Ask The Family ?

Are your relatives the key to uncovering the source of your family’s historical information?

If so then the answer to the initial part of the question is yes. They are part of your key to the success of tracing your family tree and your family history. From this you may be able to uncover three or four generations of your family’s tree.

• When looking at relatives to gain information try and identify your living relatives.
• Try and indicate in what way they are connected to you, by creating a rough family tree diagram.
• When you have the location of the living relatives you should be able to start to look at the demographic spread of your family.
  • The main thing to bear in mind with location of family members is the distance time and cost of visiting family members.
  • You may feel that it would be more beneficial to use other means such some of the more modern techniques like, E-mail, Instant messaging, Video Conferencing. These methods of communicating amongst family are becoming very common and should not be put out of hand.
• One of the main areas that you will find by the identification of your own relatives is the ages of the living members within your family.
  • Clearly you will probably have looked at getting in touch with the more senior members of the family, but bear in mind when doing this don’t throw everything at them in one. it may take several visit or conversations about then subject to get a clearer understanding of the history that they can unlock.
  • Younger members of the family should not be dismissed lightly as they also could hold valuable keys to uncovering historical family events.

Before you visit

These are some of the basic steps in planning before your visit to the relatives. This we feel is important as it can allow you time to research the type of questions that you would like to ask. The key point of the visit is that you must set yourself some key aims and objectives.

• Try not being too hasty in your approach to relatives as sometimes this can make people more guarded and the information that you can get may not have as much depth to it.
• We would advise any person when contacting relatives, to make an initial but brief contact, which could either be by letter, Email, or Telephone. In this type of contact you should make your explanation of what it is you are doing.
• Try when arranging a meeting, to make the atmosphere that you are going to be receptive for your relatives, as when they are calm and in a place of comfort you will be able to get them to open up and speak more at ease.
• At all times be aware that when you are gathering your stories from members of the family always try and reassure them of privacy.
• When planning on a visit to relatives try and make it that there is only one person doing the interview so to speak. This will not give rise to interruptions from second parties, and it will not sidetrack you from your intended aims and objectives for the meeting.

Possible questions to ask

What we are going to do in this section is to create a simple checklist of some of the questions that you could ask relatives. As these questions are generic they can be applied to or adapted for other family trees that you may be interested in investigating.

Questions Checklist

What is their full name (as some relatives did not always use the given birth name)? 
What is their date of birth? This may include some of following secondary points).

• Where were they born?
• What regional area or county were you born in? 

Did you have any Nicknames when you were at school or at work? 
What educational establishments did you attend?
Where were these educational establishments located?

What educational establishments did you attend ?

• Infant school?
• Junior school?
• Senior / grammar school?
• College?
• University?

What Qualifications did you receive at the end of your education?
When did you leave school to start work? 
When you were in education can you remember any stories of the teachers and pupils you were in contact with? 
After leaving school did you do an apprenticeship or any other training? 

Can they remember their first job?

• When did you start the job?
• What was the company name that they worked for?
• Can they remember the address of their first place of employment?
• Did they advance / get promoted in the company? 

Were you the oldest or youngest in the family (what was their placing within the family?)

• How many Brothers or sisters did you have?
• Can they remember their full names?
• What were the age differences between you all?
• What regional area or county were they born in?
• Did you have any pet names or nicknames for each other?
• Are any of the siblings still living today?
• If they are still living do they have any contact details for them? 

When did your parents die (If applicable)?

• Mother’s Death Date? (If not known an approximate year of death can give a good starting point when accessing the death registers).
o Where was the burial or cremation held?
o What town, city, village and regional area or county did she die?
• Father’s Death Date? (If not known an approximate year of death can give a good starting point when accessing the death registers).
o Where was the burial or cremation held?
o What town, city, village and regional area or county did he die? 

Your parents, can they remember any of their parent’s birth and marriage details?

• Fathers Details

o Do they know their fathers birth day? (Sometimes all they will know will be the day and month that they were born).
o Do they know what regional area or county were they born in? (If Known)
o Do you know when your father got married?
o Do you know where they got married?

• Mother’s Details

o Do they know their fathers birth day? (Sometimes all they will know will be the day and month that they were born).
o Do they know what regional area or county were they born in? (If Known)
o Do you know when your father got married?
o Do you know where they got married? 

In your father’s family can you remember any of his brothers and sisters?

• How many Brothers or sisters did he have? (if known)
• Can they remember their names? (Full names if possible but they might not remember them).
• What regional area or county were they born in? (If Known)
• Are any of the their brothers or sisters still living today?
• If they are still living do they have any contact details for them? 
• Do they know of any details about their grandparents? 

In your mother’s family can you remember any of her brothers and sisters?

• How many Brothers or sisters did she have? (if known)
• Can they remember their names? (Full names if possible but they might not remember them).
• What regional area or county were they born in? (If Known)
• Are any of the siblings still living today?
• If they are still living do they have any contact details for them? 

Do they know of any details about their grandparents? 
Did any members of the family serve in either of the world wars?  
Has any members of the family emigrated? 
Has the family if they know originated from outside the country? 
Do they know of any one researching the family’s history? 

Are there any family heirlooms?

• Documents
• Service records
• Family Bible
• Last wills and testaments
• Photographs
• Letters / Diaries 

What to take and do when meeting relatives.

 When you are talking to relatives there are some things that you may find that you will need to take along with you.

• Take a large notepad with you try to write in capitals as this will be easier for transcribing later on when you are entering data into a family tree program?
• We would suggest that you take some form of recording device with you so that you can recheck what has been said. (Recording devices, mobile phones, Dictaphones, recordable mp3 machines).
• Take a proper camera with you to take photographs of your subject and any documentation for provenance to your family history.
• Sometimes it is nice to take a welcoming gesture to a family relative, it helps put them at ease.
• Arrange other meetings as the first meeting should always be short, you can always ask other questions in later meetings.
• Be sure to get the interviewees permission to record the conversation, as you may also want to make this available to other members of the family.

What to do when you get back

 When you return from your meeting, you must record the information in some way.

• Correlate any information and put it in some form of chronological order.
• Create yourself a brief summary of what you got from the meeting.
• Preserve and label any recordings for future use and transcription if that is required.
  • Bullet point the key areas
  • Organise in headings and sub headings
• Download and archive any photographic material. If required print off any photographs that may be required for further use.