How to Record Family Memories for the Future

Capture Family Memories at Family Parties

Interviewing family members is a great way to gather your family memories and preserve family history for future generations. Take advantage of your next family gathering to talk with your key story keepers.

With a little preparation ahead of time everyone’s family memories can be tapped into and you will be able to enjoy reminiscing together. Let your family know in advance what you plan. Ask them to search out the old photos in their keeping and have them fill in the blanks as to the time and the place and the who, what, where of the photo. Ask them to complete as much information as they can in advance and bring the pictures with them to your next family event.

Contact your family by email, letter or telephone and encourage them to become involved by enlisting their help. Everyone likes to feel that they are important so encourage that feeling by asking for their help in capturing your family memories for the family history and telling them that their memories are important to you and your family history. Some will be very enthused while others perhaps lukewarm but if you give them enough notice and perhaps an idea of the areas you are focused on you will find that even those who showed lukewarm interest will warm to the idea and produce some unexpected gems when the time comes for sharing everybody’s finds. Emphasise you’re collecting all sorts of stories – happy, sad, silly, landmarks and incidental times.

Often, within large extended families parts of the same story may be held by different members. The story will have been passed down by a number of people through the different branches of the family to others members and even if those people were present at the event they will have different memories of it and often a personal “investment” in their version of the event. You’ll be amazed at how two or three people with the same story can fill in the blanks and add important details the others have completely overlooked.

It’s a great opportunity when you have everyone relaxing together to talk with them as a group and also separately. Remember to allocate time with the key story keepers you identify in your family. Some of the quieter members of your family may have some very interesting stories to tell but may be a little shy telling them in front of the others so don’t let the natural exuberance of the more outgoing let you overlook the quieter ones.

Prepare your starter questions ahead of time. Perhaps you will have starting points already identified and have formulated questions for your family memories already, but as you contact your family in advance of your family event other questions will certainly suggest themselves. You may like to take a look at our free e-guide on  How to Write an Autobiography or Personal Memoir as there are some very useful tips that you may apply to preparing family memories for writing your family story.

The easiest and most effective way to gather the information you require is to record it in some way, either by audio recording or on video. Make sure that you get a tape recorder with a good microphone or a video that preferably has an external microphone or the sound will niot be very good. Take the time to practise with whatever equipment you choose before the event. Nothing is worse than everybody taking and telling great stories whilst you are fumbling with unfamiliar equipment! You will need lots of recording capacity and access to a power supply or plenty of batteries.

At family gatherings like this it would be good to schedule, even if informally, a time when you will be concentrating on the family stories and let everyone know as far in advance when this will be. Usually a good opportunity is after a shared meal together when it is a natural, relaxed time for family to sit around and talk. Use the photos that have been brought along as a starting point and don’t be afraid to go with the flow as one story will lead to another. Remember that someone (the organiser) will need to listen to the tapes or watch all of the video and edit the recordings into a family history presentation that everyone can enjoy, so gently steer the discussion back on track if it is in danger of heading off down a side path. This is your family story and while “Fred the next door neighbour” may have been a great fisherman details about “Fred” and where he touches your family story may be relevant but this is not Fred’s story, it’s your family story – it’s how Fred interacted with your family. Keep the session on track or you will be soon out of time and disappointed with the results.

Arrange to scan the photos family members have brought. If possible do it there and then (or appoint someone to do this for you) so you can give the originals back to them immediately. If not arrange to do it as quickly as possible and return all materials to the story keepers. Be absolutely certain you know who owns which photos!

It is also important to edit the recordings and if working with audio to transcribe the audio into text so that you can provide copies of the video or of the written stories for everyone. Make a master copy of the edited recordings and give your family a copy of their very special family memories event as soon as possible. This will please everybody and encourage more cooperation if you plan to hold another family memoires session in the future.

By taking the advantage of a time when your family gathers and with a little effort you and your family can give a gift to each other and your future generations a very special family memories gift that will keep on giving joy for generations to come.