So You Want to Get to Know Your Family Members Better ...
by Keith Gatling | 4 years ago
A year or so ago, I saw an ad for a service called StoryWorth that would send one question a week for a year to the family member of your choosing. Then that person would write a narrative response (not a simple yes or no answer), and send it back to them. At the end of the year, the people at StoryWorth would create a nice bound book of this person’s memories. This would become a family keepsake.
First we signed up my mother-in-law for her birthday. Then I signed up my wife for Mother’s Day. After that we signed up my father-in-law for Father's Day. So far, no one’s decided to sign me up.
It’s a great idea, but depending on when you sign up for it, it can seem rather pricey...ranging anywhere from $59 to $99.
But suppose you don’t need the book? Or at least suppose you don’t need someone else to make a fancy-schmancy one for you? Suppose you just want a nice simple way of doing a family history project.
Well then, in that case, it’s time to play 52 Questions!
How do you play? It’s easy. Once a week you send your family member one question you want to know about them, and ask them to write back. They don’t even have to be tech savvy to play. It can be done via snail mail as well as email. The snail mail version just means that you have to retype and compile the responses when they come in.
And the great thing is that this is a timely thing to do while everyone’s hunkered down in their homes, not going anywhere.
I’ll start off by giving you a list of 100 or so questions to choose from, but you don’t have to use mine as they are...or at all. Maybe my suggestions will give you ideas for questions you want to ask of your own! That’s OK. The point is to start gathering the family history.
And yes...this may be the time to ask questions about some of those deep dark secrets that maybe don’t need to be so deep and dark anymore. For example, my father went to Howard University under the GI Bill, but didn’t finish because, as we were told, “he was asked to leave because he was having too much fun.” I’d love to know the story behind that, but he’s been gone for 14 years, along with the answer to that.
So without any further ado, take a look at my list of questions to play 52 Questions with by clicking the link below.
Let me know how this worked out for you!
