1: Gather Your Records
2: Gather Records from Others
3: Interview Relatives
4: Create and Edit Stories (AN)
5: Prepare Uploads
6: Upload Photos (AN)
7: Manage Gallery Items (AN)
Translation Tips
Music
Project 3: Docs, Stories and Photos
Goal 3: Interviewing Relatives
Goal 3: Interview living relatives about their memories and life stories. Vault
Capturing family history recollections from living relatives ensures that their legacy can be shared before they pass on.
Choices
A Prepare for successful interviews.
Class Outlines: Basic
Summary
- Identify the people you would like to interview.
- Prepare for the interview so that it will be respectful and a positive experience.
- Select the questions to ask the person being interviewed.
- People: Make a list of living people whose stories need to be captured. These people may also be good sources for photos and documents. This article discusses the benefits of interviewing living relatives.
PR—The Benefits of Recording Your Living Family - Interview Tips: Use these tips to help you conduct interviews with relatives.
LT: 9 Tips for Interviewing Relatives
FS—Capture Grandma's Story - Here are some additional tips for interviewing family members.
MH—Tips for Interviewing Family Members
Dragging Genealogy Information Out of Our Family - 2019 - Questions: Here are essential questions to ask your relatives in a family history interview.
TH—50 Interview Questions to Ask
FHD—100 Questions Every Family Historian Should Ask Their Relatives - Try these 52 questions for families, from FamilySearch.
FS—52 Stories for Families - Ensure the questions are respectful and handle any delicate situations carefully.
AR—Interviewing the Reluctant Relative
- * Good: Make a list of people who would be good candidates for interviews, and prepare a question to ask each of them.
- * Proficient: Make the list and prepare a full set of questions for two interviews.
B Hold and record the interview.
- App: To learn about using the FamilySearch Memories app to record stories, read these articles.
FS—FamilySearch Memories App
FS—Using FamilySearch Apps to Record Oral Histories - Follow-up: Learn about the two sides of interviewing, including steps to follow before, during, and after the interview.
AC—Interviewing Family Members—28:13
- * Good: Hold and record one interview.
- * Proficient: Hold and record three or more interviews.
C Upload the interview audio or document to Ancestry.
- Decide which information should remain private (as in a family journal) and which can be uploaded to Ancestry.
- Create descriptive notes for each interview document you created. These will be used in the upload process.
- Use the upload process described in Goal 6. If you have handwritten notes, digitize them first.
- * Proficient: Upload multiple interview items to Ancestry.
DLearn about oral histories.
- Learn about the importance of oral histories.
LT: The Importance of Oral Histories
AF: Why Oral Histories Are So Crucial to Good Genealogy #1 - Learn how to organize oral history information.
GC: Organizing Oral History Information - Here is an extensive guide to the why's and how's of oral history.
Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History - Explore oral history projects from FamilySearch and Ancestry.