Interview Questionnaire

Part 1. RESPONDENT
1. What is your name?
2. When and where were you born?
3. Where did you grow up? (places and dates)
4. When did your family come to Canada?
5. When did your family move to [locality]?
6. Where was your father born? (village/town, province, country)
7. Where was your mother born? (village/town, province, country)
8. Where was your spouse born? (village/town, province, country)
9. What other places have you lived? When?
10. What kind of schooling did you have?
11. What kinds of work have you done?
12. Who did you live with when you were growing up?
13. What is your ancestry?

At this point, you should determine the time frame that you want the interviewee focus on: e.g., if the person was born in the early twenties, ask him/her to recall the childhood and early teen years.

Part 2. MATERIAL CULTURE
1. What did you eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner?
2. What special meals did you have on Christmas?
3. What food did your family purchase at the store?
4. What food did your family produce on their own?
5. What kind of clothing did you wear?
6. What chores were you responsible for as a child?
7. What did your father do on work days?
8. What did your mother do on work days?
9. How was your house decorated?
10. Did anybody in your family do crafts? What were they?

Part 3. RITUAL ACTIVITIES
1. Was your family religious? Did you belong to a church? How often did you attend?
2. Describe Christmas in your family. When did you celebrate it?
3. Describe Easter in your family.
4. U - Did anyone in your family make Easter eggs?
F – Did your family decorate Christmas trees?
E – Did your family have afternoon tea?
G – can we identify one or more ritual activities that could be a clear marker(s) of German identity?)
1. Did you celebrate/observe the following:
5a. Birthdays
5b. Dominion (Canada) Day
5c. Thanksgiving
5d. Halloween
5e. New Year’s
5f. Parish Feast day
5g. Other holy days
5h. Other holidays tied to specific cultural identity or specific locality
5i. Other holidays tied to Canadian identity

Part 4: SONGS AND STORIES
1. Did anyone in your family sing songs? On what occasions? In what languages?
2. Did you sing?
3. What kind of stories did you hear or tell? When were they told? How often?

Part 5: PERFORMING ARTS
1. Did people in your family go to dances? Where were dances held? How often?
2. Name the dances.
3. Name the musical instruments played.
4. What kinds of music did your hear?
5. What kinds of music did you make?
6. Did anyone in the community put on plays? Who? What kind of plays? Did you ever participate?

Part 6: LANGUAGE
1. What was your first language or languages?
2. What languages did you speak at home?
3. What language or languages did the teacher use in school? and the students?
4. Did you ever take lessons in any other language? When?

Part 7: SOCIAL LIFE AND PASTIMES
1. Who were your nearest neighbours?
2. Who were your best friends? What activities did you do together?
3. Who were your parents’ friends?
4. Did you play sports? What kinds of sports?
5. What did you and your family do for entertainment?
6. What nationalities were there in your community?

Part 8: CLOSURE
1. Has anyone in your family collected information on family history? Have they produced a written history?
2. Do you have old photographs that show people and life in your community before the 1940s?
3. Do you know other people who can remember their life experiences in this community before the 1940s and who I might interview?