Latest Articles
How to Involve Other Family Members in a Life Story Project
A family history project often begins with one person’s determination to preserve what they know before it is lost. But it rarely stays a solo endeavour for long.…
Capturing Stories in Unplanned Conversations
Some of the most valuable moments in a life story project happen not in a planned interview but in an unguarded conversation — at the dinner table, during…
How to Write a Short Biography for a Family Archive
A biography written for a family audience is different from the kind of biography you find in a bookshop. It does not need to be long, literary, or…
Recovering Women’s Stories in Family History
Many families discover, when they begin to explore their history, that they know very little about the lives of the women in it. Grandmothers, great-aunts, and women further…
Creating a Family Heirloom Inventory: Objects and the Stories Behind Them
Not every life story is recorded in words. Some of the richest family histories live in the objects that have been passed down — the tools, the textiles,…
Recording Childhood Memories: Questions and Approaches
Childhood is the part of a life story that is most likely to be forgotten — not because it was unimportant, but because the person who lived it…
How to Annotate Family Photographs for Future Generations
Photographs are among the most powerful tools in life story preservation — but only if we know who is in them and what they show. A box of…
How to Create a Memory Book for a Family Member
A memory book is not the same as a scrapbook, though it may contain some of the same materials. A memory book is a structured document — part…
Documenting Family Recipes as Part of a Life Story
A recipe box is more than a collection of instructions for making food. It is a record of a life — of the occasions people cooked for, the…
How to Transcribe an Oral History Recording
Transcribing an oral history recording is slow, careful work. For every hour of recorded audio, expect to spend three to five hours producing a clean transcript. Many people…
Reconstructing a Life Story When the Person Has Already Died
One of the most common reasons people give for not starting a family history project is that the key person — a grandparent, an elderly parent, the keeper…
What to Include in a Legacy Document
A legacy document is a written record intended to outlast its author — a deliberate act of transmission from one generation to the next. Unlike a diary or…