# Grandtell, full text > Pick questions for a parent or grandparent. They answer one at a time from a large-type link, and the whole family reads the stories in chapters. Every public page of https://grandtell.com, as Markdown, in sitemap order. Built from the exported pages at build time. The short index is https://grandtell.com/llms.txt. --- # Story questions for a parent or grandparent, Grandtell URL: https://grandtell.com/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-28 > Pick questions for a parent or grandparent. They answer one at a time from a large-type link, and the whole family reads the stories in chapters. ## Questions for the storyteller in your family, answers for everyone Pick the questions. Your parent or grandparent opens one link, sees one question at a time in large type, and writes as much as they like. Every answer lands on a family link, in chapters by life stage. Childhood Describe the house you grew up in, room by room if you can. The front room had a green settee and a clock that was always 5 minutes fast. We were only allowed in when visitors came, so we sat on the stairs and listened instead. A sample answer, 15 November 2026 ### How a book works 1. **Choose the questions.** Pick from the house list, write your own, or let the house questions run. Set the question day, weekly or every other week. 2. **Give them their link.** Send it by message or print the link card with its QR code. No account, no password, no email for them. 3. **Read the stories together.** Each answer appears on the family link the moment they tap Done. Anyone with that link can ask a follow-up or suggest a question. Not sure what to ask? [Browse 154 questions to ask grandparents](https://grandtell.com/questions/), by life stage. The rules for when a question goes out are on [how Grandtell works](https://grandtell.com/how-it-works/), and what is stored is on the [privacy page](https://grandtell.com/privacy/). --- # Questions to ask grandparents, by life stage, Grandtell URL: https://grandtell.com/questions/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-28 > 154 questions to ask a grandparent or parent, in 7 life stages from childhood to wisdom. Plain, warm and ready to add to a book. ## Questions to ask grandparents, by life stage Here are 154 questions to ask a grandparent or parent, 22 for each of 7 life stages. They are open, plain and kind, and none asks about faith, money, health or politics. Add any of them to a book, or print the list. Last updated 28 October 2026 ### Childhood The house, the street and the people of the first years. 1. What is the earliest thing you can remember?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch01) 2. Describe the house you grew up in, room by room if you can.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch02) 3. Who lived in your house when you were small, and what was each of them like?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch03) 4. What did your street or village look like when you were a child?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch04) 5. What games did you play outside, and who did you play them with?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch05) 6. What was your favourite toy, and where did it come from?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch06) 7. What did a normal school day look like for you at 7 or 8 years old?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch07) 8. Who was your best friend as a small child, and what did you get up to together?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch08) 9. What did your family usually eat for dinner, and who cooked it?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch09) 10. What was your favourite meal as a child, and do you still make it?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch10) 11. What chores did you have to do at home?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch11) 12. What did you want to be when you grew up?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch12) 13. Which grown-up outside your family did you look up to, and why?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch13) 14. What is a smell that takes you straight back to being a child?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch14) 15. What did you do on a rainy day when you could not go outside?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch15) 16. Tell us about a time you got into trouble as a child.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch16) 17. What did your parents do for work when you were small?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch17) 18. What was the best present you remember getting as a child?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch18) 19. Did you have a pet or an animal you loved? Tell us about it.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch19) 20. What were summers like when you were young?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch20) 21. Was there a place you were not allowed to go, and did you go anyway?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch21) 22. What is a story your parents used to tell about you as a baby?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ch22) ### Growing up School, friends, first jobs around the house and leaving home. 1. What were you like as a teenager?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu01) 2. Which teacher do you remember best, and what did they teach you?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu02) 3. What was your favourite subject at school, and which one did you dread?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu03) 4. Who were your closest friends at secondary school?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu04) 5. How did you spend your weekends when you were 15?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu05) 6. What did you and your friends wear that your parents disliked?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu06) 7. What was your first paid job, and how did you get it?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu07) 8. What did you buy with the first money you earned yourself?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu08) 9. What rules did your parents set that you thought were unfair?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu09) 10. Tell us about a time you were really proud of yourself as a young person.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu10) 11. What was the bravest thing you did before you turned 20?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu11) 12. How did you learn to ride a bike, swim or drive?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu12) 13. What was a big worry for you when you were growing up?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu13) 14. What did you think adult life would be like, and how close was it?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu14) 15. Where did young people go to meet each other in your town?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu15) 16. What books or comics did you love as a young person?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu16) 17. Tell us about the day you left school.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu17) 18. When did you first feel grown up?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu18) 19. What trips did you take with friends when you were young?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu19) 20. What is a mistake you made as a young person that taught you something?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu20) 21. Who gave you the best advice when you were growing up?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu21) 22. What was the hardest goodbye of your younger years?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=gu22) ### Work The jobs they held, the people they worked with and what they were proud of. 1. What jobs have you had, from the first to the last?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk01) 2. How did you choose the work you ended up doing?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk02) 3. Describe a normal working day in the job you did longest.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk03) 4. Who was the best boss you ever had, and what made them good?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk04) 5. Who was the most memorable person you worked with?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk05) 6. What was the hardest part of your working life?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk06) 7. What are you most proud of from your working years?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk07) 8. What skill did you learn at work that you still use?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk08) 9. Tell us about a day at work you will never forget.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk09) 10. What did you wear to work, and what did you carry with you?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk10) 11. How did you get to work each day?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk11) 12. What was the funniest thing that ever happened at work?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk12) 13. Was there a job you wanted but never got? What happened?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk13) 14. What did you learn from the worst job you ever had?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk14) 15. How has your line of work changed since you started?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk15) 16. What would you tell a young person starting out in your trade?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk16) 17. Did you ever work with your hands? What did you make or mend?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk17) 18. What did you do on your lunch break?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk18) 19. How did you feel on your last day of work?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk19) 20. Which piece of work would you like the family to know about?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk20) 21. How did you balance work with the rest of your life?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk21) 22. What did you do for work that the family might not know about?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wk22) ### Love and family Meeting a partner, making a home and raising a family. 1. How did you meet the person you shared your life with?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf01) 2. What did you notice first about them?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf02) 3. What was your first date like?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf03) 4. How did you know this was the person for you?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf04) 5. Tell us about your wedding day or the day you set up home together.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf05) 6. Where was your first home together, and what was in it?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf06) 7. What did you argue about in the early years, and how did you make up?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf07) 8. What was the day your first child was born like?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf08) 9. What did you find hardest about being a parent?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf09) 10. What did you love most about your children when they were small?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf10) 11. What family traditions did you start, and why?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf11) 12. What did a family weekend look like when the children were young?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf12) 13. Tell us about a family trip that went wrong but turned out fine.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf13) 14. What is a meal that everyone in the family remembers?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf14) 15. What did your own parents teach you about raising a family?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf15) 16. What do you wish you had known before having children?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf16) 17. Which family member are you most like, and how?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf17) 18. Tell us about your brothers and sisters, or the cousins you grew up with.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf18) 19. What is the kindest thing a family member ever did for you?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf19) 20. What did your home sound like on a busy evening?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf20) 21. What do you hope the family remembers about your home?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf21) 22. Who in the family made you laugh the most?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=lf22) ### Places The towns, rooms and journeys that stayed with them. 1. Which town or city feels most like home to you, and why?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl01) 2. Tell us about every place you have lived, in order.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl02) 3. What is the most beautiful place you have ever been?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl03) 4. What was the first journey you made on your own?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl04) 5. Describe a room you loved, anywhere in your life.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl05) 6. Was there a shop, cafe or market you went to again and again?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl06) 7. What was the longest journey you ever made, and how did you travel?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl07) 8. Is there a place you always wanted to visit and never did?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl08) 9. Where did your family go on holiday when you were a child?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl09) 10. Tell us about a place that has changed beyond recognition.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl10) 11. What did your first car, bike or bus route take you to?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl11) 12. Which walk or view do you never get tired of?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl12) 13. Have you ever moved somewhere new and felt lost? What helped?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl13) 14. What place would you take the family to if you could take them anywhere?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl14) 15. Describe the kitchen you remember best.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl15) 16. What was the view from your bedroom window as a child?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl16) 17. Tell us about a garden, park or field that mattered to you.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl17) 18. Where were you when you heard some big news you still remember?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl18) 19. What did a trip to the seaside or the countryside look like for you?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl19) 20. Which place do you think about when you cannot sleep?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl20) 21. Where did you go to get away from it all?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl21) 22. Which place in your life smelled the best?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=pl22) ### Later years Retiring, grandchildren and the everyday of recent years. 1. What did you do in the first year after you stopped working full time?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly01) 2. What did it feel like the day you became a grandparent?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly02) 3. What do you enjoy doing with your grandchildren?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly03) 4. What is a normal week like for you these days?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly04) 5. What have you taken up in later years that you never had time for before?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly05) 6. What is something you are better at now than when you were young?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly06) 7. Who are the friends you see most these days, and how did you meet?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly07) 8. What has surprised you most about getting older?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly08) 9. What everyday thing do you still enjoy the most?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly09) 10. Which change in the world over your lifetime amazes you most?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly10) 11. What did you do on your last birthday?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly11) 12. What is a small daily habit that makes your day better?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly12) 13. What would you like to do in the next few years?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly13) 14. What is something you have let go of and feel lighter for?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly14) 15. Tell us about a recent day that made you happy.[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly15) 16. What do you like to cook these days?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly16) 17. What is your favourite time of day, and why?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly17) 18. Which of your own grandparents do you think about now, and why?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly18) 19. What do your grandchildren do that reminds you of yourself?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly19) 20. What has become more important to you over the years?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly20) 21. What are you looking forward to this year?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly21) 22. What do you wish the family asked you about more often?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=ly22) ### Wisdom What they learned and would like the family to keep. 1. What is the best advice you have ever been given?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi01) 2. What would you tell your 20 year old self?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi02) 3. What do you know now that you wish you had known at 30?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi03) 4. What makes a good friend?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi04) 5. What makes a happy home?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi05) 6. How do you get through a hard time?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi06) 7. What is worth spending money on, and what is not?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi07) 8. What is something you changed your mind about?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi08) 9. What does it mean to be a good neighbour?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi09) 10. What is the most useful thing you know how to do?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi10) 11. What should every young person learn to cook?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi11) 12. How do you mend a falling out with someone you love?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi12) 13. What is a saying or phrase you use all the time, and where does it come from?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi13) 14. What are you most grateful for?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi14) 15. What do you hope the grandchildren will remember about you?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi15) 16. What would you like each of your grandchildren to know?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi16) 17. What is the secret to a long partnership?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi17) 18. What is the kindest thing you have ever seen a stranger do?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi18) 19. What did you learn from the hardest year of your life?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi19) 20. What makes you laugh, even now?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi20) 21. If you could pass one family custom on to every generation, which would it be?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi21) 22. What would you like this book to say about you?[Add to my book](https://grandtell.com/dashboard/?add=wi22) ### Asking well - One question at a time works better than a list: it gives room to remember. - Open questions (what, how, tell us about) bring stories; yes or no questions bring one word. - Follow-ups are often the best part. Under each story on the family link there is room to ask one. - Leave out anything that would be hard to answer in front of the whole family. How the questions reach the storyteller, one at a time, is on [how Grandtell works](https://grandtell.com/how-it-works/). --- # How the questions, the links and the book work, Grandtell URL: https://grandtell.com/how-it-works/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-28 > When a question goes out, what the storyteller and the family see, skips, house questions, suggestions, limits and deletion, in the order they happen. ## How the questions and the book work You keep a book for one storyteller. They get one question at a time on their own link, and the family reads every answer on another. These are the rules the server follows, in the order you meet them. Last updated 28 October 2026 ### The rules, in the order you meet them 1. **Starting a book.** You sign in with a passkey (no password, no email) and start a book with what the family calls the storyteller, their time zone, a question day and how often: every week or every other week. Each book gets 3 secret links: one for the storyteller, one for the family and a calendar of question days. 2. **The first question.** Nothing goes out until you press Send the first question. It appears on the storyteller's link straight away. 3. **The question day.** After a question goes out, the next one goes at 9:00 in the storyteller's time zone on the first question day that is at least 4 days later for a weekly book, or 11 days later for a fortnightly one. Clock changes follow the time zone, so 9:00 stays 9:00. 4. **Only when ready.** A new question goes out only if the last one has been answered or skipped by then. If not, nothing happens, and the check is made again on each question day after. There is never more than one question waiting. 5. **Which question.** The top question in your list goes next. Skipped ones wait at the end. If the list is empty and house questions are on, a house question goes, from the life stage with the fewest stories so far, and never one the book has used. The house list has 154 questions. 6. **Answering.** The storyteller types, or speaks with the microphone on their phone keyboard, up to 20,000 characters. The page saves on their device as they type and on the server a few seconds after they stop, so another device can carry on. Done sends the answer; tapping it twice still makes one answer. 7. **Skipping.** Skip moves the question to the end of the list once. Skipping it a second time takes it out of the book. 8. **The family link.** Each answer shows there, in chapters by life stage, the moment Done is tapped. Drafts never show. Changed answers show the new words and the word edited. 9. **Suggestions.** Anyone with the family link can suggest a question or ask a follow-up under a story, up to 10 an hour from one connection. Suggestions refuse email addresses, web addresses and phone numbers. You approve or decline each one; an approved one goes to the top of the list. 10. **Limits.** Up to 6 books, 200 questions waiting in a list, and 20 answers in a book, after which no new question goes out and the storyteller sees That is all the questions for now. Thank you. 11. **Links.** Replacing a link stops the old one at once; it then says it was replaced, and anything typed on that device stays there. The page the new link opens says on which day it was given out, so a replacement is never silent. Whoever keeps the book can see the links again, so they can also open the storyteller's page; the site does not claim otherwise. 12. **Deleting.** A deleted book stops its links at once and can be restored for 7 days. Deleting your account signs you out everywhere; sign in within 7 days to cancel. After that everything is deleted for good. 13. **When the server is busy.** The site runs on a free hosting allowance with daily limits. When one is reached the page says "Saving is paused for now. What you typed is kept on this device." and the words stay in the box. ### Worked example A grandchild starts a book for Grandma on Wednesday 4 November 2026: Europe/London, Sundays, every other week. They press Send the first question at 10:00 that morning. 11 days on from Wednesday is Sunday 15 November, so if Grandma has answered by then, the second question goes out at 9:00 on 15 November. If she has not, it waits for Sunday 22 November. The grandchild adds the calendar of question days to her tablet, and prints the link card for her fridge. ### What it is not - Not a chat: the storyteller sees only their own question and answers, never the family's activity. - Not a reminder service: nobody is emailed but the person who keeps the book, and only at an address they confirmed. - Not a fact checker or an adviser: the stories are the family's own words. - Grandtell is not affiliated with any memoir, printing or family-history company. --- # Questions about the story questions and the book, Grandtell URL: https://grandtell.com/faq/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-28 > Answers about Grandtell: no account for the storyteller, question days, unanswered questions, who sees what, editing, the book and deletion. ## Questions about the questions What the storyteller needs, when questions arrive, who sees what and how the book is made, answered plainly. The rules themselves are on [how it works](https://grandtell.com/how-it-works/). ### Frequently asked questions **Does the storyteller need an email or an account?** No. They get one link, by message or on a printed card, and open it on a phone, tablet or computer. There is nothing to sign up for, no password and no email. Only the person who keeps the book signs in, with a passkey. **How do they get each question?** The question appears on their link at 9:00 on the question day you choose, in their own time zone. Nothing is sent to them. You can pass the link on again whenever you like, and add the calendar of question days to their phone or yours so nobody forgets. **What if they do not answer?** Nothing piles up. A new question only goes out once the last one is answered or skipped. If it is still open on the question day, the question stays as it is and the next one waits for the next question day after that. **Can the family see answers straight away?** Yes. A story appears on the family link the moment the storyteller taps Done. What they are still typing is never shown to anyone. **Can several family members suggest questions?** Yes. Everyone with the family link can suggest a question, or ask a follow-up under a story. Suggestions never go straight to the storyteller: the person who keeps the book approves or declines each one. **Who sees a suggested question?** The person who keeps the book, and anyone with the family link, until it is approved or declined. The storyteller only sees it if it is approved and its turn comes. Suggestions refuse email addresses, web addresses and phone numbers. **Can they edit an answer later?** Yes. Under My answers on their own link they can open any answer, change it and save. The family sees the new words with a small edited note, and the date it was first written stays the same. **Can they talk instead of type?** Yes, with the microphone on their phone keyboard. Tap the microphone key, speak, and the words appear in the box. The page saves them like typed words. **Can stories be in any language?** Yes. Every answer is kept exactly as typed, in any language or alphabet, emoji included. The PDF book sets Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Arabic letters in its own fonts and draws everything else, such as Chinese or emoji, as the device shows it, so nothing is left out. **Can I add photos?** Not yet. Stories are text only. **How do I make the book?** On a book's page, under Stories so far, download a PDF with a cover and chapters by life stage, one story per page or flowing, on A4 or Letter, or the same stories as Markdown. The account page also gives everything as one file. **What happens after 20 stories?** A book holds 20 answers. After that no new question goes out, and the storyteller sees That is all the questions for now. Thank you. Every story stays readable, editable and in your export. **Can I have more than one storyteller?** Yes. One book is for one storyteller, and an account holds up to 6 books, each with its own links and question day. **How do I delete everything?** On your account page, Delete my account signs you out everywhere and stops every link at once. Sign in within 7 days to cancel. After 7 days every book, question, story, draft and suggestion is deleted for good. To delete one book only, use Delete the book at the end of its page. **What if I lose my phone?** If your passkey manager syncs your passkey, it is on your other devices already. Otherwise sign in on another device you added, or use the recovery code you were shown at sign up on the recovery page. The storyteller's and the family's links keep working either way. **Is Grandtell connected to a memoir or printing company?** Grandtell is not affiliated with any memoir, printing or family-history company. It does not print books and checks no facts: the stories are the family's own words. --- # About the family story question books, Grandtell URL: https://grandtell.com/about/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-28 > What Grandtell is: questions sent one at a time to a parent or grandparent, answers kept for the family, and what it stores and why. ## About Grandtell A small site that asks the storyteller in a family one question at a time, and keeps every answer where the whole family can read it. ### Why it exists Most families mean to ask a parent or grandparent about their life, and most never quite get round to it. A printed journal of questions is a lovely gift that often stays blank, because a whole book of questions at once is a lot to face. A long form or a video call puts the storyteller on the spot. Grandtelltakes the opposite approach: one question, in large type, with as long as they like to answer it, and the next one only when they are ready. ### How it is built The pages are static files. A small server keeps the books, questions and answers in one database on Cloudflare and decides, at 9:00 on each question day in the storyteller's own time zone, whether a new question goes out. The person who keeps the book signs in with a passkey, so the site never holds a password. The storyteller and the family need no account: each has a long random link, and the database keeps only a scrambled form of it. It asks for as little as it can. The storyteller is known only by what the family calls them, such as Grandma. Suggestions from the family refuse email addresses and phone numbers, and who is asking is picked from a short fixed list, so a grandchild never has to type their name. There is no advertising, no tracking script and no data shared for marketing. The stories are kept until you delete them, and you can download the book any time. ### Who it is for A grown-up child or grandchild giving the gift of being asked. It suits a storyteller who is happy on a phone or tablet but does not want another account, and a family spread across towns or countries who would like to read the same stories as they arrive. ### What it is not It is not a printing service and checks no facts: the stories are the family's own words. It gives no medical, legal or genealogy advice. It does not email the storyteller or the family, ever. Grandtell is not affiliated with any memoir, printing or family-history company. ### Install it On a phone it can sit on your home screen like an app. On an iPhone or iPad, open the Share menu in Safari and choose Add to Home Screen. On other browsers, use Install in the menu. For the storyteller, the same works with their own link open, so the question is one tap away. ### Contact Questions and problem reports go to socialreminderinfo@gmail.com. A report that names the page and what you pressed is the quickest to fix. --- # Privacy: what is stored, where and for how long, Grandtell URL: https://grandtell.com/privacy/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-28 > Exactly what Grandtell stores on its server, where it is kept, for how long, what stays on your device, and how to export and delete all of it. ## Privacy: what is stored, where and for how long Exactly what Grandtell stores on its server, where it is kept, for how long, what stays on your device, and how to export and delete all of it. Last updated 28 October 2026 ### Where it is kept Books, questions, answers, drafts and suggestions are kept in one Cloudflare D1 database that belongs to this site. Cloudflare chooses where the database lives; the region is not pinned, so it may be outside your country. The pages themselves are static files served by Cloudflare Pages. ### What is stored for the person who keeps the book - A random account id, the account name you chose for your passkey manager, and when the account was made. - For each passkey: its public key, its id, a signature counter, the name you gave it and when it was added and last used. Never a fingerprint, a face or any biometric data: those stay on your device. - A scrambled form (SHA-256) of your recovery code. The code itself is shown to you once and not kept. - For each signed in device: a scrambled form of its session id, and when it was made, last used and when it expires (90 days after the last use). - Your email address, only if you add one, with the date you confirmed it and when you last changed it (at most two confirmation emails a day). It is used only for your own question-day notices and the confirmation emails, and it is the only place an email address is ever stored. - A record of each email sent to you (its kind and when) and the notices themselves, kept 30 days. The confirmation email's link is not kept once it is sent. ### What is stored in each book - The storyteller label: what the family calls them, such as Grandma. It refuses email addresses and phone numbers. - The time zone, the question day, how often, and when each question was sent and answered. - The questions: their words, their life stage, where they came from (a house question, yours, or a family suggestion) and their place in the list. - The answers: the words, when each was first saved and last changed, and how many times it was changed. - Drafts: what the storyteller had typed but not finished, so they can carry on from another device. Drafts are never shown on the family link. - Suggestions from the family: the question, who is asking if they chose from the fixed list (a grandchild, a child, a niece or nephew, a friend, family), and whether it was approved. No name, email address or account. - For each of the book's 3 links (the storyteller link, the family link and the calendar feed): a scrambled form (SHA-256) of its secret, plus a sealed copy that only this server can open with its own secret key, so you can see the link again. The secret itself is never stored as it is. Replaced links are kept only as a scramble with the day they were replaced, so an old link can say it was replaced and the new link's page can say when. Nothing about the storyteller is stored beyond the label and what they choose to write. No photos and no recordings are stored. ### Limits on how fast requests come To stop a link being flooded, the server counts writes per link and per network address in hourly buckets. The address is stored only as a keyed scramble that cannot be turned back into the address, and each bucket is deleted after 2 hours. Network addresses are never written to logs. ### How long it is kept - Your account, books, questions, answers, drafts and suggestions: until you delete them. - A deleted book: 7 days, while it can be restored, then deleted for good with everything in it. - A deleted account and everything in it: 7 days, while you can sign in and cancel, then deleted for good. - Sessions: until 90 days after the last visit on that device, or until you sign out. - Passkey sign in requests: 5 minutes. Rate limit buckets: 2 hours. Email records: 30 days. ### What stays on your device What anyone is typing (an answer, a question, a suggestion) is also kept in that browser's local storage under keys beginning with `storyquestions`, so a dropped connection loses nothing. The secret part of a link sits after the # sign, which browsers do not send to any server in the address. ### How to export and delete it On your account page, Download everything gives one file with every book, question, answer and suggestion (unfinished drafts stay the storyteller's own and are left out). Delete the book, at the end of a book's page, removes one book after the 7 days above; Delete my account removes everything. Requests by email go to socialreminderinfo@gmail.com. ### Cookies One cookie, and only for the person who keeps the book: a session cookie that keeps you signed in. It cannot be read by page scripts and is never sent to another site. The storyteller and the family get no cookie. ### Page counts Visits may be counted by Cloudflare's own page counter, which sets no cookie and records that a page was opened, never what you typed. There is no other analytics. ### Payments No paid plan is offered at present; if one is added, this page will describe it. ### Email Only the person who keeps the book can receive email, only at an address they added and confirmed, and only for their own notices. The storyteller and the family are never emailed. Emails carry no tracking images and no link that opens a book. ### Children Grandchildren may read the stories and suggest questions with the family link. The site asks for no names: suggestions refuse email addresses, web addresses and phone numbers, and who is asking is chosen from a fixed list, never typed. ### Typeface Headings are set in Newsreader by Production Type, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, served from this site. The licence is at [/fonts/OFL.txt](https://grandtell.com/fonts/OFL.txt). ### Changes and contact If this policy changes in a way that affects what is stored, the change will appear on this page. Questions go to socialreminderinfo@gmail.com. --- # Terms of use for the family story books, Grandtell URL: https://grandtell.com/terms/ Last reviewed: 2026-10-28 > The terms that apply when you use Grandtell: what the books can be relied on for, your stories, acceptable use and support. ## Terms of use The terms that apply when you use Grandtell: what the books can be relied on for, your stories, acceptable use and support. Last updated 28 October 2026 ### What this is Grandtell sends questions to a storyteller one at a time and keeps their answers in a book the family reads by secret link. Anyone who has a link can use it until the person who keeps the book replaces it, so share each link only with the people it is for. Grandtell collects the family's own stories: it gives no medical, legal or genealogy advice and checks no facts. ### Names used Memoir, printing and family-history services are mentioned only to say what this is not. Grandtell is not affiliated with any memoir, printing or family-history company. ### Payments No paid plan is offered at present; if one is added, this page will describe it. ### Your content The stories belong to the people who tell them and the family who asked. The person who keeps the book decides who has its links. Stories are kept until you delete them, and you can download the book any time: every story is in the file on the account page, and you can delete a book or the whole account there too. The privacy page says exactly what is stored and for how long. ### Acceptable use Use a book for your own family's stories. Do not post anything unlawful or hateful, do not put a child's name, email address or phone number in a suggestion, do not try to guess links, and do not send requests at a rate that degrades the site for other people. ### Warranty and liability The site is provided as it is, without warranty of any kind, and runs within free hosting limits that can make it busy for a while. To the extent the law allows, Grandtell is not liable for any loss arising from its use, including an answer that was not saved or a link that was shared further than intended. ### Contact Questions and problem reports go to socialreminderinfo@gmail.com.