50 questions to ask your grandparents

1. Where were you born, and what was the town like?
2. What did your parents do for a living?
3. How many brothers and sisters did you have, and who were you closest to?
4. What chores did you have as a child?
5. What games did you play?
6. What did your family eat on holidays?
7. What was school like for you?
8. What did you do in the summer?
9. Who was the grown-up you admired most?
10. What is one smell or sound that takes you right back?

1. What did things cost when you were young?
2. When did your family get its first car, TV or telephone?
3. What world events do you remember hearing about as they happened?
4. What was different about being a teenager back then?
5. What did people do on a Saturday night?
6. What has changed the most since you were young?
7. What do you miss about those days?
8. What is better now?
9. What did your parents tell you about their own childhood?
10. Where did our family come from before that?

1. How did you meet Grandma or Grandpa?
2. What was your wedding like?
3. What was your first home together?
4. What work did you do, and did you like it?
5. What were my parents like as children?
6. What was the hardest time for the family?
7. What was the happiest time?
8. Did you ever move far away? Why?
9. Who in the family was the storyteller?
10. What family recipe should never be lost?

1. What is the best advice you ever received?
2. What do you wish you had done more of?
3. What were you most afraid of, and did it happen?
4. What are you proudest of?
5. What do you think about the world your great-grandchildren will grow up in?
6. What do you want them to know about you?
7. Which friend do you still think about?
8. What is a secret talent nobody knows about?
9. What does family mean to you?
10. What would you like us to remember?

1. What was the best trip you ever took?
2. What was your favorite song to dance to?
3. What trouble did you get into as a kid?
4. What was your first pet?
5. What was the best gift you ever received?
6. What was your favorite movie or radio show?
7. What nickname did you have?
8. What did you and your friends think was cool?
9. What is the funniest thing that happened at a family gathering?
10. If you could relive one day, which would it be?

Record the conversation with permission, and bring photos to spark memories. Afterward, write down what you heard while it is fresh.

To make it last, you can turn these stories into a tribute book about your grandmother or grandfather, written from the memories you share and printed as a hardcover. It makes a meaningful gift for a milestone birthday; see our 80th and 90th birthday gift ideas.