My People Here

The My People Here notebook · Free to use

Record a family story without turning guesses into facts

An interview guide and browser-only worksheet for collecting names, relationships, and memories with permission.

Published October 15, 2026 · Updated October 22, 2026 · Programming Securely · Fictional worked examples

Prepare one conversation you can finish

Choose a memory the person is comfortable discussing: a meal, a job, a journey or a place they remember. Agree what you hope to do with the conversation, whether you will take notes or record, and who might receive the result. Give them room to skip a question, pause or stop. Permission to talk, permission to record and permission to share a quotation are separate decisions.

Bring one photograph or letter if it helps explain your question. Let the person describe it before you supply names or dates. An interview can preserve a person’s experience even when a year or a relationship remains unresolved.

A small question plan

  • Open the memory: “What do you remember about meals in that apartment?”
  • Ask for a scene: “Where did everyone sit, and what happened when the food was ready?”
  • Clarify the source: “Is that something you remember being there for, or a story you were told later?”
  • Leave room for correction: “What have I missed or misunderstood?”

Ask one question at a time. Follow a detail the speaker offers. “How do you place it around that year?” lets them explain their reasoning; supplying a year and asking them to agree can hide the uncertainty you need to keep.

Keep the source beside each statement

A page of fluent prose can lose the distinction between a quotation, a summary and an inference. While you listen, use those as three different labels. Put quotation marks around words you actually captured. If you have only a paraphrase, label it as your summary instead of reconstructing a sentence the person may never have said.

Start your note with the interview date, the storyteller’s chosen name or private identifier, your name as note-taker, and how the conversation was captured. If a recording exists, keep a filename and a time marker for a passage you may want to revisit. A private identifier lets a shared copy omit identifying details while your own records retain the source.

For each detail you might later add to a tree, keep a short trail: statement → source → reason for uncertainty → next check. A family recollection can guide the next search without establishing an exact date. The National Archives’ starting guidance points to home records as well as relatives; a letter, photograph or certificate can add another source with its own limits.

When two accounts disagree

Keep both versions under their own source labels. Ask what each person remembers directly and what anchors their date. Do not count repeated copies of one story as separate confirmation. If the conflict remains, describe it as unresolved. You can preserve a meaningful memory without choosing a precise year.

Fictional worked example

From an uncertain meal to a reviewable note

Morgan asks an uncle about Sunday meals at a grandmother’s first apartment. The uncle recalls the meal but cannot place the year. A cousin later suggests 1986. A photograph has “summer 1987” written on its back; nobody has yet identified who wrote it or whether it shows the same visit.

  1. Interview note: “Uncle Sam recalls Sunday meals at the apartment; year unknown.” Keep the interview date and note-taker with this statement.
  2. Second account: “Cousin Lee suggests 1986; basis not yet recorded.” Ask how Lee arrived at the year before treating it as confirmation.
  3. Photograph note: “Back of photograph reads ‘summer 1987’; writer and event unconfirmed.” Preserve a copy of both sides and a reference to where the original is kept.
  4. Reviewed summary: “The family remembers Sunday meals at the first apartment. The year of this visit remains uncertain.” Keep the competing leads in the research note rather than silently selecting one.

The next check is specific: identify the photographed occasion and ask whether a dated letter mentions the apartment. Finding a date on one object does not automatically date every memory about that place.

Review the note and the audience separately

Read the summary back to the storyteller. Ask which wording needs correction, which details should be left out, and whether the proposed audience is acceptable. Their correction belongs in your notes too: keep the earlier wording as a dated draft when useful, and mark the version you reviewed. Avoid silently replacing a source with your later interpretation.

Prepare a shared copy that contains only what the intended recipients need. A home address, a living person’s health detail or a sensitive relationship may not belong in that copy. Review the actual text you plan to share; agreeing to an interview does not imply that every detail should appear in a public post.

My People Here combines family trees and private family communication. Choose the destination and its audience separately when you use the application. This worksheet creates no tree record, invitation or post. Downloaded notes are a file on your device; review where that file will be kept or shared.

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Your working notes

This worksheet does not send your writing to My People Here, save it to an account, or store it in your browser. Notes are cleared when you leave or reload this page. Download a text copy if you want to keep them.

Choose one story and a question that does not assume the answer.

Separate quotations, summaries, and what the storyteller directly remembers.

Keep uncertainty visible rather than filling gaps.

What may be saved, shared, or omitted?

What to do next

Use what you learned

  1. Ask the storyteller to review the summary.
  2. Choose the audience before adding the reviewed story to a family tree or post.

Return to the product for its current features and availability. This independent worksheet changes no account data.

Sources and corrections

The planning, listening and open-question approach is checked against the National Park Service’s interviewing resources. The starting points for family records are checked against the National Archives’ guidance on beginning genealogical research. References checked October 22, 2026.

The source-log pattern, conflicting-memory example and worksheet are this guide’s instructional exercise. People, dates and situations in the worked example are fictional. The external sources do not endorse this guide or establish any reader’s family history.

Published by Programming Securely for My People Here. Send a correction to support@mypeoplehere.com with the page address, the passage and the source you want us to check. Omit private names and records. The public library’s publisher and correction notes explain the scope of these resources.