Your grandparents are a doorway to a world that no longer exists — a different century, a family line stretching back beyond anyone else's memory, whole chapters of history they didn't read about but lived. When they go, that doorway closes. Ask them now, and you inherit not just their story but your family's.
These 100 questions are tuned for exactly that: a grandchild reaching further back in time. They lean into the era they grew up in, where our family comes from, and the history they witnessed — the things a longer life uniquely holds. (Asking your own mum or dad? Our 101 questions for parents leans instead into your shared life and the questions only a son or daughter would ask.)
Ask a few at a time, follow wherever they light up, and — above all — record it. A transcript keeps the facts; their voice keeps the person.
The world that no longer exists
- What year were you born, and what was the world like then?
- What did your street, town, or village look and sound like?
- What did things cost — a loaf of bread, your first wage, a house?
- How did news reach you — radio, newspaper, word of mouth?
- What did people do for fun before television and phones?
- What did an ordinary day look like, from morning to night?
- What piece of technology arrived in your lifetime that amazed you?
- What everyday thing from back then has completely vanished?
- What did Sundays and holidays look like?
- What do you miss most about how life used to be?
Our family's roots
- Where did our family originally come from?
- How did we come to live where we did — was there a journey or a move?
- What were your parents' full names, and what were they like?
- What do you know about your own grandparents?
- Are there ancestors whose stories were handed down to you?
- Is there a family name, trade, or place that runs through the generations?
- What languages were spoken in your childhood home?
- What family heirlooms or objects carry a story?
- Were there family legends — or a black sheep everyone whispered about?
- What about our family's history do you most want kept alive?
The old stories, further back
- What's the oldest family story you know?
- Who's the earliest ancestor you can name, and what were they like?
- Did our family ever change its name, its country, or its fortunes?
- Were there hardships — war, hunger, emigration — that shaped where we ended up?
- What did your grandparents tell you about their childhoods?
- Is there an old photograph you wish you could explain to me?
- What traditions did our family carry from somewhere else?
- Were there family rifts, or reunions, that mattered?
- What did our family do for a living, generations back?
- What do you wish you'd asked your own grandparents while you could?
The history you lived through
- What's the biggest historical event you witnessed?
- Where were you when it happened, and what do you remember?
- Did war touch your family? What do you remember of it?
- How did the big events of your time change ordinary life?
- Was there a moment the whole community pulled together?
- Which public figures did you admire — or distrust?
- What's something from your era that young people today wouldn't believe?
- What headline from your youth will you never forget?
- What change in society surprised you the most?
- What do you want future generations to understand about your time?
When you were young
- What is your earliest memory?
- What was school like back then, and did you enjoy it?
- What games did you play, and what were your treasured possessions?
- What chores were expected of children in your day?
- What did you dream of becoming?
- Who did you look up to?
- What mischief did you get into that you still laugh about?
- What did children do then that would shock a parent today?
- What was your family like around the dinner table?
- Where was the happiest place of your childhood?
Love and family, in your day
- How did courting work when you were young?
- How did you and Grandma / Grandpa meet?
- What were weddings like back then?
- What was expected of a husband, or a wife, in your time?
- How is family life different now from how it was then?
- What did becoming a parent mean in your day?
- What role did neighbours and the wider family play?
- What traditions did you keep going in your own home?
- What's changed most about how families live together?
- What did you most want to pass on to your children?
The way things were done
- What work did you do, and how did you learn it?
- What's a skill you had that's rare or lost today?
- How did people manage when money was tight?
- What did people make, mend, or grow for themselves?
- What did a good reputation depend on in your day?
- How did people mark births, marriages, and deaths?
- What manners or customs have quietly disappeared?
- What did people simply do without that we take for granted?
- What did a community do for each other back then?
- What's something you know how to do that almost no one does anymore?
Being a grandparent
- What did you feel when you first became a grandparent?
- How is being a grandparent different from being a parent?
- What do you remember about meeting me for the first time?
- What do you most enjoy about our family now?
- What do you see in me that reminds you of someone in the family?
- What do you hope I remember about you?
- What worries you about my generation?
- What do you hope our family never loses?
- What makes you proud when you look at us all?
- What would you want said about you one day?
Wisdom to pass down
- What does a life well lived look like to you?
- What's the best lesson your era taught you?
- What do you believe about faith, or the meaning of it all?
- What matters far more than you once thought — and far less?
- What's the hardest thing you came through, and what carried you?
- What are you most grateful for?
- If you could relive one day exactly as it was, which would it be?
- Is there anyone you'd like to thank, or to forgive?
- What do you want our family to remember when you're gone?
- If you could leave us with a single piece of wisdom, what would it be?
Before you start
A grandparent's memory is a family archive — but it only survives if someone records it. Ask gently, one question at a time, and let the stories wander; the tangents are usually where the treasure is. Keep the sessions short and come back often, and always press record, because it's the voice — the accent, the laugh, the pause — that no transcript can hold.
If you'd like help capturing it all, Told does the asking and the finishing for you, and keeps their voice on every chapter. For more prompts, our 101 questions for parents works too. Don't wait — your grandparents won't always be a phone call away, but their story can be, forever.