FROM THE MY LIFE STORY WORKBOOK
Family History Questions to Ask Your Parents and Grandparents
Names, places, journeys and family trades: the questions that fill in a family tree, and the stories behind the names on it. A free list you can print.
Get this list as a printable PDF
The questions with room to write the answers, ready to print. Free, sent to your inbox.
Records can tell you a name and a year. Only the people who were there can tell you why the family left, what the town was like, or who the name honors. These family history questions are for collecting that part while you can sit down and ask.
They come from the My Life Story workbook, from its first chapter (Where I Come From), its chapter on the places someone has lived, and its two family tree pages. Ask your parents first, then ask a grandparent the same questions. The answers rarely match, and the differences are part of the history. Get the printable list at the top of the page to take it along.
Chapter 1 · Where I Come From
Names and roots
What is your full name, and who chose it for you?
Is there a story behind your family name, or where it came from?
You could start with: who told you the story, and what the name means.
What do you know about the day you were born, and where it happened?
What do you know about your mother's childhood?
What do you know about your father's childhood?
Chapter 1 · Where I Come From
Where the family came from
Where did your family live before you were born, and how did they end up there?
Did anyone in your family come from another country? What do you know about that journey?
Even a guess is worth writing down: a ship, a year, a town.
Was there a family farm, shop, trade or craft that ran through the generations?
What did the people who raised you do for work, and how did they feel about it?
Which family stories were told again and again at the table?
Tell about a grandparent you knew. What did their house smell like?
Which grandparent or great-grandparent do you wish your grandchildren could have met? Why?
What would you like your grandchildren to know about where they come from?
Chapter 8 · The Places I've Lived
Every place they lived
List the towns or cities you have lived in, in order, as best you can remember.
Rough dates are fine. Mark the ones you loved.
Which move was the hardest?
Which home as an adult was your favorite, and why?
Which place felt most like home, and what made it so?
If your grandchildren could visit one place on your map, where would you send them?
Chapter 1 · Quick answers
Quick facts for the family tree
Short answers that go straight onto the tree. These are fill-ins from the workbook's Where I Come From chapter.
- My middle name, and who it honors
- My mother's first name
- My father's first name
- Someone else who raised me
- The place my family's roots go back to
Filling in the family tree
The workbook's tree has two pages. The first holds me, my parents and grandparents, with a year line under every name, plus room for brothers and sisters. The second goes back to the parents of each grandparent, then forward to children and grandchildren.
Real families don't always fit neat boxes, so the first page ends with a section called Others who belong in my family: step-parents, adoptive and foster family, and friends who became family. Write in anyone who raised you or was raised by you.
Tips for family history interviews
- Write down guesses. Even a guess is worth writing down: a ship, a year, a town. Mark it as a guess and move on.
- Rough dates are fine. "Around the war" or "the year your aunt was born" is enough to place a story.
- Bring photos. Old pictures prompt names nobody has said in years. Write the names on the back while you're at it.
- Record the spelling. Ask how names were spelled, and whether they changed. Families often have two versions.
Get this list as a printable PDF ›
For the practical papers side of family life (insurance, doctors, where the will is), see questions to ask aging parents.
From My Life Story, a printable memory workbook with nearly 300 questions · papersinorder.com/life-story/
