What should I ask my grandmother?

Ask what her own mother was like, what she cooked without a recipe, what she did before she married, and what she wants her great-grandchildren to know about her.

She says her life was not interesting. What then?

Ask about ordinary detail — the street, the shopping, the wages, a normal Sunday. Those answers are the ones families treasure most.

How do I keep her answers?

Go Family Story sends three questions a week by private link and keeps every written answer, photo and voice recording in one private family archive.

Questions to ask your grandmother

Your grandmother lived a whole life before she was anyone's grandmother. These questions are for that life: the girl she was, the choices open to her, the house she kept and the things she has never been asked.

Questions to ask your grandmother about her own life

Ask a few at a time, at the kitchen table or in writing. Every one can be answered in a couple of minutes.

1.What were you like as a young woman, before any of us existed?
2.What did the women in your family expect of you?
3.What choices were open to you, and which ones were not?
4.What has ageing taught you about your body?
5.How did you meet the person you married?
6.What was keeping a home actually like in those years?
7.What did you cook without ever needing a recipe?
8.What do you think matters at the end?
9.What did you make with your hands — sewing, knitting, mending, growing?
10.What did you do that people found unusual for a woman then?
11.What did becoming a mother change in you?
12.What did you save up for, coin by coin?
13.What did you worry about at night in those years?
14.What did you never tell your own children?
15.What was your happiest ordinary day?
16.Who was your first real friend, and what happened to them?
17.What did you and your friends do for yourselves?
18.What did you wear when you wanted to feel like yourself?
19.What did you learn about money the hard way?
20.What have you forgiven that you thought you never would?
21.What has changed most for women since you were young?
22.What advice did your mother give you that you kept?
23.What did you feel the first time you held a grandchild?
24.What sound makes you stop whatever you are doing?
25.What do you hope we ask you before it is too late?
26.What would you like your great-grandchildren to know about you?
27.What was the world like when you were a child?
28.What phrase did you get from your parents without noticing?
29.What did your parents do, and what were they like?
30.What was your childhood home like — the rooms, the smells, the sounds?
31.What did a school day look like for you?
32.What has got easier with age?
33.What did your family live through that shaped them?
34.What did people your age do for fun?
35.How did you meet your husband or wife?
36.What do you want playing in the room when you are remembered?
37.What was your wedding day like?
38.What was your first home together?
39.What work did you do over the years?
40.What stories were told again and again in your family?
41.How much did things cost, and how did you manage?
42.What was the hardest time you lived through?
43.What news event do you remember most clearly, and where were you?
44.What is the naughtiest thing you ever did?
45.What was it like to become a parent in your time?

Turn these questions into a gift they'll keep

We send the questions for you. They answer free from their inbox, and every answer, photo and recording is gathered into one private archive — kept on a highly secure database, and downloadable by you at any time.

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Questions to answer about your grandmother

Ask her children and grandchildren these. Everyone remembers a different woman, and together they make the whole picture.

46.What is her house like to walk into?
47.What does she always have in the kitchen for you?
48.What did she cook that nobody has managed to copy?
49.What is their idea of a perfect day?
50.What does she wear around the house?
51.What did her hands look like, and what were they always doing?
52.What does she call you?
53.What song belongs to them?
54.What does she let you get away with?
55.What did she say when you were upset?
56.What does she teach you without calling it teaching?
57.What did they do that embarrassed you at the time and delights you now?
58.What did she keep that meant something to her?
59.What does she say about her own young years?
60.What does she think of the way we live now?
61.What would a day in their life look like from the inside?
62.What does she do for other people quietly?
63.What made her laugh until she had to sit down?
64.What was she stubborn about?
65.What do you wish they understood about themselves?

Collect the answers in one place

Go Family Story sends three of these questions a week by private link. The person answers with a free account, and every answer, photo, video and voice recording is kept in one private archive that only your family can see.

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Common questions

What should I ask my grandmother?: Ask what her own mother was like, what she cooked without a recipe, what she did before she married, and what she wants her great-grandchildren to know about her.
She says her life was not interesting. What then?: Ask about ordinary detail — the street, the shopping, the wages, a normal Sunday. Those answers are the ones families treasure most.
How do I keep her answers?: Go Family Story sends three questions a week by private link and keeps every written answer, photo and voice recording in one private family archive.