Legacy for your family
“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, you must write something worth reading or do something worth the writing.” – Benjamin Franklin
No one is so bereft of value they cannot, at least, serve as a bad example.
- Unknown Author
Note –
You do not have to write anything. Use a video camera and ask the following questions. When a question stimulates memory off the subject that is okay. Let them ramble with an occasional nudge with a new question.
This is not just about happenings and possessions. Your memory of how you thought and felt at the time is very important. Your descendants can reconstruct things like when you were in the military or when you married or when Microwave ovens were invented, but they cannot look into your head and divine what was going on with you at the time.
These questions are just guides to get you thinking about your life. There is no certainty that anyone other than you can possibly know all the important questions to ask. Don’t leave stuff out just because you have forgotten all the details. This is about you, your life and what you felt and thought.
Questions Guide
Your birth date and place
Childhood events you remember
Memories of growing up
Your Father and Mother
What did you call them
How did they look to you
How did they act
What work did he/she do
Your first memory of a house
City and state
Address if you remember
Did it have a phone
More than one
Where in the house
List of family members
Parents and siblings
Grandparents
Residence location
Jobs
Interesting facts and happenings
The first automobile you remember
Marriage
How you met and where
First home
Furniture and cars
Job(s)
Income
Children
Names
Birth date and place
Interesting facts and happenings
Your Education
When and where
Military
When and where
Friends
Religious experiences
Life mile post
Tragedies
Illness
Significant historical events
Invention of electricity or whatever
Microwave oven
Computer
Wars
Medical breakthroughs
Space shots
Kennedy assassination
Vietnam war
How did you feel when these things took place
Your first
Automobile
Phone
TV
Microwave
Cell phone
Other gadgets and equipment
How did these affect your life
