Questions to Help You Learn More About Your Family History

You ask questions all the time. What’s for dinner? How was your day? But how often do you ask questions about family? Conducting a family interview can help you learn more about your family history. Family questions can reveal little tidbits of information that can guide your family history search. Documenting the family questions with answers can also help you preserve your current family relationships, stories, and memories for future generations. 

Why Ask Questions About Family?

Questions about family history can be the beginning of a better understanding of yourself. Your family history shaped who you are today, even if you don’t realize it. You can learn about your identity and the struggles, achievements, and experiences that influenced your ancestors. Those things impacted where they ended up and how they raised their children. 

Hearing stories from your family members can also bring a sense of joy. You might feel more connected to your family. Questions about family members might help you discover a great achievement or an act of selflessness of an ancestor that makes you feel proud. You might even uncover surprising family secrets or realize your heritage is different than you thought. 

Family Interview Questions

If you’re not sure how to get started with interview questions about family, think about it in terms of different topics. You might ask questions about family values important to your ancestors. Questions about family relationships can help you better understand the dynamics of your family in previous generations. You might think of questions to ask your family about yourself to help you better understand your childhood. 

These examples make good conversation topics for family gatherings to help you learn more about your past:

• Do we have any famous or influential people in our family?
• What are some family traditions you remember growing up? Do you know where they started?
• Who in the family have you been close to over the years?
• Who were the oldest people in our family tree that you knew?
• Do you know about other areas where our family lived?
• What lines of work were our relatives in?
• What role has religion played in our family?
• Do we have any medical conditions that run in the family?
• Were any of our ancestors in the military?
• What do you know about our last name?

As you ask these questions, make sure you focus on listening and recording the answers. An easy way to do this is to create an audio recording of the conversation. That way, you can listen to the answers and be an active part of the conversation while capturing all the details of the answers. Plus, having recordings of your family members’ voices can be a sentimental possession in the future. Then you can go back through the audio and write down the important details. With Ancestry Memories, you can add audio files and attach them to images. This can be done through any web browser or via the Ancestry^® mobile app. Simply click the “Add” button and upload your audio or, if you’re on the mobile app, you can record your own audio.

These interview questions about family can become the foundation of your family history search. You can use the answers in the following ways:

• With Ancestry Hints, even just a name and date can lead you to other information
• Use the names and partial information to do more research.
• Research historical events that were mentioned if the person’s memory was fuzzy. 
• Contact other relatives, including new relatives you find out about, to get more clarification on the family history. 
• Compile and share the information with other family members. This might encourage them to share any information they have or join you in researching the family’s history. 

Uncovering Your Family History with Ancestry

Ancestry offers many free tools and resources to help you organize and grow your research—including tree building, uploading photos and documents, recording audio interviews and even searching billions of records. With Ancestry Hints, making discoveries and growing your family tree is easier than ever. Even more tools, and billions more records are available across various membership levels. 

To help get the best results from your Ancestry searches, you’ll need to gather as much information about your family as possible. One of the best ways to begin your investigation is by asking known family members deep questions about your family’s history. Plan your questions ahead of time and know how you’ll record the information. Interviewing relatives at holiday gatherings is a good way to get information from multiple people at once.

That information, along with other details you gather, can then fuel your search through the records and collections available on Ancestry. Here are some tips to start and grow your family history research:

• Remember to log your findings: As you question relatives and get answers, regularly leverage the tools and records on Ancestry to dig deeper.
• Start with what you know: Beginning with your branch on the family tree is an easy starting point since you know the most about it. Work out from there, filling out what you know and identifying the missing branches. 
• Search family heirlooms: Do you have an old family Bible, baby book, or records like birth certificates? Search through those things you and your relatives have to piece together names, relationships, and family stories. 
• Ask relatives: Asking questions about family is an effective strategy, but you can also contact relatives for specific information. For instance, maybe you know your great-grandmother’s name but not her birth date and where she was born. Relatives might be able to fill in those blanks. 
• Find records: You can often access official records, including birth certificates, marriage certificates, and death certificates. Churches sometimes keep family records. You might also find information from funeral home records, cemetery records, and obituaries. 

Feeling stuck in your family research? Try expanding your sources. For instance, if you’re only relying on family members and public records, try using Ancestry for help with your research. Here are some additional tips for improving your results:

• Look for different names or spelling variations.
• Consider an AncestryDNA kit to gain valuable and precise insights into your lineage.
• Research general history relevant to the time your ancestors were alive.
• Take a break – look at other parts of the family tree if one has you stuck.
• Review documents you’ve already looked at to see if you missed details.
• Seek original documents instead of listening to what other people tell you.

Connecting the Past and the Present

Using family interview questions to create a family tree and documentation of your family history is a great way to pass down the stories to future generations. It keeps your family’s story alive and helps future generations stay connected to their ancestors. Your family history often gives a more personal look at history that isn’t always available in traditional history lessons. 

The information you gather helps you celebrate your family heritage. It inspires you to learn more about your culture or bring back past traditions. Sharing the stories of your ancestors also creates a stronger feeling of connection among family members. 

Find Out More About Your Family History

Exploring your family history can start with something as simple as asking random family questions at your next family gathering. Those answers can be the launching point for your family history research. Learning about your family history can help you better understand yourself and inspire you to carry on the family legacy. Get your free trial at Ancestry and learn more about your family history.