Questions to ask your parents and grandparents

Roots

• Tell me about the house you grew up in.
• What is your earliest memory?
• Can you describe an ordinary morning in that house when you were small?
• Tell me about your parents. What were they like when you were young?
• Who were your favourite relatives, and what do you remember about them?

Love

• Tell me about the first person you fell for.
• How did you meet the person who mattered most to you?
• What was it like being young and in love back then?
• Who has been kindest to you, and why?
• What do you understand about love now that you did not understand at twenty?

The hard years

• Tell me about a time when things were difficult.
• What got you through it?
• Who helped you, and how?
• What were you afraid of when you were my age?
• What did you have to get used to that you never expected to?

Work and hands

• Tell me about your first job.
• What did an ordinary working day look like for you?
• What is a piece of work you are proud of, even if nobody else noticed it?
• What can you do with your hands that you could teach me?
• Tell me about payday. What did you do with the money?

Looking back

• What are you proudest of?
• Tell me about a decision that changed the direction of your life.
• Who are you most grateful for, and did you ever tell them?
• What took you the longest to learn?
• How is your life different from what you imagined when you were young?

For later

• How would you like to be remembered?
• Tell me about a tradition in this family, and how it started.
• What do you want the youngest person in this family to know about you?
• What should I do on a day when nothing is going right?
• Is there anything you have never told me that you would tell me now?

If the keepsake is for one person

When everyone records a message for one person, they answer questions about that person. These are the ones we use.

• What is your earliest memory of them?
• Tell me about a time they made you laugh.
• What are they like, to someone who knows them well?
• Tell me about a day with them you have never forgotten.
• What is something only the people close to them would know?
• What have they taught you, without ever sitting you down to teach it?
• What do you want to say to them that you might not say to their face?

You do not need to use all of them. One good question is enough for a page.

Start a book