A single question opens a door. Thirty questions open an entire life. This collection moves through six sections covering your grandparents' childhood, youth, working life, formative times and hard-won wisdom, right up to what they wish for the family. You don't need to ask all thirty in one afternoon. Five are enough for a good conversation, and the rest can wait for next time.
The questions work best when you don't work through them like a checklist, but instead pick the one you're genuinely curious about yourself. Real interest is audible, and it opens up more than even the most carefully worded question ever could.
Childhood & Home
The earliest memories are often the richest in detail, because back then nothing was yet taken for granted.
- What did the house or apartment you grew up in look like?
- What did your family typically eat, and who did the cooking?
- What did you play outside with, back when there was neither television nor mobile phones?
- What was your relationship with your siblings like, and what kind of trouble did you get into together?
- Was there a rule of your parents' that felt especially strict to you as a child?
Youth, Love & First Steps
The years when it first became clear who someone wanted to become, long before responsibilities took over their life.
- What do you remember most vividly about your first day of school?
- What did you love doing most as a teenager, whenever you had free time?
- How did you two meet, you and grandma or grandpa?
- What was the first money you ever earned yourself, and what did you spend it on?
- What dream did you have at twenty that came true, or didn't?
Career & Everyday Life
The everyday life of back then is exactly what never made it into any family album.
- How did you end up in your line of work, and was that a deliberate decision?
- What was your first day at work like, and how was it different from what you'd expected?
- What did a completely ordinary weekday look like when the children were still small?
- Is there a colleague or a boss you still remember today, whether fondly or not?
- What has changed the most about work, between back then and today?
Formative Times & Society
Questions that bring history back not as a date, but as lived, everyday experience.
- What do you remember from a time we only know today from history books?
- How did your family learn about major upheavals in society, and how did you react?
- Which invention or innovation changed your everyday life the most?
- Was there a move or a big change that sent your life in a different direction?
- What was the biggest difference between your generation and your parents' generation?
Values, Setbacks & Life Wisdom
This is where memory turns into life wisdom, if you give it the room to.
- What was the hardest decision you ever had to make?
- Was there a setback that took you a long time to recover from?
- What helped you most to keep going during hard times?
- What advice would you have liked to give your twenty-year-old self?
- What does a good life mean to you, entirely apart from money or success?
Family Today & Looking Ahead
These last questions don't look back, they look forward.
- How do you think our family has changed the most?
- What do you wish for your children and grandchildren?
- Which tradition from your childhood should live on in the family?
- What was one of the proudest moments of your life?
- What should we never forget about you?
What you can do with these questions
This page is all you need for reading the questions aloud. If you'd rather hold them in your hand, you'll find a printable version in the printable questionnaire, with space for handwritten answers. If you'd like to focus on a single chapter, you'll find in-depth companion articles in 10 questions for grandmother and questions for grandpa.
And if you'd like to know how to actually turn a list of questions into a good conversation, you'll find technique and examples in the guide How to interview your grandparents.
These answers become most valuable when they're not just written down, but captured in your grandparents' own voice. With e-mem, your grandparents answer exactly these kinds of questions directly in the browser, at their own pace. The recordings can later be downloaded or ordered as an audiobook on a USB stick or in a picture frame, a gift for grandparents that grows more valuable with every year.