Free Family Memory Book Template (Printable)

A two-page family memory book you print free and fill in by hand. Page one: six decade boxes for the stories of a life, one recipe to hand down, and a box for words worth keeping. Page two: ten questions to ask a grandparent and a photo caption sheet for the shoebox of prints. Print it, bring it to grandma's kitchen table, and write in what the family remembers. Nothing to install.

How to use this page: print both sheets at 100% scale and start wherever the stories are, not necessarily decade one. The decade labels are write-in on purpose. Some families go by years, some by the house they lived in, some by the job that filled the days. Pick what your people will actually remember.

Page 1: six decades, a recipe, words to keep

Six boxes, one per decade of a life. Write the decade at the top, then up to three memories in each box. The recipe line is for the dish everyone asks for and who actually made it. Words to keep is for the sayings, the advice, and the one-liners the family still repeats.

Family memory book · page 1: the decades

Decade write the yearsmemory 1memory 2memory 3
Decade write the yearsmemory 1memory 2memory 3
Decade write the yearsmemory 1memory 2memory 3
Decade write the yearsmemory 1memory 2memory 3
Decade write the yearsmemory 1memory 2memory 3
Decade write the yearsmemory 1memory 2memory 3
A family recipe to hand down the dish, and who makes it
Words to keep sayings, advice, the line the family repeats

Fits A4 and US Letter at 100%. Pencil first, pen once a relative confirms the spelling.

Page 2: ten questions, six photo captions

Ask one question at a time and write the answer beside it, in the person's own words where you can. The caption sheet goes with a photo album or a box of prints: describe each photo, the year, and who is in it, before the names get lost.

Family memory book · page 2: questions & captions

1.Where were you born, and where did you grow up?

2.What did a school day look like for you?

3.Who cooked in your house, and what was usually on the table?

4.What was your first job, and what did it pay?

5.How did you meet the people who changed your life?

6.What did Sunday afternoons look like in your family?

7.Which year tested everyone, and what carried the family through it?

8.What traditions do you keep, and who do you keep them with?

9.What do you know now that you wish you had known then?

10.What do you want the family to keep doing, saying, or making?

Photo caption sheet
The photoYearWho is in it

Write the date and the name of who told you each answer. That note is a source, same as a label on the back of a print.

Four tips, offered as opinion:

  1. Record voice memos too. Paper keeps the words; a recording keeps the pauses and the laugh. Ask before you hit record, and name the file with the date.
  2. One or two questions per visit. A conversation, not an interview. Short sessions stay easy, and they leave people asking when you will come back with the page again.
  3. Write "about 1972" instead of leaving the year blank. An approximate year can be checked against records later; a blank line never gets filled in.
  4. Let the kids ask some of the questions. Grandchildren get different answers than adults do, and the finished page ends up with two generations of handwriting on it.

One page counts. If only one box or one question gets filled in this month, that is one memory written down that wasn't before. The book does not need to be finished to be worth starting, and you can print more copies whenever a decade runs out of lines.

Senior Binder - the full 28-page printable legacy & care pack →

The memory book here is pages 13-16 inside the binder, next to legacy letter prompts, a documents locator, and the household logs.