Legacy & Life Story Journal

Legacy & Life Story Journal — Record a life, in their own words.

An interview and keepsake journal for recording an older relative’s life, or your own, before the details go. 31 printable A4 pages hold 160 interview questions across 16 chapters — earliest memories, family and ancestors, school, friendships, work, love, parenthood, homes, food, faith, the times they lived through, the hardest years, proudest moments, mischief, what they learned and what they hope for those who come after. Around the questions sit the keepsake pages: a life timeline, a family tree with no assumed shape, photograph pages with caption prompts, recipes, heirlooms, a hand-drawn map of the places that mattered, letter pages, a voice recording log and a page on keeping it all safe. Written with care about mortality and grief: the interviewer pages say plainly that some questions will bring up loss, that stopping is always allowed, and that no door has to be opened. Two editable DOCX templates come with it so a family can adapt the questions and write the story up.

What's inside

• PRINTABLE JOURNAL (PDF, A4): 31 pages across 30 sections — print any chapter as many times as you need
• 160 interview questions across 16 chapters, every one distinct, with at least 10 questions per chapter
• Chapters for earliest memories and the childhood home, family and ancestors, school days, friendships, work, love and partnership, homes, food and traditions, faith and meaning, the times they lived through, proudest moments, humour and mischief, what they learned, and for those who come after
• 2 chapters written explicitly to be skipped — parenthood, for the many full lives that do not include children, and the hardest times, skippable question by question with no explanation required
• An interviewer’s page with 8 working rules: follow their lead, ask and be quiet, do not correct their memory, check before recording anything about somebody still living, and never end a session on the hardest question
• Written honestly about grief and mortality rather than around it — some questions will bring up loss, tears are not an emergency, stopping is always allowed, and nothing here pressures anybody to disclose anything they have kept private
• 12-point set-up checklist for recording: permission each time, session length, where to put the phone, and copying the files off it the same day
• Keepsake pages: a 3-log set including a life timeline, an heirlooms page and a voice recording log so a family does not end up with forty unnamed audio files
• A family tree page with no assumed shape — step, adoptive, foster, half-siblings, chosen family and the gaps marked as gaps — plus 13 dashed frames across 4 pages: the tree boxes, the photograph frames and a full-page panel for the hand-drawn map
• Recipe pages written in their words, a hand-drawn map page for the places that mattered, and 65 ruled writing lines in total
• Letter pages: things I want you to know, and a letter to somebody not yet born — often the most honest page in the finished journal
• 12-point page on keeping it: scanning, naming audio files, a copy in another house, printed copies first for the person whose story it is
• TWO EDITABLE DOCX TEMPLATES: Interview Questions.docx with all 160 questions so a family can cut, reorder and add their own, and Life Story Template.docx, a chapter-by-chapter write-up template

How it works

Open the DOCX files in Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice and replace the example text with your own details — the layout, spacing and structure are already done. The PDF guide walks you through step by step, with ready-to-use wording you can adapt.

Specifications

• Format: DOCX (editable) + PDF guide + read-me
• Works in: Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice
• License: full rights — use, edit, rebrand & resell
• Updates: free for life

Full rights

Sold with full rights: use it personally or with clients, edit anything, and even rebrand and resell it — keep 100% of the income, no attribution required. Customise before reselling (marketplaces reject identical duplicates).

Please note

Family organisation planners for personal use. Example names, dates and entries are illustrations to adapt to your own family. These pages are a place to keep track of things — they are not medical, legal or psychological advice. Anything involving health, medication, care decisions or legal documents belongs with a doctor, pharmacist, lawyer or other qualified professional. Digital download — delivered instantly, so all sales are final; future updates are free.