FAMILY HISTORY QUESTIONNAIRE

 

GRANDPARENTS

1. What were the names of your mother's parents?

2. When and where did were they born? Where did they live?

3. What did he do for a living?

4. Do you have any personal memories of them?

5. What were the names of your father's parents?

6. When and where were they born? Where did they live?

7. What did he do for a living?

8. Do you have any personal memories of them? Describe.

9. Did you know your grandparents well?

10. What do you remember hearing about your great-grandparents?

11. Did you ever see them?

12. Did your great-grandparents, grandparents, or parents come from foreign country? What stories are told in your family about the crossing? Do you have any relatives in foreign countries?

13. What traditions are still practiced in your family?

 

CHILDHOOD (THE FAMILY HOUSE)

1. What type of house did you live in  as a child? Describe.

2. What other buildings were on the same property?

3. Did you have a yard? A fence? A swing? Flowers? Trees? A lawn?

4. If you moved during your childhood, tell where and when and what you can remember of each house and the family circumstances and reasons for the move.

5. As a child, did you have a room of your own, or did you share it with someone else?  If you shared, with whom?

6. Did you have a bed of your own?

7. In what room did you eat?  Kitchen?  Dining Room?

8. Where did you eat when there was company?

9. Did your house have a parlor?  Was the family allowed to use it?

10. How was your home heated?  Was it warm in winter?  Explain.

11. Did you have a fireplace?

12. What kind of kitchen stove did your parents cook on?

13. Did you burn wood?  Coal? 

14. Did you have to buy fuel or was there a chore, such as cutting wood? With which did you help?

15. Did you always have indoor plumbing?  If not, when did you get it?

16. Did you always have electricity?  If not, when did you get it?

17. Did you ever use candles or kerosene lamps?  Whose job was it to fill the lamps and replace the wicks?

18. Did your family have a cellar?  Where did you store apples, potatoes? Canned foods?

19. Did your family always have a refrigerator?  If not, what did you use instead?  When did you get a refrigerator?

20. Where did your family get water?  Was it plentiful?  What methods were used to conserve water?

 

​FAMILY RELATIONS, RESPONSIBILITIES, CONDITIONS

1. What was your position in the family?  Oldest?  Youngest?  Were there ​any advantages?  Disadvantages?

2. What were your duties as a small child?  Describe your responsibilities as you grew older.

3. Who cooked the meals?  Who did the ironing?

4. Did you buy or make your own clothing?  Who was the family seamstress? Who repaired the family shoes?

5. When did you learn to cook?  Who taught you?

6. Did you learn how to sew?  Crochet?  Knit?  Embroider?  Who taught you?

7. Did you ever learn the mechanics of a car?  Who taught you?

8. Did your parents keep in touch with distant family?

9. Did you visit relatives often?  Near?  Far?

10. How did you get your mail?  How often?

11. Did you have any childhood diseases?

12. What do you remember about family pets?

13. Were you especially close to anyone in the family?

14. How did the family spend its evenings?​​

 

FAMILY INCOME AND LIVELIHOOD

1. What did your father do for a living?

2. Did you mother ever work outside of the home?

3. Did you contribute to the family income?  In what way?

4. Did you get any allowance as a child?  Or did you have to earn your own spending money?  If so, how?

5. When did you get your first job outside of the family?

6. Did your family have a garden?  For family use or profit?

7. Who did the planting?  Digging?  Cultivating?  Weeding?  Watering? 

8. What kind of vegetables did you grow?  Who harvested them?

9. Did your family have fruit trees? 

10. Who did the canning and what vegetables and fruits were canned?  How?

11. Did you raise hogs or chickens?  Cows?

12. What kind of meat did you eat?  How often?  Did you slaughter your own animals? How often?

13. Did you keep a cow for milk?

14. Did you make your own butter?  Cheese?

15. Did any of the family sell eggs or butter?

16. If you lived on a farm, what crops were planted?

17. Who did the work?  Family?  Hired hands?  On what occasions?​

 

DAYS, SEASONS, AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS

1. What did Saturday mean to you?

2. Was Saturday night bath night?  Where?  How?

3. What did Sunday mean to you?

4. Did you attend church on Sunday?  Alone?  With your parents or family or friends?

5. Where did you attend church or Sunday school?

6. Did you have special shopping habits at Christmastime?  Did you earn your own money to buy presents?

7. How did you spend Christmas?  Describe.  Did you decorate a Christmas tree?  Did you exchange gifts?

8. What kind of gifts did you receive on your Christmas?

9. Did your family observe Easter?  In what way?

10. How did you observe the Fourth of July?  Where?

11. How was your birthday celebrated?  Did you have a birthday cake?

12. What kinds of gifts did you receive on your birthday?

13. Did your family entertain often?  What were the occasions?

14. Did you family attend picnics?  Family reunions?  What do you remember about them?

15. How did you keep cool in the summer? 

16. Did you go barefoot in summer?

17. What did you wear in winter to keep warm?

18. Do you remember any blizzards or tornadoes or floods?

19. How did these events affect the neighbors, relatives, or town?  How did they affect you?​

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