How to
How to write your family's immigration story
Children of immigrants usually know the outline and none of the story. The story is in the particulars, and the particulars are in one or two people who are getting old.
The questions that unlock it
Who made the decision to leave, and was there a last argument about it. What came in the trunk and what was left on the dock. The first winter, the first job, the first apartment. What people here got wrong about where you came from. When the language stopped at home, and whether anyone minded.
Ask in their language
Even a few words of the first language changes what people remember. If you cannot, let them answer in it and translate later; the translation can go in the book beside the original.
Write the loss too
Every immigration story is also a story of what was given up. A book that only celebrates the arrival is half a book.
Start asking: questions to ask for this book.