Oral history interview questions for family

The best oral history interviews feel like conversations, not interrogations. Use these questions as a map, not a script. Follow what the person says. Ask follow-up questions. Let them go off on a tangent - the tangents are often where the best material lives.

Record the whole conversation. It is easier to edit out irrelevant sections later than to try to capture everything in notes while you are listening.

Plan for sessions of thirty to sixty minutes, not several hours. Two shorter sessions almost always produce more than one very long one.

These questions ease into the interview and help the person relax into talking.

• Can you tell me a bit about where you grew up?
• What did your family home look like? Do you have a strong sense of that first home?
• Who was in the house when you were young?
• What is one of your earliest clear memories?

Building a picture of early life, routines, and relationships.

• What was school like for you?
• Did you have a particular teacher who made a difference?
• What did you and your friends do for fun?
• Were there things you were not allowed to do that all your friends were doing?
• What was the area you grew up in like? Has it changed a lot?
• What were things like at home - what was the mood of the household?

Moments where life could have gone differently.

• When did you first start thinking about what you wanted to do with your life?
• Was there a moment or decision that changed the course of things for you?
• Did you ever seriously consider a completely different path?
• Were there things you wanted to do but did not get the chance to?
• What is the biggest risk you ever took? Did it pay off?

The working life - not just what they did, but what it felt like.

• What was your first proper job? How did you get it?
• What did a typical working day look like for most of your career?
• What were you genuinely good at?
• Was there something about the work that you found difficult or unrewarding?
• What do you look back on with pride from your working life?

The people who shaped their life.

• Tell me about the people who had the most influence on you.
• How did you meet your partner? What were they like when you first met?
• What was it like becoming a parent for the first time?
• How did your relationship with your own parents change as you got older?
• Is there a friendship you are grateful for that might surprise people?

Loss, difficulty, and how they came through it.

• What is the hardest thing you have been through?
• How did you get through it? Who helped?
• Did it change you? In what way?
• Is there anything you wish you had done differently during a difficult time?

Reflection on a whole life.

• What has surprised you most about how your life turned out?
• What do you know now that you wish you had known at twenty-five?
• What are you most proud of - not necessarily an achievement, but something you did or were?
• What do you want your family to understand about you?
• Is there something you never talked about much that you think is worth saying now?

Upload the recording to MeldLife. The audio is transcribed and the memories are placed on a timeline. You can add photos, correct the transcript, and build out the story from there.

If some sections did not get covered, come back to them in a second session. Oral history interviews rarely cover everything - and that is fine.