How to ‘save’ a loved one’s story through oral history interviews

Near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago, Rachel Trotter would visit with her parents on Sundays while her kids asked them questions and taped their answers.

“How could we have known that eight months into the pandemic, my dad would pass away?” said Trotter in a class at RootsTech 2025. “I lost my dad, but we recorded him.”

While preparing to teach her March 6 class, called “The Beauty of Oral History,” she listened back to those recordings with her 13-year-old daughter.

Trotter recounted: “As I was putting her to bed that night, she said: ‘Mom, the best part of my day was listening to Grandpa. I kind of forgot what his voice sounded like.’ And she started to cry, and she said, ‘Thank you for playing that for me.’ And sometimes we do things in the moment and we don’t know how they’re going to affect people later.”

In her class, Trotter — a writer and senior editor of Evalogue.Life, which teaches individuals how to preserve personal stories — invited listeners to also record oral histories of loved ones. She suggested the best questions to ask, ways to conduct the interviews and how to treasure the audio for years to come.

Painting a life story through audio

“Whose voice would you give anything to hear?” asked Trotter, noting she could think of several, including her paternal grandparents. She then added, “Whose voice would you like to save now?”

Audio can be captured for people both old and young. “They’re profoundly affected in a positive way through the process of reporting their own life story, their own oral history, and there’s therapeutic value of life review.”

It’s a simple process, she said. Some reasons for capturing a person’s oral history include the ability to document important life events, paint a picture of someone’s life and start documenting their family history.

Trotter also invited attendees to record their own oral history. “How many times do we think, ‘No one cares about me; nobody wants to hear my story’? I promise you that’s not true.”

Conducting an oral history interview

“The very best interviews start with really good questions,” she said.

Those recording oral histories can ask open-ended questions, such as about the interviewee’s hometown, a historical event they lived through, when they started something and how they got through something difficult.

Interviewers can also split their questions or interviews into categories, with topics like childhood, adult life, family life, military service, relationships and retirement.

Trotter also suggested asking small-talk questions before the recording starts, not asking questions that bring the conversation back to the interviewer, and finding out if there are off-limits questions or topics not to bring up.

Involving youth in these oral history interviews can be “magical,” said Trotter. “They think of questions that we don’t always think of to ask. Adults like talking to kids because they make us feel comfortable. Involving them is great, and it gets them into the spirit of family history and what family history is all about.”

Overall, individuals can have fun asking questions and be flexible if the interview goes in a direction they didn’t expect.

“Leave your recording on until you’re all the way done, because sometimes some of the best things come out at the very end of the interview as you’re walking out the door or as you’re winding up.”

After the interview

What can be done with the audio after an oral history interview?

“If the interview itself is all you ever do, it’s OK, because you’ve done something really important,” said Trotter. “But there’s other things that you can do.” For example, interviewees can:

• Download a transcription of the interview from a program like Zoom, Happy Scribe or Otter AI to print or share digitally.
• Share the audio with friends and family through email, over social media or at a family reunion.
• Create a book to document the interview and some photos.
• Make a video of the interview, possibly involving youth.
• Attach text or audio clips from the interview into FamilySearch’s Memories feature.

15 questions to ask

Attendees in Trotter’s class each received a printout of 15 questions that could be asked in an oral history interview:

1. Tell me about your hometown.
2. What were your family’s food traditions?
3. Tell me about your grandparents.
4. Who has influenced you the most?
5. What is your profession and why?
6. What was the happiest time of your life?
7. Tell about a time you didn’t know if you’d make it.
8. Who is the love of your life? How did you meet?
9. What is your passion or favorite hobby?
10. How would you want to be remembered?
11. Do you have any regrets?
12. What would be a perfect day for you?
13. Do you believe in prayer? Why or why not?
14. What was your most spiritual experience?
15. What do you value most and why?

“Are we doing all we can to preserve our oral history?” Trotter asked. “We have all of these resources at our fingertips. Are we doing enough?”