How it works

A frame, not a script.

Most life stories die at the kitchen table because no one wrote them down, and no one knew where to start. Legacy Ledger gives you a gentle two-hour frame: six sections, each with prompts and an allocated time, so you can relax into the conversation and still come away with something real.

Before you sit down

• · Pick a quiet room. Tea or water on the table.
• · Tell them you've got two hours and you don't want to miss anything.
• · Record audio if they'll let you. Type the highlights as you go.
• · Always capture full names and places. A relative will search for them one day.

The 130-minute frame

1. 01Settling in

   10 min

   Make them comfortable. Confirm name, age, where we are. Get their voice warmed up.

   • What name do you like to be called?
   • How old are you, and when were you born?
   • Where are we sitting today, and how long have you lived around here?

2. 02Origins

   20 min

   Where they came from. Childhood scenes, the place itself, the language at the kitchen table.

   • Where were you born — town, country, neighborhood?
   • What's the first house you remember? Walk me through it.
   • What language did your family speak at home?

3. 03Family & relatives

   25 min

   The map of people. Capture full names, surnames, siblings, grandparents — anything that could help a relative find them later.

   • Tell me your parents' full names, and where they were born.
   • How many siblings — older, younger? Their names and where they ended up?
   • Grandparents on both sides — names, places, occupations if you remember.

4. 04Life chapters

   25 min

   The arc. School, work, military, moves, big choices. Anchor each chapter to a place and a year.

   • Walk me through school — favorite teacher, what you were good at, what you hated.
   • First job. How did you get it? What did it pay?
   • Did you serve in the military, or live through a war? Where, when?

5. 05Joys & regrets

   15 min

   Pros and cons of the life. What they'd do again, what they'd undo.

   • What's one day you'd live over exactly as it was?
   • What made you laugh hardest — ever?
   • What's something you're quietly proud of that no one really knows?

6. 06Knowledge to pass on

   25 min

   The practical inheritance. Trades, recipes, fixes, rules of thumb, hard-won lessons — anything they'd hand to someone starting out.

   • What's a skill or trade you got good at — and how would you teach it in five minutes?
   • A recipe, remedy, or household fix you'd hate to see lost?
   • What do you know about money, work, or staying out of trouble that took you years to learn?

7. 07Wisdom & close

   10 min

   Their message forward. End on something they want kept.

   • If a great-grandchild reads this in fifty years, what should they know about you?
   • What's one thing you've learned about people?
   • What's worth doing, and what isn't?

What goes public

By default each entry is visible in the ledger so families can find their people. You can keep an entry private at any time — only you, the interviewer, will see it.