Listening to the daily stories and reminiscences of my children, hubby and friends usually provides me with excellent starting points for fiction, essay and article ideas!
A rich source of creative writing ideas by: Anonymous
Yes, the reminiscences of others can be a rich source of ideas.
A good tip that I heard in a radio interview with the novelist A. S. Byatt: she suggests creating characters who are composites of several real people, rather than based on a single person. This approach prevents the character from being identifiable as a specific person (thus protecting the real person's privacy), and also prevents the author from becoming overly influenced by the real person's life/events. It moves the characters into the realm of fiction, where they can take on a life of their own.