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Interviewing Family-Requests for Info
Researching the living is challenging. Records are often off-limits (such as the Census). If you hope to publish a genealogy that includes the living, what can you do? In 1993-1994, I undertook to contact as many family groups as possible. My grandma had contact with her generation of cousins and their addresses. So we decided to write to those "heads" of family groups, asking for their info as well as asking for them to give us more addresses for their adult children, etc.
We first decided what info we wanted and needed to include in paragraph form for our history book. The paragraph form was used in a 1930s book done on the Garber branch of our family and I really liked it. The entries could be short or long, depending on what info we had. Once we knew what we wanted, I made up a "form" that was about 3 & 1/2 pages (one side only). Here is some of what was on those forms. I titled my form "Personal Detail Sheet."
**Here write out some simple directions for the person filling out the form.
FULL Name:
Nickname(s):
Parents names (FULL name and maiden name of your mother):
Your grandparents' FULL names: **leave 4 lines for both sets of grandparents
YOUR birthdate:
Where were you born? (home? name of hospital?)
City/State where you were born:
Who delivered you? (Doctor)
Elementary School: *ask for name, city and state on all the schools
High School:
Technical School/Business School:
College/university:
What degree did you earn?
Any Honors, Awards, etc. during your education: *leave enough room here
If you left school early, would you share with me what happened/why you left? *surprising answers on this sometimes
* use some open-ended questions like - Is there anything about your education (K-college) that was especially important to you that I did not ask about?
If married, Spouse's FULL name:
Your SPOUSE's BIRTH date:
If spouse has died, date? Where are they buried?
Date you married?
Where you married? (include place, city & state)
Who officiated?
FULL names of your children, and their birth dates: * leave at least 6 lines and say "use back if you need more room"
If any child has died, please give name and date of death.
You were Baptized where and When?
Church attended as a child?
--as an adult?
Is there anything you want me to know about your church membership (awards, honors? volunteer work?)
Where do you work? Job Title? What years have you been there? **leave a LOT of room for answers; people average 3-5 jobs sometimes
Any honors or anything you want me to know about your job?
Volunteer Work (community):
Is there anything I have not asked so far?
What are your hobbies? passions?
Memberships (clubs, organizations, etc. examples: 4-H; Lions Club; VFW; etc)
What memory would you like to share about your parents, grandparents, family member?
What is the best memory of your life so far?
Who influenced you the most?
Who do you admire?
Please use additional pages for anything else you want to tell me.
If you are filling out this form for a deceased family member, include date they died, where buried, and anything I should know. Please include cause of death if you know it.
I might have forgotten something here, so I will look for my old form later today and add to this list if I left anything out. Check back.
The replies I received were amazing! The detail was great. I think my title that included the word "detail" and the way I asked the questions, helped push for the person to be specific and to add to my questions.
The kind of paragraph you can write using the detail sheet would look like this (this one is made up so ignore if dates seem off etc):
Mary Margaret Heller Black: Daughter of James Francis Heller and Mary Ann Grimm Heller, Mary Margaret "Patsy" was born July 1, 1943 in Washington Hospital, Washington, PA. She was delivered by Dr. Joseph Michaels. Mary attended the old Wylie Ave. Grade School and Washington High School, graduating in 1961. A Ladies club offered her a scholarship to Penn Commercial Business School where Mary took secretarial courses that enabled her to apply for a job with Jobes & Harley, Attorneys. Mary has worked for the partners since her graduation in 1964. On July 14 (her mother's birthday), 1962, Mary Margaret married Joseph Allen Black in a double-ring ceremony at Immaculate Conception Church, officiated by Father J. B. Ikes. The couple has five children: Abby Marie, James Francis Jr., Tabitha Louise, Joseph Steven, and Jonathan Michael. Mary Margaret has been a member of I.C. Roman Catholic Church her entire life, being baptized there as a baby on July 20, 1943. She is a member of the I.C. Ladies Auxillary, and is Secretary at the VFW # 510, Washington. In addition, she is a member of the Washington Gardening Guild, the Hobbyists of America Club and has held several offices with the Supporters of Tourism Partnership. Mary enjoys long walks, reading mysteries, and knitting. The couple enjoys life on their 20 acre farm in South Strabane Township where they raised their children.
That is an example of how all those pieces of information can be put together into a coherent personal paragraph.
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