Questions

Questions to ask your siblings (and keep a shared memory)

Editorial team · Updated October 9, 2026 · 2 min read

Gathering questions to ask your siblings is an invitation to learn about paths that may cross in different ways. You may have grown up in the same house, lived apart or met later in life. Ask which memories each person wants to share, without requiring a single version of the family story.

Different memories can coexist

Even when siblings share a home, they do not experience every scene the same way. Age, time together and points of view can vary. Note who tells each account and treat disagreements as versions to clarify, without assigning fixed roles or using one memory to cancel out another.

Childhood places and stories

  • What is your earliest memory of a place that mattered in childhood?
  • Which childhood story would you like to share with me?
  • What did you get up to behind our parents’ backs?

The family through each person’s eyes

  • Who looked after you as a child? How would you like to remember them?
  • Is there a family change you would like to talk about? We can skip it.
  • Is there a story about our grandparents that only you know?

The present and the future

  • What do you miss most about the time we spent together?
  • What would you like other people to know about our family?

Gathering these answers is the beginning of a family biography told in several voices.

A memory kept together

If everyone involved agrees to be recorded, agree on the purpose, who will be able to listen and the review before the material circulates. These accounts can help preserve your family’s memories without relying on one person’s recollection. Each participant may prefer notes, remove a passage or talk without being recorded.

Two languages and two points of view can fit together

Siblings living in Canada may have gone through different schools, circles of friends and moves, including without having grown up together. Do not rush to decide which version wins. Note who remembers each scene and, when possible, check dates against documents. If one sibling prefers to answer in French and another in English, keep the originals and review the translations before bringing everything together in a family account.

Further reading: StoryCorps — great questions.

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