50 Questions to Ask in a Family History Interview

Here are some questions to ask in an oral interview, from About.com.

As our parents and their relatives get older, we always think about doing an oral interview, but never quite get around to doing it, and regret it once the potential interview subjects are gone. It's a priceless memento you can pull together quickly. Ancestry.com even allows you to record audio directly to the family record or upload video.

It's especially interesting to ask the same questions of several siblings. One of my aunts had a completely different memory of what it was like growing up than my mother and her other siblings did. Getting a broader perspective can be very illuminating. If your interview subjects were from large families, an interview with all the siblings can help clarify incidents that your own parent might not have been old enough to provide info on. If possible, do a group interview in addition to a one-on-one interview.

Here are the questions:

1. What is your full name? Why did your parents select this name for you? Did you have a nickname?
2. When and where were you born?
3. How did your family come to live there?
4. Were there other family members in the area? Who?
5. What was the house (apartment, farm, etc.) like? How many rooms? Bathrooms? Did it have electricity? Indoor plumbing? Telephones?
6. Were there any special items in the house that you remember?
7. What is your earliest childhood memory?
8. Describe the personalities of your family members.
9. What kind of games did you play growing up?
10. What was your favorite toy and why?
11. What was your favorite thing to do for fun (movies, beach, etc.)?
12. Did you have family chores? What were they? Which was your least favorite?
13. Did you receive an allowance? How much? Did you save your money or spend it?
14. What was school like for you as a child? What were your best and worst subjects? Where did you attend grade school? High school? College?
15. What school activities and sports did you participate in?
16. Do you remember any fads from your youth? Popular hairstyles? Clothes?
17. Who were your childhood heroes?
18. What were your favorite songs and music?
19. Did you have any pets? If so, what kind and what were their names?
20. What was your religion growing up? What church, if any, did you attend?
21. Were you ever mentioned in a newspaper?
22. Who were your friends when you were growing up?
23. What world events had the most impact on you while you were growing up? Did any of them personally affect your family?
24. Describe a typical family dinner. Did you all eat together as a family? Who did the cooking? What were your favorite foods?
25. How were holidays (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) celebrated in your family? Did your family have special traditions?
26. How is the world today different from what it was like when you were a child?
27. Who was the oldest relative you remember as a child? What do you remember about them?
28. What do you know about your family surname?
29. Is there a naming tradition in your family, such as always giving the firstborn son the name of his paternal grandfather?
30. What stories have come down to you about your parents? Grandparents? More distant ancestors?
31. Are there any stories about famous or infamous relatives in your family?
32. Have any recipes been passed down to you from family members?
33. Are there any physical characteristics that run in your family?
34. Are there any special heirlooms, photos, bibles or other memorabilia that have been passed down in your family?
35. What was the full name of your spouse? Siblings? Parents?
36. When and how did you meet your spouse? What did you do on dates?
37. What was it like when you proposed (or were proposed to)? Where and when did it happen? How did you feel?
38. Where and when did you get married?
39. What memory stands out the most from your wedding day?
40. How would you describe your spouse? What do (did) you admire most about them?
41. What do you believe is the key to a successful marriage?
42. How did you find out your were going to be a parent for the first time?
43. Why did you choose your children's names?
44. What was your proudest moment as a parent?
45. What did your family enjoy doing together?
46. What was your profession and how did you choose it?
47. If you could have had any other profession what would it have been? Why wasn't it your first choice?
48. Of all the things you learned from your parents, which do you feel was the most valuable?
49. What accomplishments were you the most proud of?
50. What is the one thing you most want people to remember about you?

How the McKoys Came to California

Hubbard Wilson McKoy and Betsey Ann Newhall came to California in the Gold Rush era. Recently I uncovered the following description of that migration:

Hubbard Wilson McKoy and Betsey Ann Newhall are listed in the index of early California pioneers. Hubbard arrived in California in August of 1850. Betsey followed two years later. I make a practice of continually circling back around to lines that I've researched to see if anything new has surfaced, and this was an instance in which I was rewarded handsomely for my efforts.

When I started, I had no first hand anecdotal history for this family. I was able to unearth Hubbard's obituary, which helped explain their life in Gold Rush California and a subsequent move to the Santa Cruz Mountains. Recently, I found the following account in an old genealogy magazine, "White Family Quarterly," which absolutely thrilled me. The account is not sourced.

This "find" illustrates how important it is to circle back through lines of a tree that you've already thoroughly researched and search again. Google Books (books.google.com) is adding scanned books every minute, so it's worthwhile to do both a Google and a Google Books search periodically for everyone in your tree.

BETSEY Newhall , b. in Kerby(sic), Vt., Sept. 29, 1822; m. July 25, 1841, Hubbard Wilson McKoy, b. in Lunenburg, Vt., Feb. 24, 1819. They lived for a time in Kirby, then moved to Wisconsin, settling in Oconomowoc, Wis., where they remained until April 4th, 1850, when Mr. McKoy, with five of his townsmen, started with four horses and a wagon, on each side of which was the name of their destination, "California".

They drove to Galena, went down the Mississippi river to Hannibal, Mo., then across the state to Council Bluffs. There fitted out for the long trip over rivers, plains, mountains and deserts, arriving in "Hangtown" (now Placerville), Cal., Aug. 4th. 1850, with two horses, having left the wagon on the Humbolt Desert in Nevada. The men reaching there in safety, having no trouble from Indians, or wild animals, but we will leave the present and coming generations to imagine the hardships they had endured, and were still to endure, being as they were among the very earliest arrivals in that new, unbroken country.

Two years later, May 11, 1852, Mrs. McKoy, with her son ten years old and a daughter less than four, left Milwaukee, Wis., going from there to Chicago, where she took a steamer to St. Joseph, Mich., from there by the Michigan Central Railroad to Detroit, Mich., thence by steamer to Dunkirk, N. Y., taking train there for New York City, leaving New York on the "America," May 1 5th, and arriving at Aspinwall (now Colon), on the 23d, where they took boats up the river hagres to Cruces, the natives as propellers, with poles pushing the two boats, tied up one night at Cruces, then took mules for Panama, her son riding one, and she on another carrying her little girl.

Leaving Cruces at ten in the morning and reaching Panama at nine in the evening, they left Panama on the evening of May 29th on the steamer "Winfield Scott," stopping at Acapulco, Mexico, for one day, reached San Francisco, Cal., on June15th, she then went to Sacramento, where her husband met her and they went on to their home in Georgetown, El Dorado County, where they lived, or near there, for sixteen years. Mr. McKoy was engaged in hotel and lumber business until late in life, then a dealer in merchandise.

Having lived in Eldorado county until 1868, they moved to Santa Cruz county, where he died in Felton, Aug. 22, 1895. Mrs. McKoy is living with her children in San Jose, Cal.

Children:

Gaudencio Hubbard McKoy

Lillian Betsey McKoy

Sierra Nevada McKoy

Annie Lettice McKoy


Norma Cecilia McKoy

Newhall Headstone Photo

Findagrave.com is an amazing resource, and a testament to the collaborative power of the Internet. When I first started using it, I was dubious.... what were the odds that I'd find a headstone photo or cemetery record for someone I was researching?

Turns out, the odds are much better than you'd think. You can submit requests for photos, and sometimes findagrave volunteers will go above and beyond the call of duty to fulfill them.

Recently I uncovered the headstone for Daniel Newhall and Lettice (Johnson) Newhall in the South Kirby Cemetery in Kirby, VT: