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!

How can you save the memories when a loved one has cancer or a terminal disease?

It’s hard to think about, but if you knew your time was limited, what would you do? How would you go about spending time with family and friends?

Just this week, Senator Ted Kennedy was diagnosed with a gliomas brain tumor. According to ABC News, he is not alone… “Doctors diagnose about 180,000 new cases of brain cancers each year… with malignant gliomas being the most aggressive — and deadly.”

There are thousands of individuals across the country that are given a cancer diagnosis each year. Some take the opportunity to fight the disease, others go for second opinions, and still others settle in for the long battle ahead.

Though it is hard to think about, these terminally diagnosed cancer patients have an opportunity, unlike many of the rest of us. These cancer patients have a chance to create special memories with their loved ones no matter what happens with their cancer.

With this posting I want to give families, like Senator Kennedy’s, a plan of action for this time of crisis. I wanted to help them take advantage of the time they do have with their parent or grandparent, whether it be 6 months or 6 years.

The Plan for families dealing with a terminal diagnosis:

1) Create one-on-one time: this goes without saying, but when the family is gathered, take some time to spend alone and one-on-one. Find an activity to work on together, whether it is a crossword puzzle, Connect-Four, or a board games. You can still make wonderful memories together!

2) Celebrate the Past: though it can be difficult, bring out the old albums or home videos, and take some time to reminisce together. Relive the special moments from the past as a family.

3) Record the Stories: take this time to make sure that your loved one has a way of passing on their life story. No matter what happens, you want their stories and memories to live on forever. Help them create a legacy for future generations by using a program like the StoryCatcher. This do-it-yourself family history kit comes full to the brim with memory sparking questions that can help your loved one recall the best moments from their past. The whole family can be involved in the creation of this instant legacy and the digital voice recorder included in the kit will capture their voice and memories forever!

My hope is that families, who face a diagnosis like cancer or Alzheimer’s, take the opportunity to spend precious time with their loved one. No matter what happens, I can promise you that taking the time to save the stories today mean that they will never be lost or forgotten. Now you can always hold onto a precious part of your loved one’s spirit!

Today there was an article written in the Deseret News called, “It takes only 6 words to tell whole life story.” It is worth checking out if you are in the initial phases of writing your own personal history or even getting ready to help a parent or a grandparent create their life history.

The gist of the article is to try to use 6 words to describe your life. This exercise can be a fun way to start thinking about who you are and what your life has meant so far.

For instance here is my life story in 6 words: I’ve tried, I’ll keep trying, forever.

Today, use this activity as a spring board into your own life history project:

1) Take out a blank piece of paper and a pen.

2) Write out 6 word combinations that describe who you are and what you’ve accomplished.

3) Get a friend to try it with you and share your attempts together!

If you have a good time with this short brainstorming project then I would definitely recommend the StoryCatcher and the PhotoCatcher. Both of our kits will help you capture your life story, whether written out as a storybook, or captured through an oral history interview. Taking the time to tell your life story today or helping a parent with the very special project can assure that your family’s stories are never lost!

Do you have a loved one who is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s? If so, then this is a must-read article for you!

The Mayo Clinic recently came out with an article written to help Alzheimer’s patients save their life stories today so that they can recall their best memories tomorrow:

Alzheimer’s: Mementos help preserve memories
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alzheimers/AZ00020

The article motivates families with instructions on how to create a record of someone’s life’s accomplishments, whether in print, on video, or even voice recorded. Saving life history is something that I am all to familiar with as a Family Biographer, so I wanted to add a few tips to go along with this article and hopefully give you techniques to use with your loved one.

If you have a loved one with Alzheimer’s or know of someone with Alzheimer’s, pick any of the 5 actvities below to complete together. Taking the time today could make all the difference and could make sure their legacy will long be remembered - even if they aren’t here to tell it on their own.

Five Activities to Complete with an Early Stage Alzheimer’s Patient

1) Identify the Photographs: Bring out all of those old boxes of photographs, grab a pad of sticky notes, and put labels on the back to identify key people, places, and events in each photo. Capture this story that goes along with the photograph - don’t lose the priceless narratives which bring the photos to life.

2) Create the “ultimate album”: Help your loved one pick 30-50 of their favorite photographs which depict the most poignant moments from their life. Assemble them together into a special album to keep on their coffeetable for instant-memory sparking time. If you’d like a kit to help, look at our PhotoCatcher, it comes with all the tools you need to create a memory-saving album and bring together their best photos and stories.

3) Conduct a life history interview: Whether your turn on a voice recorder or a video camera, set up an official time to interview your loved one about their entire life story. Start your interviews from the beginning, with tales about their parents and childhood, and work your way through the special events from their life. Make it official and set up a few different sessions with them. Check off important topics along the way. If you’re looking for a good Interview program, check out our StoryCatcher, which has over 1,000 memory sparking questions to help people of all ages tell their life story. It’s sure to help you cover all the right topics and most importantly uncover new memories too.

4) Make a Family Tree: Sometimes the simple act of putting together a family tree can lead to all kinds of stories. Sit down with your loved one and try to sketch their family tree as far back as possible. Try to get birth dates, marriage dates, and death dates for each person. Sometimes just the act of creating a family tree can open up all kinds of stories worth saving and referring to in the future!

5) Make a Personal Timeline: Last but not least try to help your loved one make a personal timeline. Taking some blank pieces of paper, create a left column to jot down the year they were born and then continue down with all of the subsequent years. For each year record a memorable event from their life: maybe they started grade school, began a new job, took a special trip, or even got married! Creating a personal timeline can be a great way to piece together all of the best stories from their past!

Good luck with the above activities. Completing any or all of them can lead to the creation of a priceless memento for someone with Alzheimer’s. Don’t be afraid if they can’t remember it all - but use the above activities as a springboard to capture as much as you can…while you still can! Or check out our website for more story-saving ideas, CatchMyMemory.com.