Family Relations
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How did he/she interact with his/her parents? What about his/her siblings? Who was he/she close to? Pick this Topic to record both the happy and the bittersweet memories of family life.
Was he/she an only child?
- Did he/she wish he/she had a brother or sister? If yes, why? Would he/she have wanted a younger or older sibling?
- Did he/she ever ask his/her parents why they chose to have only one child? Did he/she agree with their decision? Why or why not? If they didn't choose, what were the determining circumstances?
- As an only child, was he/she close to a certain friend, parent, or other relative? Was he/she lonesome when growing up, or did he/she feel he/she got extra attention?
- Did he/she feel he/she was spoiled? How did it affect his/her personality?
Did he/she have siblings?
- How many children were in his/her family? How many boys? How many girls?
- What did he/she do with his/her siblings? Did he/she play together when they were young? Did he/she talk about friends, school, or other matters as they grew up?
- Did he/she have to share a room with any of his/her brothers or sisters? If so, what was it like? Did he/she enjoy having the company, or did it seem like he/she never had any privacy?
- Did he/she fight with his/her brothers or sisters a lot? If yes, what did they fight about? Attention? Friends? Chores? Clothes? What did his/her parents do when they fought?
- Was there ever any teasing among him and his/her siblings? Did any of the jokes continue throughout their lives?
- Was there one brother or sister he/she always felt he/she could count on? Someone he/she could always talk to? Did they always seem to be there when he/she needed protection? Did he/she think of this person as his/her best friend or guardian?
- Did they borrow each other's clothes? If yes, with or without permission? Did anything ever get ruined or stained when it shouldn't have been worn? If yes, what happened?
- What was the best part about having brothers and sisters? What was the worst?
- Did they go to school together? How many years apart were they? Did they do things with the same crowd? If so, did it ever cause any kind of conflict? What was it? Whom with?
- Did he/she ever date a brother's or sister's friend? If so, how did they feel about it? Did it cause problems between them? What kind? How did it all turn out?
- Did the baby of the family seem to get away with murder? Was it he/she who was the baby?
- Did he/she always seem to get blamed when something bad happened? Did he/she ever try to blame things on his/her siblings? If so, what were some of the incidents? Were his/her parents good about letting everyone tell their side of the story?
- Was he/she and his/her siblings often asked to watch each other? What happened during these times? Was anyone bossy? Could he/she do anything he/she wanted?
- Did he/she look up to one of his/her siblings with admiration? Did he/she want to be just like them? Did he/she turn out with similar or completely opposite personalities?
- Did he/she feel his/her parents favored one of the children more than the others, or was everyone treated equally? Did he/she ever wonder what it would be like to be an only child? Did he/she ever wish he/she was? Why or why not?
- If he/she was a middle child, did it seem like he/she was always too young but not old enough? Did the older ones always pick on him and leave the youngest alone? Did the youngest always blame him instead of the oldest?
- Once they were grown, how did the relationship between him and his/her siblings change? Did they see each other very often?
- Did he/she have a twin? Was it a brother or sister? Were they identical? What was his/her twin's name?
- If he/she had a twin, did they ever play the switching game? Whom did they try to convince? Did they succeed? Did they do this often? How did this affect his/her relationship with his/her twin?
- Did he/she feel like they were always competing? How did they compare to each other in different aspects of life? In sports, musical talents, academics, friends, and character, for example?
- If he/she had other siblings, was he/she closer to his/her twin? Did they share everything like best friends or did they fight and compete over everything?
Did he/she have stepbrothers or stepsisters?
- What were the circumstances under which they became "related"? When did they first meet? What was it like? What were his/her thoughts? Was he/she excited, upset, or scared?
- Was it at all hard to adjust to having new siblings? What did he/she or his/her parents do in order to make the transition easier?
- Was he/she glad to have new siblings? Did he/she get the brother or sister that he/she always wanted?
- Did he/she consider everyone part of one family or was someone looked upon as an outsider? Did this change as time went on? Did he/she feel like anyone was favored over him or visa versa? What problems came about because of these feelings?
Did he/she have half-brothers or half-sisters?
- What were the circumstances under which they became "related"? Did they have the same mother or father? Did he/she feel like an outsider or were they like one family? If he/she had other full siblings, was he/she closer to them than to the half-siblings?
- Was he/she glad to have new siblings? Did he/she get the brother or sister that he/she always wanted?
- Did he/she live with his/her mother, father, or both? What were his/her feelings on the situation?
Was he/she adopted?
- If there were other children in the family, did he/she feel like he/she was treated any differently from them? Was he/she the only adopted child?
- Did he/she live in an orphanage or foster home or was he/she adopted from birth?
- If he/she was adopted when he/she was older, did he/she go through an uncomfortable transition period as he/she adjusted to his/her new family?
- Did he/she always know he/she was adopted or did he/she find out later in his/her life? How did it feel when he/she found out?
- Did he/she ever try to find his/her birth parents? Did his/her adoptive parents oppose this? What happened?
Would you like to include anecdotes about his/her relationships with his/her parents and other relatives in this biography?
- How did he/she get along with his/her parents? Did he/she spend a lot of time with them while growing up? Why or why not?
- What was special about his/her relationship with his/her parents? Was he/she close to them? Did he/she feel that he/she had the best parents?
- What did he/she and his/her parents disagree about? House rules? Curfews? Did he/she think they were too strict?
- What did he/she do with his/her parents? Did they have family outings? Did they spend evenings together?
- Did he/she talk to his/her parents much? Could he/she discuss anything with them?
- After he/she had grown up, what was his/her favorite memory about his/her parents?
- What influence did his/her parents have on him? What did they teach him?
- Did he/she have any ongoing family problems? What were they? Did it bring him closer to his/her family or push the family apart? Were the problems ever resolved?
- Did he/she spend a lot of time with his/her grandparents when he/she was growing up? Did he/she see one set more often than the other? Why? What kind of relationship did he/she have with them?
- What did he/she do with his/her grandparents? Were they still fairly young and active when he/she knew them, or did they just spend quiet times together?
- After he/she had grown up, what was his/her favorite memory about his/her grandparents?
- Was there a special relative in his/her family that he/she got along with well? Maybe an aunt or cousin? Why was that person special to him? How often did he/she get to see this person? What did they do together?
Did his/her parents divorce when he/she was young?
- How old was he/she when they divorced? Did he/she understand what was happening? Did he/she blame the problems on himself?
- Was the divorce unexpected or not? Had they fought often beforehand? Did it always seem that they got along well? Did he/she know why they were divorcing?
- Did he/she have to decide with whom he/she wanted to live, or was one of them given custody? If he/she had siblings, did they all live with the same parent? Did he/she see the other parent very often after the divorce?
- Did he/she miss having the whole family together after the divorce? What did he/she miss the most? Was there any reason why he/she was glad they were divorced?
- Did he/she ever think or hope that his/her parents would get back together? Did he/she try to do anything that would make them fall in love again? What was it?
- Did his/her parents ever remarry? If so, how old was he? How did he/she feel about having a new parent or new siblings? Did he/she resent the new family members?
- Did the fact that his/her parents were divorced make him shy of marrying when he/she was older? Did it affect him emotionally in other ways?