Questions to interview elderly relatives?

I want to interview my grandmother and make a book about her life for my children. I've searched online but haven't found any lists of interesting questions. Has anyone ever seen anything like what I'm looking for?

Do you ever get those emails like 20 things about me etc..? Maybe think of your day-to-day routine today and then switch it around to ask her what she did in similar circumstances.

http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm

http://oldfashionedliving.com/biography.html

http://oldfashionedliving.com/bioquestions.html

Here's some links I found that might be helpful?

There was a question on 'describe your bedroom'.. I think that would be cool to ask her what her bedroom looked like or what her favorite room was.. where did she go to find quiet time as a girl and as an adult/mom

Hth,
Angela

http://triplethescraps.blogspot.com/2008/03/tuesdays-tip_11.html are a bunch of questions my children were given by a teacher to interview a grandparent. These might work well for you

Also, the best book out there IMO is called "To My Children's Children" by Bob Greene. It is nothing but questions! It is an amazing book. I have gotten several free copies from Paperbackswap and given them away as gifts. I keep my own copy for reference too because there are zillions of questions. The only downside is that there aren't really any faith-related questions. So if you want anything like that, I host a faith journaling challenge, and the questions I have posted thus far can be found http://triplethescraps.blogspot.com/search/label/Journaling%20Challenge%20List. I hope that helps.

something that might be helpful that worked for us was to list all the the years on a big piece of paper. Then ask the person to walk you through the major events in their life. As they tell you the events you quickly jot them down on your "overall year list". Things like the year they graduated, got married, had kids, 1st house, moved to another state, 1st job, etc. The really big events. Depending on their memory it can go a little deeper like their first kiss, day they got engaged, 1st car, 1st time they got drunk ok maybe not that one

Then you move to asking more details about whatever events they seemed to be excited about. Or show them a photo and ask about it.

BUT BUT BUT, depending on the person, you may have to keep the session(s) short. Maybe only an hour or two. Actually if you have a recorder I would suggest recording the whole thing. You may not be able to write fast enough.

AND if the person just goes on & on... repeating the same stories, have a kind sentence (or distraction) prepared in advance that steers them on to the next subject.

PS While having a 20 question list ready I think actually showing it to the person might scare or overwhelm them. Really depends on the person.

And don't be surprised if the best stories are just little memories of events that you never even knew about... Like the first time they milked a cow...

This also came up in a recent thread, check it out: http://www.scrapbook.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/15299...

A book is a wonderful idea.

My most treasured items are video-taped interviews done by my Dad with his father (age 93 at the time) and then later with his FIL (age 92 at the time). We now have them on DVD and I will use that info to do their heritage albums.

The interviews were done over a weekend with frequent breaks for my grandfathers. They loved being interviewed and on camera! Dad had written a lot of questions down, but during the interview, other questions came up too.

Dad then edited the video and we have a wonderful keepsake and family history.

We learned things about each man that no one knew before. My dad had no idea that his father was a violin prodigy and had been given a scholarship to the Chicago Conservatory of Music. The summer before he was to leave, he was on a cattle drive and his horse threw him after being startled by a snake. My grandpa's wrist was crushed against some boulders. Sadly, medical treatment wasn't what it is now and the wrist never healed properly. The bow hand was crippled and he never attended the conservatory.

• kanary Said:

Wow, what a treasure you have there. I wish I had my grandmother here to talk to my boys... she could talk! But luckily my mom lives with us and she is able to transfer some of these memories to them as well.
I really need to get a digi recorder and interview here now that I've seen so many good ideas.

I have the creating keepsakes scrapbooking family heritage book. i'll look through it this weekend and give you some questions.

What a great idea to interview older relatives. It makes me wish I had asked more questions and listened more closely to the stories that were volunteered when my grandparents were still around.

We tried to do a similar thing with my grandmother when she was diagnosed with cancer. We tried to tape her telling stories about when she grew, built planes in WWII, etc. Maybe you could just have her tell you about some interesting times in her life and make pages based on that.? I hope this helps. Good luck!