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Biographical Family Interviews: How Your Loved One Can Prepare


When looking to record and preserve family history for our descendants, holding a biographical interview with your elderly family member can help reveal interesting details. A logical approach to recording memoirs can assist your loved one with recall, as well as help organize the various events of life into a cohesive narrative.


Professional services focused on conducting a biographical family interview are available, and can be a greatly beneficial experience. These services allow your loved one to probe for key milestones, important events, and reminiscences that might otherwise have been overlooked, offering unique, personal insights on lived experiences. Ensuring that the interview is conducted by compassionate professionals in a respectful, positive environment is key.


Here, we’ll explore the details of a biographical family interview, and how professional memoir services can benefit your genealogical preservation efforts - as well as some tips on how to prepare, so you can make the most of this experience.


What is a biographical family interview?


A biographical family interview is essentially a conversation conducted between the recorder and the selected individual about their family history. Family interviews with loved ones provide opportunities to explore childhood memories, youthful experiences, your loved one’s hopes, dreams, and insight - and advice helpful to you, on your own life path. A conversational interview process is also a fantastic way to preserve cultural knowledge, milestones, and traditions - enabling connections and understanding across generations.


Bridging the knowledge gap between present and future relatives is a deeply rewarding experience, and those who are interviewed often feel a deep sense of pride and accomplishment. Biographical family interviews allow us to share tales of wisdom, love, struggle and hope. These stories live on, and serve as a source of comfort and guidance through troubled times.


Preparing for your biographical family interview.


When preparing for a family interview, advance preparation can add depth and richness to the experience.


First, choose a time and date that works best for everyone involved. Setting aside time to reflect is important, as thoughtful exploration can take time. The distractions of daily life can disrupt the flow of the process and make it harder to properly discover and explore notable events - so it’s vital to choose a quiet time to connect, free of pressing concerns or tasks. While OriginStory ensures that our professionals set aside ample time for our conversational interviews, interviewees should also ensure that they can provide their full and undivided attention. This supports a deeper, more connected experience - and helps participants gain the most from their interview.


Before the scheduled date and time, consider some of the stories or experiences you’d like to share, or what details and questions family members might find valuable or interesting. Relatives of those being interviewed can often provide records, memorabilia, or keepsakes that can be used as guides to prompt memories of lived experience and family history. When personal stories are rooted by known history and recorded details, they can provide deeper insight into the intricacies of our loved ones’ lived experience.


Understanding where our loved ones came from and how they’ve grown and developed as humans creates a richer storytelling experience. It can be helpful to create a set of notes on specifics, such as memorable dates, significant events, or milestone achievements, in advance.

While it’s helpful to arrive with some stories and events in mind, remember that OriginStory’s conversational interviews are a dynamic experience. As interesting memories arise, your personal biographer will follow up with questions, exploring compelling threads and thoughts. This process is unique to each individual, and can reveal enthralling insights and unexpected details.


Interviewees should try to avoid yes or no answers, and focus on open-ended replies. OriginStory’s process is designed to reveal opinions, insights, and feelings that provide rich context and color to historical memories. Authenticity and trust are key to the experience - we find that the most expressive biographical family interviews offer the highest benefit, resulting in valuable recordings which become priceless keepsakes for our loved ones’ descendants.


Compassion and empathy are key to the OriginStory process. Elderly interviewees sometimes experience difficulty with recalling details chronologically, or feel inhibited by certain topics or memories. Acknowledging this helps your personal historian exercise sensitive flexibility, redirecting the conversation as needed to maintain positivity and flow. Holding space for remembrance which triggers strong emotions is essential - as is providing your loved ones time and space to mentally and emotionally prepare for difficult topics, and decompress after sharing.

Family interviews can be rich and rewarding, but they also require patience and effort. Conscious preparation and planning helps ensure that your loved ones make the most of this unique opportunity to preserve your family legacy.


What questions are asked in a biographical family interview?


When preparing family members for their biographical stories, certain questions will help elicit more honest and detailed answers. If there are particular events or topics you’d like to cover in your family history interview, jot down some specific notes or questions for exploration. It can be a great idea to rehearse easier questions and answers, to allow your loved one time to get comfortable with the process. Here are some examples of simple questions, to help set the stage:


  • Can you tell the story of how your parents met?

  • How would you describe your childhood home?

  • Who were your closest friends in your younger years?

  • Which family events and activities give you the greatest joy?

  • What was the most memorable holiday you’ve celebrated?

  • What challenges have you overcome in your lifetime?

  • Who did you admire when you were younger? Who do you admire now?

  • What are you most proud of?


Asking follow-up questions can help develop the particulars of specific stories and events. For example, if your loved one mentions an exciting trip they took, you can ask them to elaborate on where they went, who accompanied them, and who they met or what they saw along the way. Open-ended, exploratory questions help your loved one share their life story in a more detailed and engaging way.


Nostalgic feelings are often triggered by photos, home videos, or journals. Family memorabilia and keepsakes often stimulate memories and ideas that provide richness and depth of feeling to personal memoirs. Concentrating on emotions, motivations, beliefs, and heartwarming details is far more enlightening and revealing than a focus on chronological events.


What happens after the interview is complete?


After the biographical family interview is complete, your family biographer will review the collected stories and information. OriginStory’s interviews are captured as high-fidelity audio recordings, allowing your interviewer to listen and make note of important details.


Interviews are first transcribed, and then edited for clarity and readability. Transcription is a time-intensive process, and requires acute attention to detail - but it is an essential step for those who wish to receive written records for printing or publication. OriginStory highly recommends transcription for those who may wish to publish their family memoirs as a physical or digital book.


A professional family biographer will review the transcribed content, organizing recorded material into topics and themes which create a coherent picture of your loved one’s history. OriginStory’s family biography interviews are mastered into high-quality audio format, including a beautifully displayed table of contents and themed chapterization, for easy navigation.

Once the editing process is complete, you’ll receive a polished version of your biographical family interview for review. At OriginStory, we pride ourselves on delivering your compendium of knowledge as a gorgeous digital heirloom you’ll be proud to share with generations to come.


Engaging the best family biographer.


While you can certainly do it yourself, recording your oral history, nostalgic memories, and cultural knowledge is easiest with the help of a professional biographer. All of OriginStory’s personal memoir services include a biographical family interview conducted by a professional historian.


Using the biographical interview process to create your loved ones' memoirs gives you a valuable historical record and legacy your family will cherish for years to come. Following the recommendations we’ve outlined here will help your loved ones prepare for this important and valuable opportunity. Contact OriginStory to get started today, and preserve the story of a lifetime.

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