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When interviewing family members, some advance preparation will help you obtain useful and interesting information. While an interview is just a planned conversation, some of the following hints may be useful in ensuring a successful, informative and pleasant discussion. • Prepare questions in advance. Organizing your thoughts is the best way to start, and answers will lead to more questions. Pursue specific answers if information is not clear. • If your relative speaks a different language, find someone to assist with translation or interpretation in advance. Make sure to introduce your interpreter at the start of the interview. • Do not rely on your memory. Familiarize yourself with the use of a videocam or tape recorder; bring extra batteries. If your relative is uncomfortable with a recorder, take careful and extensive notes. Transcribe right after the interview so you don't lose details you might have neglected to write down. • Start with more recent questions and work your way back in time. This will make it easier for the interviewee to recall information and help give them more confidence. • Photographs will often spark memories. Ask to see your relative's photo collection, or bring yours to show. Ask for identifications of the faces in the photos, establish their relationships. Have enlarged photocopies of your photos to record information directly on the image. • Ask about family traditions. Remember not to interrupt the interviewee. Let him or her tell the story. • Keep sessions to a reasonable length, 45 minutes is plenty. Have tea or water available. • Keep your interviewee relaxed and comfortable. It may sometimes be frustrating or difficult for them to remember, so ask if the interviewee needs a break at regular intervals. • Pursue this direct initial research as far back as possible.
In addition to census data, birth marriages and deaths, it’s worth looking for other types of family history sources, for example immigration and naturalization records, divorce papers, medical records, land titles, education registers and obituaries. All of these additional family history sources can be valuable in helping you to open up new avenues of family history research.
Missouri has a useful free, searchable database which gives abstracts of the birth and death records captured in Missouri prior to 1909. These family history records are also available to see on microfiche at the state of Missouri Archives.
Check our family history surname directory for hundreds of thousands of common and some rare surnames. If you have a rarer surname in your ancestor line this can be a way of making rapid progress. With a less common surname you can make rapid progress in weeks, days or even hours. You can contact other family historians with the same surname through our site and collaborate on researching your family history
