions too.

1. Who is in this photograph?
2. Where was it taken?
3. What happened just before or after this picture?
4. Who wrote this note or letter?
5. Why did the family keep this object?
6. Who owned it first?
7. If this item could talk, what story would it tell?

Legacy

What should the next generation know?

1. What are you proudest of that may never appear on a résumé or certificate?
2. What do you hope your grandchildren or great-grandchildren understand about your life?
3. What family story should never disappear?
4. What mistake taught you something worth passing on?
5. What do you hope the family keeps doing after you are gone?
6. How would you like to be remembered by the people who knew you?