Category: Recording a Life Story
50 Questions to Ask an Elderly Parent Before It’s Too Late
There is a particular kind of grief that comes not from losing someone, but from realising you never asked. We put off the big conversations because there will…
Writing a legacy letter
A kitchen table holds a stack of photographs, a handwritten note, and a USB drive that contains a recorded message. The note explains why a particular family recipe…
Preserving a Sense of Place: Recording the Homes We Have Lived In
Of all the threads running through a life story, place is among the most evocative. The homes we have lived in, the streets we knew as children, the…
Interviewing grandparents
A rainy Saturday afternoon finds you sitting opposite a 78‑year‑old grandfather, a photo album spread on the coffee table, his hands resting on a worn‑out watch. The room…
How to record someone’s life story
A family gathers around a kitchen table, a smartphone perched on a stand, while a parent asks a grandparent to recount the day they first moved to the…
Why Recording Childhood Memories Matters More Than You Think
Childhood memories are among the most fragile pieces of a life story. Unlike documents or photographs, they live entirely in the mind — and with each passing year,…
How to Record an Oral History Interview: Equipment, Questions, and Tips
Recording a family member’s story is one of the most meaningful things you can do — not just for yourself, but for every generation that comes after. The…
Documenting Family Traditions and Cultural Heritage
Every family has unwritten rules — ways of speaking, handling conflict, marking occasions, or showing love that are passed down without anyone ever stating them directly. These cultural…
Creating a Family Glossary: Preserving the Private Language of Your Family
Every family develops its own language. Words coined in childhood that stuck. Nicknames whose origins have been forgotten. Phrases passed down from grandparents who spoke a different first…
Capturing the Friendships That Shaped Your Life
When we think about preserving a life story, we tend to focus on family — parents, grandparents, children. But friendships often play an equally formative role in who…
Capturing the Work Stories That Define a Life
We spend a remarkable portion of our lives at work — and yet work stories are often among the least recorded parts of a personal history. We tend…
How to Help a Child Understand Their Family History
Children are natural historians in the making. They love stories, they are fascinated by the idea that the adults around them were once children too, and they have…