welcome to the ancestral findings podcast this is episode 240 are you getting ready to do family
history interviews with your older relatives don't forget to ask these important questions
you know you have to do family history interviews with older relatives to get started on a good
genealogy research journey these interviews are the foundation of any beginning genealogy project
however you have to remember the interviews and the information you get from them are only as
good as the person doing the interviewing and that's you you have to know what questions to
ask how to ask them and techniques to use to get older relatives to remember things and be willing
to share stories with you as a genealogist you want your family history to be as complete as
a can be with real details that bring long gone relatives to life again on the page some of the
best information you will get will be from your family history interviews because these are the
people who were there and who knew ancestors you did not while there are basic questions you ask
in any interview here are some you may not have thought to ask that will give you more delicious
details to add to your story one what are some of your fondest memories of spending time with
your grandparents while you definitely want to ask for the names of your older relatives
grandparents since they may be your great or great-great grandparents or their siblings
you want stories about them too so you know what kind of people they were asking specifically for
stories of times your relatives spent with their grandparents may bring other ancestors into the
story even if no other ancestors are mentioned you will still get good stories about how your older
relative was a child and what their grandparents were like which is genealogical gold too what did
you and your friends do for fun when you were a child this will tell you what games were popular
when your relative was a child as well as what kind of person your relative was as a child it
will also tell you about the customs of the time the norms of the area in which your relative
grew up and what kind of crowd they associated with when they were young if they bring their
older or younger siblings into these stories that's even better for your family history 3
what are your earliest memories the answer to this question will take you as far back
into the past as your relative can go and may offer interesting details of life in the area
in which they grew up at the time they were very young four out of your family celebrate
the holidays asking about holiday customs as well as what holidays your relatives family
celebrated when they were young will tell you a lot about how your family's past ties into the
way your family does things today it will also give you more details about the times in which
your ancestors lived you may even get ideas for customs from the past you'd like to bring back
every genealogist needs to belong to some genealogical organizations to stay on the
cutting edge of research tune in next time and I'll give you three genealogy societies
all genealogists which enjoy thanks for joining me today I'll see you next time on the ancestral
findings podcast and for further info you can visit us at ancestral findings dot-com