Try These Family History Prompts to Encourage Family Storytelling

During big gatherings, grandparents can often fade into the background. To keep the conversation going as a group and share the moment as a family, consider asking some questions about the family history. Family storytelling is a great way to help people anchor their sense of identity, learn more about previous generations, and include the older generation in the conversation. All you need are a few family history prompts to get the family storytelling started.

Here’s our list of favorite family history prompts to get you and your relatives sharing family stories.

How and when did your parents/grandparents meet?

What did they do for their first date? How and when did they fall in love? Where both families happy with the relationship? If not, why? What are the interesting stories about their relationship and early life together?

How and when did your parent/grandparent get his or her first job?

Is it what they’d always wanted to do/be? If not, what were the circumstances behind getting this job? How did this job affect his or her future job choice? Are there any interesting stories about the work they’ve done in their life?

Have there been hard times in your family’s life?

What were they? How did they cope with them? What lessons did they learn from them or how were they changed by the hard times?

How did your family come to live in the city/town where they now are?

How long have they been here? What has been interesting about their life here and different from where they lived before? How did they end up in the house where they are now? If they’ve never moved, please tell some stories about life here before it is the way we know it now.

What was daily life like for your parents/grandparents?

What a typical day was like in the 1920s (or whatever era you choose). What did they eat for breakfast? What did they wear? Where did they go and when? What did they do in the evening? What did they do for fun?

In advance of the family dinner or gathering where you’re asking these prompts, request that family members bring family photos or other memorabilia to illustrate these stories. Images always enhance a story, regardless of whether you’re telling it in a photo story, or just sharing tales.

In the end, it’s all about sharing stories and feeling closer as a family.

Want to test your family story knowledge? Try the Do You Know scale.