The perfect summer activity…

It is summer again, the kids are home from school, and no doubt you have plans to visit your parents. This summer I’ve developed a special activity for you to complete at your next family visit… a video recorded life history interview.

Follow these easy steps below to capture your parent’s best life stories. Here’s your opportunity to involve the kids and make a priceless heirloom to enjoy for years down the road!

1) Borrow a video camera: If you don’t have a video camera handy, see if you can borrow one for the afternoon. Try to have between 2-3 hours of blank video cassettes ready to use.

2) Set the stage: Find a well lit place for the interviews and make sure it is as noise free as possible. Put your mother or father in a comfortable chair and give them an overview of the project.

3) Make signs for the “show”: Explain to the kids that you are going to create a “tv show” right in your own home. They are in charge of the signs to introduce the guests (their grandparents). Using blank poster board and have them write out your parent’s names, their birthdays, or they can even draw a picture that reminds them of Grandmother and Grandfather! Have them flash their creations during the interviews.

4) Let the “show” begin: Using the following topics, begin to ask your parents about their best life stories. Explain that you are trying to capture some of the highlights from their life and want to make sure their memories can always be enjoyed. Let the kids ask them questions too - maybe they have certain stories that they like to hear about!

Topics to discuss:
- Ancestors
- Parent
- Early Childhood
- Siblings and Family Life
- Early School Years, High School
- Summer Months, Jobs, Friends
- Falling in Love, Marriage
- Work Career
- Raising a Family
- Family Traditions
- Current Events that influenced their life..

(If you would like to use a professional interview guide, with a list of over 1,000 memory sparking questions, look into our StoryCatcher family history kit. I use many of these questions in my professional life history interviews and they always help bring to the surface stories your parents haven’t thought about in a long time!)

5) Make it a tradition: Each summer, try adding an additional video recorded interview. Maybe you only got through a few of the topics above, or maybe they’ve had an amazing year. It’s fun to document the kids getting older, and other special moments from their life.

Taking the time to complete a project like this today, can mean that these priceless stories will never be lost! To learn about this project and other family history kits, that help others save their best life stories, look to our site, CatchMyMemory.com.

Do you want to save your family history?

If your family is like most, storytelling is at the center of every gathering. Dad has the same few stories he loves to recall and Mom loves to tell him he’s gotten it all wrong!

Have you ever tried to count up all the great stories that your parents or grandparents tell? More importantly, have you ever thought about what might happen to all of these memories when the storyteller isn’t here to recite them on their own?

If you have a parent or grandparent, who you hold dear, then you need to read the following article about saving their life history. By taking the time to record the stories today, you can ensure that your family history will never be lost or forgotten.

It is important for all of us to know and record the stories about our family roots, because once those stories are gone, they are lost forever!

Here is a three step process to help you begin to save your family history:

Step 1: Record the Stories
Step 2: Share the Stories
Step 3: Preserve the Memories

Step 1: Record the Stories - Choose a method for interviewing your parents or grandparents about their life history. You can capture their stories on audio tape, video tape, or even written by hand. I spent the past year creating the StoryCatcher Interview Guide. It helps everyday people like you and me interview a loved one about the key events from their life. Look for a guide like this that lends structure to your interviews. You want to make sure this is a project you complete.

The key to a good family history interview is making your interviewee relaxed and using your questions to help them discuss memories that even they haven’t thought about in a long time.

Step 2: Share the Stories - Once your interviews are complete, find a way to output the stories into a viewable form. If the stories were voice recorded, get one of the family members to create a typed manuscript. If you video taped the interviews, see if you can find a local video editor to splice them together into a short film.

Take the time to put the interviews into a usable format so that they can easily be shared with the whole family. If you are feeling extra ambitious look for a local family historian who can help transform these interviews into a completed biography. As a family biographer, I help families save their loved one’s best stories in the form of their own memoirs. You don’t have to be famous to leave behind a record of your life’s accomplishments…sometimes you just need help!

Step 3: Preserve the Memories - No matter which format you choose (audio, video, or written), make sure you create copies of your work. Store them in a safe place! After all of the hard work, take the extra effort to safeguard the memories you have saved.

To find out more about how to save your family history, visit our website: www.CatchMyMemory.com and learn about our two family history kits. Each one was developed to make saving life history fun and easy! Completing one of these projects with your loved one can be a priceless activity that you will remember forever!