What to collect from every relative: a checklist

The essentials

• Full legal name, including middle names, maiden name, and any suffix.
• Nicknames and what different parts of the family called them.
• Date and place of birth; date and place of death if applicable.
• Marriages and partnerships, with dates and places.
• Parents, children, and siblings — including step, adopted, foster and guardian relationships.
• Where they lived, in order, with rough years.
• Work, military service, schooling, faith community.

The things people forget to ask for

• Recipes in the original handwriting.
• Letters, postcards, and the backs of photographs where someone wrote names.
• Funeral programs and obituaries — they are dense with relatives' names.
• Family Bibles, deeds, immigration papers, naturalization records.
• Where the family is buried, and who is buried beside whom.
• Family health patterns, kept privately and only with consent.

Where each piece belongs

Facts and dates go in the person's details. Events go in the timeline. Scans go in documents. Stories go in memories. Photographs and short videos go in their media. Health notes go in the optional family health and wellness tab, visible only to the people you choose.