Pvt. Robert Lawrence

This is the story of how a young man’s life was wasted in the futility of war. World War I. It is also a story of why you should record your family’s oral history whilst those with the living memory are still available to you.

My story is not an impressive story but it is a story of one of my own ancestors whose personal story has bothered me for a long time. It’s a story of search many famil historians embark on. You see I grew up with a brass plaque hanging in the lounge room of my home. It commemorated the life of a young New Zealand soldier from Auckland who served in the 6th Hauraki Company, 1st Auckland Infantry Battalion. A man who went to Europe as a part of the A Company 14th reinforcements and who was captured and died of wounds in a German Hospital in Douai, France two months after arriving.

This man was Robert Lawrence, 30 years old, a plumber from Newmarket in Auckland, New Zealand, my Great Uncle and the relative whom my father and my cousin were named after which is probably why I wanted to find out his story such as I could.

As a boy I grew up seeing the plaque practically every other day which later, as a young man, prompted me to enquire of relatives who this Robert Lawrence was. I was simply told he was your Great Uncle who died in the First World War, nothing else. Today I very much regret I didn’t ask the correct people the right questions, my great aunts, “Aunt Tot” and “Aunt Lizzie”, both still living at the time of my initial enquiries and now passed on, were regular visitors to my home and Robert’s sisters.

When you are young you don’t pursue the family stories with enough vigour and you don’t necessarily have the interview skills to negotiate the difficult subjects and elicit more complete answers. This is why my interview with relationship expert Kim Leatherdale on asking family history questions
asking family history questions is an important one for all those interested in family history. In the course of the interview Kim and I provide great tips on how to ask family history questions that will provide the answers you seek?

Robert’s Lawrence’s Military Story

Robert Lawrence's Grave Douai Communal Cemetery

The Cross Douai Communal Cemetery

Douai Cemetery Memorial

No one in our family had visited Robert’s grave in France, our family is of modest means and nobody had been able to visit. And so when I visited France in 2006 I made it my pilgrimage for the family. I visited Douai Communal Cemetery where he is buried. Douai is a town in the Nord department in northern France. It’s right in the heart of the coal belt, the richest in northern France, a transport hub and today seemingly now in a depressed economic condition.  No doubt the coal and the transport hub made it a strategic site in World War I.

Robert Lawrence was born in 1885 and in 1916 he enlisted on the 7th of March. He was 30 years old, worked as a plumber and lived with his widowed mother Sophia in Newmarket, Auckland. He was short in stature, some 5ft 6 inches as many in our family are.

HMNZT 57 Tahiti

After enlistment Robert was moved to Trentham military camp for training, just outside Wellington, New Zealand and spent 111 days there before being embarked on HMNZT 57 (Transport 57), the ship “Tahiti”. The crossing from NewZealand to the United Kingdom took 58 days. The 14th reinforcements consisted of just over 2,200 men and sailed on two ships the HMNZT 56 the “Maunganui” and the “Tahiti” which Robert was on.

Robert arrived in Devonport, England on the 22nd of August 1916 and disembarked on the 23rd being transferred to Sling Camp PR II 3, a World War I camp occupied by New Zealand soldiers beside the then military town of Bulford on the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.

The Bulford Kiwi

A Note of interest: After the war was over, the New Zealand troops were eager to return home, but no troop ships were available. In the wake of riots by disaffected New Zealanders at the Sling camp, officers decided that the troops should be kept busy carving an enormous Kiwi into the chalk of the hill. This was done in February and March 1919, by the Canterbury and Otago Engineers Battalion.

On 18th September 1916 Robert embarked for France. His most likely destination was Etaples. During the First World War the town became a vast Allied military camp and then a giant ‘hospital city’.  Many medical facilities were established by the Australians, New Zealanders and British. Wounded soldiers were consequently often sent to Etaples to recover or en route for Britain.

Auckland Infantry Brigade after the Somme

Pvt. Robert Lawrence was lucky in that he just missed out on serving at the Somme. The 1st Auckland Battalion War Diary records that over the Somme period they received reinforcements on the 24th of August (this was the 12 and 13th reinforcements) and the next batch of reinforcements was on the 10th of October (14th reinforcements). This is the reinforcements that Robert was a part of and he joined his active Battalion at Estaires on the 3rd of October 1916. The New Zealand Infantry had withdrawn from the Somme battlefield on the 3rd-4th October 1916.

On the 14th of October 1916 the 1st Auckland battalion were once again in the line.

“The line was very quiet, and the sector seemed to have relapsed right back to its old peaceful state. There was very little to complain of, except the rather flooded condition of some of the trenches. In the first few days after the return from the Somme, the Battalion had the misfortune to lose Lieutenant Ancell, a very promising young officer, who was hit by a stray bullet while on patrol. A few other casualties occurred and there were also a certain number of evacuations for sickness, brought on by the wet and cold.” ORMOND BURTON – author the“Auckland Regiment History”

It seems that Robert Lawrence must have been one of the “few other casualties” as there were a number of cross trench raids. By 2nd November 1916 Robert was reported to have been wounded and a prisoner in German Hands, and on 16th January 1917 he was reported officially by the Germans to have died on the 10th of December 1916 at St Clothilde Hospital, Douai, France.

German medics at Douai

An Australian prisoner of war in the Douai area after the war made the following statement:

“Douai, the conditions were absolutely rotten — bad food and no medical attention, our wounds often remaining forover a week without being touched. I was here for ten days, and only had my wound dressed once. The doctor was a “butcher” and gave me a very rough handling. ….” Australian Prisoner of War statement.

And that is the story I have. It is quite common to have many unfinished stories from family histories. This is just one of mine. His military life was eight short months, from signing up in New Zealand to dying in France as a soldier, and no real personal details of his life except for his profession, age and a photo.

“At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them,

Lest we forget.”

New Zealand lost 18,166 service men and women, out of a population of approximately 1,089,825, in World War I. Nearly all those killed were buried overseas – 5325 New Zealanders have no known grave.  I paid to have Pvt. Robert Lawrence’s New Zealand Defence Force Personnel Records record digitised by Archives New Zealand and have received support in the Great War Forums on the internet, many thanks to those in the Great War Forums particularly Andy MacDonald.

Casualty Details

Name: LAWRENCE, ROBERT
Initials: R
Nationality: New Zealand
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Auckland Regiment, N.Z.E.F.
Unit Text: 1st Bn.
Date of Death: 10/12/1916
Service No: 14441
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: A. 29.
Cemetery: DOUAI COMMUNAL CEMETERY

Douai Communal Cemetery

Service Record Summary

• Enlisted, posted to Trentham 7/3/1916 (111 days training)
• Transport (57) ship Tahiti 26/6/16
• Arrived England, Devonport 22/8/1916
• Embarked for Sling Camp PR II 3
  Salisbury Plains in the UK 23/8/1916
• Embarked for France 18/9/1916
• Joined Unit Estaires 03/10/1916
• Wounded, prisoner in German hands 02/11/1916
• Died, St Clothilde Hospital, Douai 10/12/1916

As you set out to write your personal memoirs or life story most likely it is the events in your memoir which willtake a great deal of your focus.

It is at this point you will need to re-evaluate your purpose for writing and you may wish to read an earlier poston why motivation is everything for Personal memoir Writing Just what is the story you wish to tell? What are the events which have had the most influence on your life storyand what part did those events have to play in your overall development or the personal memoir you wish to tell?

In this personal memoirs training video Oral Historian Greg Lawrence outlines ways you can begin to recall the events in your life story that you may wish to include in your memoir. He discusses the inclusion of life events, thoughts and beliefs and how to use memory prompts to recall events.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When you are preparing your thoughts write down as many events as possible which played a part in the story you wish to tell.  Who was present at the time and what was their involvement in the event? One of the earlier videos in this series, Personal memoirs – Stories About People will help you formulate your thoughts on the people who played a part in the events you wish to write about.

Note down the really important events in your story but don’t forget the little ones either. The little events that will add colour to your personal memoir and add depth and context for your reader. Keep in mind that your reader has a different set of experiences to your own and it is often the little things providing the context which will allow them to relate more quickly of in more depth to the life story you are telling.

What were your feelings about the important events of your life story?

When you are preparing to write the notes that you are making can be considered ‘fuelling up”. You are adding gas to your writing tank and it is at this stage it’s your outline notes, the raw fuel, which you are interested in.  The more “fuel” you can add to your tank at this point the easier it will become when you actually sit down to write your story. Don’t worry about the details in the early stages, those can come later.

A list of 10 life event prompts you might find useful:

• An event in or about a place you lived in?
• Something involving a favourite Aunt or Uncle, your Mother or Father?
• Something from your working life?
• A remembrance about a child?
• A sporting or cultural achievement.
• Your personal triumphs and tragedies.
• A major crisis.
• A travel experience.
• A turning point in your personal life philosophy.
• When a climatic event impacted on you or your family.

Think about the major events that occurred during your life and what surrounded them. What was happening at the time in the wider community, locally, nationally and internationally? Did these events impact on you in any way? What did you think about them?
Anything can trigger a memory and once you start you will find that one thought leads to another.
The Importance of Thoughts & Beliefs

In your personal memoirs what were the major issues of the time? Did they have any particular impact on you oryour story?

If you find that you can easily remember a major issue or event then it probably is worth examining it for an impact or an influence on your own personal belief system and considering its relevance to the story you are telling.  Your readers would like to know you on more than a surface level and therefore any strong beliefs or influences on your development are likely to be of interest.

For example do you hold strong religious beliefs? How did they develop and come about?

Were you influenced by any international conflicts? Either as a person directly involved or as a person who developed a strong belief either for or against your nation’s involvement. What influence did these events have on developing your personal philosophy? How you came to have the belief system you have is often of great relevance to the personal memoir you are telling.

Memory Prompts

When writing personal memoirs or a life story the memory prompts you can use can include anything and everything. The most important thing you can do is to constantly keep a small notebook with you just to jot down the memory fragments as they surface. Think of your memory as a filing cabinet. A filing cabinet where, as you progress  through life, you keep adding things to the front and where your older memories are constantly being pushed to the back. It’s difficult to see everything when you first open the cabinet.

Your memories are still there it’s just they have over time become clouded with the sheer volume of them and you need a way of systematic rediscovery. The mind is a wonderful thing and connects memories in ways which constantly surprise us. In order to tap into those memories you can use a series of memory prompts to help you.
Useful Memory Prompts you can use include:

• Photos.
• Diaries or Journals.
• Family Treasures.
• Old Letters & Papers.
• A reunion with family, old friends or past work colleagues.
• A recipe book.
• An old résumé or CVs can prompt memories.
• Talk with friends or family about an event, person or place you want to include.

Keep your notebook with you and as you look through a selection or old photos or talk with family or friends make a note of any memory that resurfaces so that you can later come back to it and use that memory as a starting point in your own memory filing cabinet. You will find that once you can grasp the edge of an old memory other ways of teasing that memory out into full light will readily present themselves to you.

Keep your Father's Stories

One of the most special gifts any of us can give our fathers is the gift of listening.

“My father took me to school every single day from middle school until the end of high school. On the ride to school, he told me stories. On the way back home, he told me stories. I never really listened to the morning stories because I was too sleepy. I never listened to the afternoon stories because Iwas usually thinking about drama with friends or boys. During high school I felt too cool to hear his stories about how things were back in his day. -Maha”

That’s what I mean about the gift of listening. Maha is acknowledging, after her father had passed away, that she did not listen to the stories he told and by implication has missed out on a richness he was sharing with her. I am sure all of us have been guilty of the same actions as Maha but if you still have the opportunity to rectify it then do so. Now is the time to take action, so ask your father for his stories.

Stories about how he lived when he grew up, stories about your ancestors that your father knew andhad direct contact with or whose stories were passed on to him. Every single person has interesting stories to tell and those stories from your father are a part of your heritage and deserve appreciation. Your father’s stories about his work, the life and times he lived in, his experiences and what he thought about things, people and the events that were important to him.

Do not pass up the opportunity to have a dialogue with your father and preserve his stories so that you can pass them on to your children.

Lifetime Memories and Stories has put together a concise Free eGuide on How to Record a Life Story Interview with your Father. It provides short practical how to do it advice on recording your father’s story with a video camera or digital audio.

Why not make a start on recording your father’s story ? You might life to watch the Lifetime Memories and Stories video on Personal Memoir Writing which provides easy to follow practical advice on organising your thoughts when preparing personal memoirs and the How to Ask Questions for Family History podcast with Kim Leatherdale is a good resource when planning your approach to your father and handling any emotional charges that may exist.

Don’t wait till Father’s Day to celebrate fatherhood and male parenting, although this special day is set aside to honour and commemorate fathers and our forefathers. Father’s Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide and typically involves gift-giving, special dinners to fathers, and family-oriented activities.

There are records going back almost 4,000 years to Babylonian times where a young boy called Elmesu carved a Father’s Day message on a card made out of clay wishing his father good health and a long life. The modern Father’s Day is a celebration inaugurated in the early twentieth century to complement Mother’s Day and actually took place in Fairmont, West Virginia on July 5, 1908. The special day was organized by Mrs. Grace Golden Clayton, who wanted to celebrate the lives of the 210 fathers who had been lost in the Monongah Mining disaster several months earlier in Monongah, West Virginia, on December 6, 1907.

Many of our parents come from an age where the oral history tradition of passing on stories was an everyday part of family life. I am sure that by taking the time to listen to your own father’s life story your own life will be enriched.

The Trigger for Your Fathers' Stories Can Be Many

Men and seemingly fathers in particular, are often reluctant to share their stories.  Perhaps it’s an experience they don’t want to remember or an event in their life that they deem to be nothing special.  After all many of them are from the time when it’s been drummed into them “not to blow your own trumpet”.
Nevertheless you may be richly rewarded by perseverance and patience in seeking your own father’s stories. 

Most Dads have interesting stories; it’s just that you need to find a respectful way to ask them to share them with you.

My Father’s Story – The Flood of ‘56

With Fathers’ Day in Australia rapidly approaching I have been reflecting on fathers’ day and fathers’ stories and a story my own father told me sprang to mind and I thought I would share it.

Dad always wore this particular watch, a pocket watch.  It wasn’t fancy but had a nice face.  I can’t remember now what made me ask about it but one day I asked him where he got it from.  He told me he had been given the watch by Mr & Mrs Clarke, the two “old people” who lived down the end of the shared right-of-way (driveway) that our family house was on.

A few minutes went by and I wondered why they had given him the watch.  After all a watch was a pretty significant thing, especially so to a young boy as I was at the time.

Mr & Mrs Clarke had originally owned the land that my family home was built on and lived in the farm house across the creek.  Their garage was an old broken down shed at the end of the drive and a foot path ran from it across a foot bridge and up a deeply over grown path to their house.  They had sold the land to my parents around 1954 and as the first young couple to build on one of the five blocks that were carved out of the original land my parents knew them well.

But this still didn’t explain to me the gift of a watch.  The naivety of the questions from a young son probably got me past my father’s reluctance to tell the story.  I was old enough to realise he was reluctant to tell it and can still remember that feeling about it.

The story my father told me was that late in one afternoon in the winter of 1956 my parents were placing me in a basinet for my afternoon sleep whilst outside a huge storm raged.  It had been raining for hours and the flood waters were rising and surrounding our house.

The flood had crept up during the afternoon and my parents were keeping watch on them because they were concerned with the nearby creek breaking its banks.  Dad decided that he needed to go and check on the creek level so off he went.  Turning the corner of the Clarke’s garage, at the end of the driveway, he was walking in water that firstly covered his ankles but which got much deeper very quickly.

As he got closer to the footbridge over the creek he could see in the dim light that much of it had broken away.  Right in the middle of the now raging creek Mr Clarke was clinging to one of the remaining uprights of the bridge and calling faintly for help above the sound of the raging water.  Dad called out to him and he responded.  Looking around quickly for something to hold onto he bent a stalk of the tall bamboo that grew nearby and using that as a lifeline he waded out into the torrent.  Struggling to keep his footing on the slippery rocks of the creek bed he reached out and the two men linked arms.

Just as Dad pulled Mr Clarke towards him and they were inching their way back to the creek bank, by this time the water up to their chests, a large log came down and crashed into the remaining upright, sweeping the remainder of the bridge away in the torrent. A miraculous escape!

Supporting a very battered and bruised Mr Clarke my father then brought him to our home where they both dried off and got into dry clothes before settling down in front of the fire to warm up.

My father had saved Mr Clarke’s life!

Some weeks later Mr Clarke presented Dad with a watch in recognition of him saving his life.  No other fuss was made and I have only ever heard one other oblique reference to the event by a neighbour during a flood many years later.  Although that watch itself wasn’t that expensive it is a real connection between the two men, the man whose life my father saved in 1956.

People are interested in people.  Why do you think magazines about people are so popular?  Go into any news store and just look at the breadth of magazines that are covering the goings on of people.  Oh look!  Here is a celebrity behaving well or badly, oh another one wearing the latest fashion and yet another at a film launch or opening something or other.  The fact is that as humans we often live through the lives of others and have a deep and complex interest in what people do.  And that’s just those we know through the media!

When writing your personal memoirs you will need to develop your cast of characters that help you to illustrate your story.  This doesn’t just mean a list of who is who but a rounder, fuller description of who they are, what they looked like, what they sounded like and what they did.  Your readers, just like the magazine readers, want to find out the details of the people in your life.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In this video Oral Historian Greg Lawrence details some of the things you should be looking at when it comes to looking at the people involved in your story. Did they have any special mannerisms, things such as tapping the side of their nose when telling you something of particular importance? Did they have a special way of saying things or special sayings that they repeated and peppered their conversation with? What relationship did you have with the people in your story? The free video training is full of tips on how to organise your thoughts about the people in your story.

What about when you are writing your own family history, personal memoirs or autobiography?

Ask anybody who has embarked on genealogical or family history research and you will find that they get a real “Hey this is neat” moment when they discover letters, descriptions or an event in a person of interest’s life.  It is those facts and descriptions which add colour and depth to any family history story and draw and hold your reader’s interest and bring you or your ancestor to life.

The fun and enjoyment for readers of life stories and family stories is getting a real sense of who your characters are.  You have the advantage as a the writer of a family history, personal memoir or your autobiography in that you are able to provide that description and depth right now, as you create it for your own and others enjoyment.

When writing a family history, personal memoirs or an autobiography, we need a way of pulling out the past memories and shining a light on them to see if they will have any part in the story we wish to tell.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In this video, Oral Historian Greg Lawrence talks about the power of lists and how they can help your memory recall for personal memoirs writing. The video includes easy techniques that every writer can use. Lists allow you to jot things down memories as you recall them and take advantage of the memory by association process as you prepare to write. The memory method described in the video details how you can use the power of lists to enhance your memory recall.

By preparing memory prompt lists when you come to develop your story structure you are easily able to include details about places, people and events. Later in the “Personal Memoirs Writing” video series Greg will share powerful techniques you can use in organising your memory prompt lists. These techniques will enable you to leverage the power of memory prompts in your writing.

Remember, whether writing a family history, your personal memoirs or autobiography, the list is your friend.

One of the core memory prompt lists, and a pillar of personal memoirs writing, is used to provide your readers with a sense of place. A sense of place helps you contextually place your story’s characters in the events and actions in your story. By including descriptions and details about where your story takes place allows your reader to build up a mental picture of how that place influences your characters and the story you are telling. Details assist readers to empathise with your characters.

The video talks about how to include the different places the characters in your story lived and worked or experienced life events. It provides practical advice for developing useful memory prompts to recall the important places in your own story. Greg provides a descriptive example of an Australian home and setting during the late 1940s and ‘50s where the story teller evokes a real sense of place and by doing so allows the reader to add a layer of understanding about the story teller’s life and perform a mental comparison between the story teller’s experience and their own.

Today’s homes, towns, cities, farms and society are manifestly different from those of even a few short decades ago.  A sense of place helps your story come alive and capture your reader’s attention.

Archives - Key To Your Personal Memoirs

Greetings from the Northeastern United States where in January 2010 it is now – 9 °C. It is an honor to write for my Australian friends. In fact, the archives management graduate school basic text from which I studied 18 years-ago was written by Australian archivists, so I feel in a way that I am coming full circle. I’d like to thank Greg for the opportunity to introduce myself to a new audience. He has asked me to write about how to decide which personal papers to keep. So I will attempt to give you some helpful hints for getting started.

Within every household is a treasure trove of information that tells the stories of individuals and families. Everything we have accumulated over the course of our lives is a symbol for who we are. Our personal papers are the most telling of our items, but can cause us the most confusion. We are all attached to our “stuff,” but few of us see beyond a sentimental care. Yearbooks thrown in cardboard boxes, clippings kept in deteriorating folders, and old utility bills from our first apartment litter filing cabinets and closet floors. How do we determine what we should save?

1. The most important step is to try to think of your things as a collection that tells the story of your life. What items form the core of your story? Which fill in the details and which are not very important to the story at all?
2. Try to detach yourself from your items. You want to try to get over your sentimentality. (i.e. “I NEED THAT! My second grade teacher gave me that popsicle when I won the spelling bee and the popsicle stick reminds me of that day!”) Try to look at your items as a researcher would. What materials tell your personal story and what things really are not important to it at all. This is not to say that sentimentality should never play a part in decisions, but an awareness of personal biases will help you be more logical. In the archives world, “appraisal” means determining what to keep. Once you find a way to detach yourself, you can perform appraisal.
3. Aim to keep things that add to your story by telling it in chunks. Archivists prefer groupings of papers to individual items. A folder of back and forth correspondence between friends tells us much more than one letter.
4. Set up a plan to get rid of administrative items such as bills when they are no longer needed. In the U.S., we must retain such materials for seven years for tax purposes. After that, we should get rid of them. Talk to your accountant and lawyer about how long you need to keep these evidential records and then clear them from your clutter when the time comes.
5. Review the condition of materials and remove what isn’t salvageable.
6. Keep your vital records and keep them in a safe place. Birth certificates, mortgage papers, and other such records should be kept in a fire proof box with copies placed off-site.
7. Remove unlabeled or unidentifiable materials. There is little use in keeping photos of people you and your family members do not recognize.
8. Remove duplicates of materials.
9. As you go through your items, you may begin to notice patterns in your collecting. For example, you may have a lot of your college papers, but little from earlier years. Make an effort to locate missing materials to fill out your story. Retrieve items from your mother’s attic or talk to family members about their memories of your childhood.

When you think of your materials as the key to your biography, deciding what to keep becomes a little easier.

I wish you well in your archiving endeavors.

Melissa Mannon, MSLS
“Visit Archives Info for more information on – Securing Our Cultural Heritage”
“Visit Archives Info Blogspot to read Melissa Mannon’s Blog ”

Melissa Mannon

Melissa Mannon is owner of ArchivesInfo and is a professional archivist with almost 20 years experience helping individuals, cultural heritage institutions, and businesses with the management of their records and personal papers. She is the author of numerous articles and her first book about assembling archives is due out with AltaMira Press, a division of Rowman and Littlefield, in mid 2010.

A Family History is More Than Just Dates

There is no better time to fill in the details of your family tree and gather family memories than at a family celebration such as Christmas, Easter, birthdays and anniversaries. Take a little time in planning to capture your family history at one of these events and take the opportunity to gather the family memories and life stories of your key story keepers.

Plan ahead of time and phone, write or send emails to the family members who are coming and tell them you want to take the time to talk with them while you are together about your family history. Don’t be surprised if some don’t respond. Instead concentrate on those who are receptive to the idea of capturing the family memories for all. Often once someone like you raises awareness you will get some very enthusiastic responses!

With those who do respond positively, ask them to look for any old family photos that they may have and to bring a selection of them with them. Have them ahead of time write down the details of the names, place, event and people in the picture. A good way to record these details is to write on the back of the photo with a soft 2B pencil which won’t damage the photo.

Obtain an audio recorder with a good microphone or a video camera to record your family memory gathering. You may find that one of your children, a nephew or niece, or another family member has talent in either audio recording or videography. Enlist their help and by getting them involved you will engage their interest in the project and free up your time up to co-ordinate other things. Make sure you have plenty of video tape, audio tape or memory cards to suit the recording method as nothing would be more frustrating than to run out, especially if it is on a major holiday when many stores will be closed. Oh yes, if it needs batteries add them to the list!

Tell everyone that you will want to talk with them and set aside a time at the event when you will gather to talk. You may want to arrange some one on one time with the key story keepers in addition to having a group session with the interested parties. Try and view the photos that have been brought along in advance, ask the bringer to give you a quick outline about them and then at the family gathering use them as story starters and pass them around, asking each person in turn what they know about the event, place or people in the photo.

Don’t be afraid to go with the flow as one story will lead to another but remember that someone, the organiser, will need to listen to the tapes or watch the video and edit the recordings into a family history presentation so gently steer the discussion back on topic if it is in danger of going off on a tangent.

Family Celebrations are Ideal for Family Story Gathering

It is common to find different parts of the same story or completely different perspectives of events may be held by different members. As stories are passed along from family member to family member often details are lost and sometimes the person telling you the story now may have had it told to them completely wrong or they just remember the story differently. It is the editor’s job to check out the facts later. Don’t fall into the trap of,”that’s not right” and waste valuable time if you can’t clear it up quickly. Try to talk separately with the key family story keepers or the quieter family members who may be too shy in talking in front of a group. You may need all of your diplomatic skills if conflicting stories pop up.

Take the time to prepare your family history questions ahead of time. Perhaps you want to focus on a specific event, time period or people. As you talk to your family before the family gathering other questions will suggest themselves. You may find that our free eBook on “How to Write an Autobiography” will help you frame your questions and organise your thoughts.

Arrange to scan the photos that your family have brought along as quickly as possible and give the originals back to them immediately if possible. If not then arrange to return them promptly, look after them securely and name or caption the photos so you know the exact who, what and when details for each picture. It is also important to edit the recordings and if possible transcribe the audio into text.

After you completed your family story gathering and everyone has gone home do be generous with your results and share the information you have gathered with your family. Do make a master recording and copies of any audio, video or photographs to share with everyone or perhaps arrange another get together to view the video or listen to the recording. Don’t forget to include yet other extend family who weren’t at the first event and by doing so create the chance to extend your story collecting even further.

By taking the advantage of Christmas or other family celebrations you and your family can give a gift to each other that will give pleasure for many years to come.