Memories Matter
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56 essential questions to ask your parents to capture their personal history
Don’t wait until it’s too late—have meaningful conversations with your parents about their past with questions designed to spark memories and make story sharing easy.
When a parent doesn’t want to talk about their past
Why it's sometimes easier to talk about our life experiences with a stranger, and how to get a reluctant storyteller to genuinely open up about his or her past.
75 Questions to spark Christmas story sharing
Family history questions for Christmas: 75 open-ended, specific interview questions to elicit powerful memories & stories from the older generation.
“Nobody ever asked me before”
Thoughts from the 2018 International Reminiscence & Life Review Conference including research challenges, anecdotal evidence, and autobiographical memory.
55 Questions to spark Thanksgiving story sharing
Family history questions for Thanksgiving: 55 open-ended, specific interview questions to elicit powerful memories & stories from the older generation.
4 ideas for family interviews
Conducting family interviews is a great way to gather the stories of family elders and preserve family history for the next generation. Here are a few tips.
3 unexpected places to discover great life story questions
While there are lots of lists of family history questions on the web, here are 3 places to find unexpected questions that lead to meaningful life story writing.
Dawn Roode’s curated roundup for the week of Sept. 23, 2026, is overflowing with recent reads on memoir, life story writing, and family history preservation.