Your first family history goldmine is often a close relative. You may never have thought of asking members of your family about their lives or what they remember of the generations that came before them. Few of us have, in any depth.Sometimes, the opportunity has been there to ask questions, but by the time we’re interested in the answers it may be too late to ask. The time has come to make talking with your relatives about their history a priority. Talking to your relatives should be a priority when doing genealogical research.

While your great-grandmother may have already passed, you probably have parents, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, and cousins that have information about your ancestors. These family members can all be excellent sources of names, locations, dates, diaries, photos, and gossip. They may also be able to suggest other people to whom you could talk, who may have known your departed relatives. And, of course, they may have copies of primary source material to contribute to your genealogical file. Wouldn’t it be great to extract this kind of information from your relatives?

It’s best to do this interviews in person whenever possible. There are some people that might find a questionnaire to be rather impersonal. Some information they have to share might be closely guarded because its very personal or even evocative. You’re likely to discover much more by conducting the interview face-to-face by displaying your interest in whatever your relatives say and taking care to reassure them of your honorable intentions.

Always remain discreet, and never misuse any information you gather. Remember, the information you are gathering involves living relatives or relatives that lived within recent memory. To encourage your relatives to disclose what they know, reassure them that you won’t broadcast the information to the rest of the family, disclose sensitive etc. For you the information is useful family history data. Because the information your relatives have is part of their special memories, you have to treat it with profound respect.

Once your relatives feel comfortable with your motives, you may be surprised by all the details they can give you. Your interest may spark more memories or lead to further revelations.  Always leave lots of time for these interviews. It’s hard to say just how long Aunt Doris will talk once she starts.

By the way, another great tool for gathering information from your family members is Mundia.com.  This resource is absolutely free to use and allows you to collaborate with other family members to create your family tree.  I strongly encourage you to check it out if you want to trace your family history.