Are there writing prompts (or other open ended questions) that are useful when trying to write down personal histories of individuals? (E.g., I remember when Hurricane Agnes arrived because ....)

RW-in-DC ,

Thanks for bringing such a great question to History Hub!

We found one list of questions for oral history prompts at the Wilson Library Special Collections at the University of North Carolina that you can find at this link: https://library.unc.edu/wilson/shc/community-driven-archives/how-to-guides-and-resources/oral-history-question-cards/ 

You can also find some suggestions for how to improve your interview techniques for oral history in this guide from our friends at the Smithsonian on "How to do Oral History": https://siarchives.si.edu/history/how-do-oral-history.

Hopefully other community members may have additional suggestions.

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!

RW-in-DC ,

Thanks for bringing such a great question to History Hub!

We found one list of questions for oral history prompts at the Wilson Library Special Collections at the University of North Carolina that you can find at this link: https://library.unc.edu/wilson/shc/community-driven-archives/how-to-guides-and-resources/oral-history-question-cards/ 

You can also find some suggestions for how to improve your interview techniques for oral history in this guide from our friends at the Smithsonian on "How to do Oral History": https://siarchives.si.edu/history/how-do-oral-history.

Hopefully other community members may have additional suggestions.

We hope this is helpful. Best of luck with your research!

Thank you for the links which I will definitely look at.  I hope others will have additional repositories of such resources.