“Who Do You Think You Are?”

The popular BBC TV program “Who Do You Think You Are?” is perhaps the TV phenomenon of 2009 and with the advent of an Australian focused series is now telling the stories of well known people’s lives in Australia.  Just ask your friends if they have watched it, maybe you’d be surprised  how many do, perhaps you’ve watched it yourself. The program focuses on well known people discovering their family history and family stories.  It’s a joy to watch the excitement, joy and sadness through the subject’s discovery of their own roots.

What story does your family have to tell?

Every person has their own story to tell and all family stories are almost as equally as interesting. It’s just that most of us don’t have the army of professional researchers available behind the scenes who have spent, days, weeks and months searching for the clues to flesh out the story that lies behind basic birth, death and marriage records that are presented in an interesting one hour TV episode. Stories of triumph and despair, famous and infamous, of poverty and wealth, fortunes made and lost. A journey to discover the stories of their family, stories of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles.

“Some families may not make a television program, but everone is just as fascinating. Sit down and talk to your grandparents because they’ve got these great stories and you don’t want them to be lost before they’re gone”
Kate Humble – UK Television Presenter and subject of BBC “Who do You Think You Are”

As anyone who has embarked on a family history project will tell you, it’s the stories they discover that makes researching your family history so worthwhile.  Equally they will tell you their frustration at perhaps just having a name and dates, maybe just a story snippet, disappointment at having nothing more than these basic facts to bring to life and get a feeling for the personality and how their ancestor lived their life. Someone they would love to know more about or the joy at discovering more of their family stories and getting to know more about where they come from.

Why don’t many people take the time to capture their own story or that of their loved one and preserve it for future generations?  Writing your own life history or that of a loved family member can be very rewarding but it can be a huge commitment of time and despite the best intentions few under take the journey.  Fortunately today’s technology assists with a practical alternative for those who are time poor but who still  want to preserve their own life story or those of their families.

Specialist oral historian services such as Lifetime Memories and Stories will arrange to interview and record your family member’s stories and produce a custom book with CD audio recording of their story for future generations to enjoy. Professionally transcribing the oral history interview and, together with your selection of photos and documents scanned digitally, they will prepare for your family and descendents a custom printed book of your story with pictures and an audio CD of the interview that captures the emotion of you or your family member telling their story in their own words. Isn’t this fantastic, not only being able to read the story and see the photos in the context of their story but to also be able to hear your family member’s own voice telling their story!  Treasured memories to keep forever.

Bring meaning to Family Photos With The Story Behind Them

It is a sad fact that as we get older our memory does fade and stories passed on by our parents, grandparents and other family members often fade with them.  Little bits of the family stories remain, often treasured by different members of the family, and sometimes can be teased out to recreate something of the “whole” story, if we can ever get everyone together to talk about it.  It does need a family champion though and too often some of the key family memories holders have passed on by the time that family story keeper emerges.  There is nothing more frustrating than hearing “Aunt Sue told me something about that” and now of course Aunt Sue is no longer with us.

Whether you undertake to write your own life story or that of a family member or whether you choose to engage a professional company like Lifetime Memories and Stories to help you, please don’t leave it until your treasured story keepers have passed.