Not everyone wants to speak their life story into a microphone. Some people prefer to write, quietly, with their own pen, with no one listening in. This questionnaire exists for exactly that: the same thirty questions from the full question catalog for grandparents, but as a print-ready template with space for handwritten answers.
The simplest way to use it: print it out, hand it to your grandparents to look over in peace, then go through it together on your next visit. Not all the questions need to be answered at once. One page a week is a good rhythm.
How to print the questionnaire
- Click the „Print questionnaire“ button, or press Ctrl+P (Windows) or Cmd+P (Mac).
- Choose "Save as PDF" as the destination if you'd like to send the questionnaire as a message first, instead of printing it right away.
- You can turn off the header and footer in the print preview through your browser's print settings, for a clean result without a date or page title.
Childhood & Home
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
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?
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
How did you end up in your line of work, and was that a deliberate decision?
What was your first day at work like?
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?
What has changed the most about work, between back then and today?
Formative Times & Society
What do you remember from a time we only know today from history books?
How did your family learn about major upheavals in society?
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
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
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?
When writing turns out to be too much effort
A questionnaire to fill in reaches its limits as soon as someone no longer enjoys writing by hand, or an answer is simply too long for one line. That's where e-mem comes in: the same questions, but spoken instead of written, recorded directly in the browser, in your grandparents' own voice.
If you'd like to dig deeper into individual topics, you'll find in-depth companion articles in 10 questions for grandmother and questions for grandpa, plus practical conversation tips in the guide How to interview your grandparents.
The finished recordings can be ordered as an audiobook on a USB stick or in a picture frame, a gift for grandparents that becomes more valuable with every year.