Recording Your Family History Part III

FAQs

What kinds of questions could I ask my grandparents?

Here are some of our thoughts on questions ideas for those of you recording your own family history. 

As far as what to ask goes, we always told our grandparents that we just wanted to know about the things they wanted to tell us, so we could ask questions and they didn't have to answer if they didn't want to for some reason. That helped them all feel comfortable. We especially wanted to know what life was like for them when they were children:

    -What was their house like? 

    -If they had siblings, what do they remember about them? 

    -What was their school like? 

    -If they went to church, what was their church like? 

    -What do they remember about their parents? 

    -Did they have pets? What did they do for fun? 

    -How was life different back then? 

    -Did they have any family traditions?

    -How did they meet?

    -What was their wedding like?

Then we would go chronologically through their lives: "Grandpa, what do you remember about WWII? Where were you when you heard about Pearl Harbor?" and so on. Our one set of grandparents have traveled all over the world, so their travels were a great source of adventures! If you are interviewing your grandparents, make sure you get the story (from both sides!) of how they met. We especially wanted to know about their faith in the Lord and how He worked in their lives. Also, another thought-provoking, important question is, "What would be your advice to future generations?"

 Of course, there are just fun questions to ask, too, to record more of who the grandparent is. Here is one list that we used to help our grandparents get thinking!

        There are so many “favorite things” questions...

            Foods?

            Restaurants?

            Movies?

            Top 3 Books?

            Music?

            Color?

            Time period of history to read/learn about?

            Scripture passages?

            Hymn?

            Place visited?

            Flavor of ice cream?

            Game?

            Job?

            Activity on a rainy day?

            Season?

What if I don’t have grandparents or anyone to share the stories with me?

First of all, let us say that we do recognize that we have been given an amazing gift in having all four of our grandparents not only living but also living near us. Secondly, we realize it is hard and sad to not have a family like that.

But God usually gives us options in such a situation. Two generations above us are thousands of grandparents, many of whom don’t have grandchildren who care at all about their stories, and if you showed any interest at all, would be elated to share their stories with you.

In fact, an “adopted” grandma gave us our first inspiration for collecting family history. She had gone through the work of putting her own book together of her life story for her grandchildren and, graciously, shared a copy with us. Her sweet testimony of the Lord’s provision and protection during even the hard days of her life was such a blessing; it sparked in us the desire to do the same someday.  It all started with her.  

What if my family history is such a mess it wouldn’t inspire anyone?

Again, we’d first like to say that we sympathize; family histories can be terrible sometimes. But here’s a thought that might help. In our books about our grandparents, we like to mention that they have laid a foundation for us to build on and we hope to do just that. Well, maybe all you have is one block or even only part of one. Use that one block and build on it. It might be that the only thing your great-grandfather did right was not going into debt. Well, learn from that. And learn from the mistakes, too. Maybe your family was a mess. What an opportunity to show the power of God’s grace in that you are where you are now! God delights in taking the ugly and wicked and making it beautiful and using it for good. (Genesis 50:20) This could be an opportunity to witness that.

This reminds us of a quote from William Bradford (one of the original Pilgrims who traveled on the Mayflower) stating why he decided to keep a record of the Pilgrims’ history: 

“My object is that their children may see with what difficulties their fathers had to wrestle in accomplishing the first beginnings; and how God ultimately brought     them through, notwithstanding all their weakness and infirmities; also that some     use may be made of them later, by others, in similar important projects.” ¹

We hope these ideas help you. Blessings on your endeavors!

¹ William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation: Bradford’s History of the Plymouth Settlement, Vision Forum, San Antonio, TX 1998-2007, pg. 48.