[2024-08-11] Family history: general questions

This is the final edition in my series about conducting a life history interview with an older family member or friend. The series is based on William Fletcher's book Recording Your Family History. The first post in the series provided an introduction to recording your family history and subsequent installments suggested questions to ask the interviewee about their:
This final post focuses on general questions and draws as much from my own compendium of questions as from Fletcher's suggestions.

Preferences
  • What is something you consume that you consider to be a luxury?
  • What is your favourite colour in clothing?
  • Are you a dog person or a cat person? Neither? Both?
  • Did you ever keep a diary? If so, what value did it bring to you?
  • If you could be an outstanding artist, what type of artist would you want to be (e.g., painter, writer, poet, musician, actor, sculptor, dancer)?
  • Have you had any lifelong hobbies or interests—things that you liked to do as a kid that you still do now?
  • Your favourite time of day and why?
  • Are you well organized?
  • Do you like surprises?
  • Three things for which you are thankful?
  • What brings you joy?
  • What's your lucky number?
  • What do you do to reward yourself after completing a difficult task?
  • Your favourite entertainer?
Memorable Moments and Things
  • Did you win any awards at school?
  • Of all the things you accomplished during your working life, which is the achievement you are most proud of?
  • The best adventure you ever had?
  • What was the most influential book you ever read?
  • Your favourite children's story or the first one that comes to mind?
  • Your strangest possession? Your most expensive possession? Your most prized possession?
  • Three things for which you are often complimented? Which one is the most meaningful for you?
  • A text you can recite by heart?
Opinions
  • How important is money to being happy?
  • Of all the great leaders in the world, which one would you rank as the greatest?
  • What three items would you put in a time capsule to be opened in 100 years to give people an idea of what life is like today?
  • Which animal is the most beautiful?
  • If you could have a servant come to your home every day for one hour, what would you have them do?
  • If you could wake up tomorrow fluent in any language, which language would it be?
  • If you attended a party at which you had to lie in response to every question, what would you say was your occupation?
Learning
  • How did you learn about money and how to manage it?
  • How important is schooling, especially post-secondary education, to a person's development?
  • What is the best thing you learned in your life, or what is your greatest life lesson?
  • Would you say that there was ever a turning point in your life? If so, what was it and why was it significant?
  • What do you still want to learn?
Places
  • Did you have a special place where you went to be alone as a child?
  • What is your favourite place in the world to be?
  • Do you have any favourite spots that you liked to go on vacation?
  • Did you have a place that you went to during the summer or on weekends?
  • What was your most memorable vacation? Where did you go, what did you do, and what made it remarkable?
  • What countries have you visited? Which one was or is your favourite?
  • Tell me about the different places you have lived over your lifetime? In each case, why did you move?
  • Which place did you like the most? Which place did you like the least?
  • What one place or attraction would you be sure to take a first-time visitor to your community?
People
  • Did you have a favourite teacher and, if so, what made them stand out?
  • If you had to pick one memorable person from your life, who would it be? Why did that person come to mind?
  • Who is the best cook in your family?
  • What things are you good at that your parents were good at too?
  • The relative you most enjoy(ed) visiting?
  • Do you have any friends from a different generation?
  • The person you most admire?
Aging
  • What does it feel like to be your age?
  • Do you feel old? Do you think of yourself as old?
  • What's the best part about being your age? What do you appreciate most about being your age?
  • What is the most challenging thing about being your age?
  • What do you miss most from your younger days?
  • What do you miss least from your younger days?
  • What's a typical day like for you now?
  • What would you say is your purpose in life?
  • What is your most important goal right now?
  • What is something you have not yet done but believe you can do during your lifetime?
  • How do you want to be remembered?
I hope you have enjoyed this series of posts and that they have inspired a conversation or two with an older loved one.

A compilation of posts in my Family History series about conducting a life history interview with an older family member or friend is now available.