Heading out to interview your aunt about your family tree and not sure what questions to ask and how to approach the subject? This article will help you identify the roots questions that you need to ask, and how to organize them on blank printable forms to make the most of your ancestry interview. Believe me, after the first genealogy interview, the process will get easier and soon you will be confident enough to 'wing it'.
One of the easiest ways to start collecting roots information is to design your own blank family tree template. These forms can be simply hand written on a piece of letter size paper and photocopied, or setup in a word processor or spreadsheet program as a plain printable table document. The forms should list all the facts that you want to collect about your ancestry, but more importantly, room for all the stories that you get while you are asking the questions. You will find that the family stories are the real history, not the names, birth dates and places.
To develop your own blank printable family tree template, record down the following details in a table format. Leave room after each line to write extra roots information that you collect. Draw lines on the page to help you keep the ancestry information legible. Use one page per household. Experiment with the forms and fill it in for your own family. The questions should follow this pattern:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Place of birth
- Nickname
- Title
- Spouse's full Name (use her maiden name as her surname)
- Date of marriage
- Place of marriage
- Spouse's nickname
- Spouse's title
- First child's full name
- First child's date of birth
- First child's place of birth
- Second child's full name
- Second child's date of birth
- Second child's place of birth
- ...continue on with as many children as you have
- Provide as much space as you can for stories that you can write freehand as they are told to you.
Collecting family tree information on these blank printable forms is a great way to meet family members and share your roots history and heritage of your ancestry. Use the time to get a better understanding of where you are now and how you got here.
