I feel that these questions were on point. They were well thought out and pertinent to the survey that was being done. I did think that more could be asked about their family life, children, grandchildren, etc.

Also, interestingly, there were few questions about DNA and testing. The results of these could be detrimental to someone learning that their whole life was not what it seemed. Learning that your parent (father) wasn’t your birth father could be very emotionally damaging to someone. I have lived this scenario and it wasn’t pretty. My mother and father were both deceased when I learned this fact, so I couldn’t ask the questions that I needed answers to. I did have my siblings, but they weren’t talking and were not comfortable telling me that they had known for years but didn’t want to hurt my feelings by telling me the truth.

Asking questions that have hard answers, not only about public history, but about someone’s personal history should be done to record people’s feelings and thoughts about a certain time and place. Having these records brings a more real feeling to the reader and could possibly change the outlook of the person doing the reading or history.