Now that summer is here, many of us may be scheduling time to visit family members we don't often see during the rest of the year. When I was a teenager, my family took such a trip to visit my Grandmother. During our stay, Grandma spent one evening entertaining us youngsters with stories about our Grandfather, who had passed away before any of us were born. I remember how delighted I was at the time by this fabulous family history experience. I have to confess, however, that now I have only the vaguest memories of those stories. If only I could go back in time and record that night's conversation...

As you take advantage of these summer months to visit family members or to participate in family reunions, consider making time to take a few oral histories as well. Family visits are often a gold mine of memories and history, but how are you going to remember it all if you don't find some way to record it? In this article, we'll uncover some useful suggestions and tools for recording your precious family history moments this summer.

Interviews

One way to record your family's history is to conduct interviews with your relatives. If you're wondering what that might entail, a good place to start is with our article on "Oral Histories - Conducting Interviews." This article walks you through the basic steps of conducting a family history interview. First, it suggests some ways you can prepare for the interview, including ideas and materials to get ready beforehand. Next, it gives you some pointers about what sort of questions you can ask to get your relative's memories flowing. Then it discusses how to do the interview itself, including how to overcome some interviewing roadblocks; this includes how to make your relative feel at ease and what to do if the conversation lags. Finally, it gives you some ideas about what to do with the recording after the interview is over.

To read the full article, click here.

For more ideas about conducting interviews and writing family histories, check out the "Writing Family Histories" section of our Online Store. There you'll find our recommendations for books and software to help you create a permanent record of your family's memories. For example, in this section you'll find "Touching Tomorrow: How to Interview Your Loved Ones to Capture a Lifetime of Memories on Video or Audio," by Mary LoVerde. Along with suggestions to help you throughout the interviewing process, this book includes over 200 questions. And if you're wondering whether this book, or another item, would really help you, just click the title to see a full product description and customer reviews.

Equipment

Whether you want to hold scheduled interviews, or just record the conversation at your next family gathering, you'll need some kind of recording device. Many genealogists are finding that digital voice recorders are an excellent tool for interviewing relatives. To give you a clearer idea of what these handy little devices can do, we've posted an article on "Preserving Family Stories Using a Digital Voice Recorder." In this article, Kaye Nelson shares with us her personal experiences of interviewing some of her relatives, along with some great ideas and suggestions for the best way to go about the interview itself. She tells us all about the digital recorder she used, highlighting some of the features that made it so perfect for the job. The article closes with descriptions of several other digital voice recorders, allowing you to compare prices and features.

We hope these articles will help inspire you to collect a few family memories this summer! If you have a success story about interviewing a family member or writing a family history, email it to us at newsletter@mytrees.com for inclusion in the Your Stories section of our next newsletter issue.

Article written by Aubrey Fredrickson