El 10th World Conference on Qualitative Research se realizó durante el mes de febrero, específicamente la primera semana, en Madrid, España. Este evento fue realizado con sesiones presenciales y otras especiales en formato online. En este marco la investigadora Francisca Ortiz Ruiz presento su ponencia “Recovering ego’s memories: Some reflections from collecting personal networks with life histories” (ver más abajo el resumen de la presentación). Para ver más información sobre la ponencia, se puede ver en el siguiente link: https://proceedings.science/user/login/ashnazg?destination=/wcqr-2026/papers/recovering-ego-s-memories-some-reflections-from-collecting-personal-networks-wit%3Flang%3Den&lang=en Recovering ego’s memories: Some reflections from collecting personal networks with life histories. Collecting personal networks and life histories of people can be a challenging aspect to manage in research, especially depending on the context and the participants. When studying older people, it is more common to encounter situations where there is a need to activate participants' memories. Within this context, the central question of this presentation is: What are the challenges of research using these methods with older people? Are there any strategies that help with "activating" memories of the participants? Since 2019, I have studied the personal networks of older people from a mixed-method approach in two different research studies. The first one aims to understand how older people use their social support network to cope with their pensions. The second study focuses on understanding the dynamics over time of the care and social support networks of older people in a specific setting, specifically a community centre. In both studies, an interview was conducted using a name generator to construct the personal network with paper and pen, while also utilising the software VennMaker. The results focus on the presentation of reflections about the process, including the use of computers during data collection, interview guides, strategies that help or hinder the ego's ability to remember, and other lessons learned from fieldwork and the construction of personal networks. Some tools can actually “activate” memories. In this research, four main tools were employed: software, images (including photographs and visual aids such as timelines and network visualisations), time investment, and establishing previous connections with the participants. That is crucial as it allows us access to more detailed and deeper content of what we are looking for. How we ask questions, how we behave before, during, and after an interview, and how we approach all of these factors impact the results and any applications that our research could have afterwards.