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I have three little ones at home, aging parents that live in Canada, and a great-granny in England. I worry that my kids won't have memories of them as I know them and want to document their life stories. Aside from time and distance which makes me doing it impossible, there's the cost of having someone come in to record it for me and edit it together. Seemingly would cost thousands. Of which, I am not possessing in ample supply.
I have three little ones at home, aging parents that live in Canada, and a great-granny in England. I worry that my kids won't have memories of them as I know them and want to document their life stories. Aside from time and distance which makes me doing it impossible, there's the cost of having someone come in to record it for me and edit it together. Seemingly would cost thousands. Of which, I am not possessing in ample supply.
Anyone else with the same problem?
Advice?
Suggestions, perhaps?
What exactly do you mean by record? You want to make a documentary on them? Would it not be easier to have someone who lives with your parents or great grandmother set up a skype, Facebook messenger, tango etc account so you could video chat with them and have your kids talk to them that way? At least that way they actually get to see them while talking to them, seems better to me than having them simply read documents or watch a video on them later on; that seems to one sided as your kids would not interact with them. And if you want their life story why not ask them about their lives while video chatting with them and either record it or write it down yourself?
I don't have experience with getting stories from distant relatives as most of the interviews I've done have been in person.
However, I would do some phone interviews and just put them on speaker and record our conversation with their permission. Or I would ask someone to video them while we spoke on the phone.
I have a cousin who is over 100 years old. I interviewed her in person at her nursing facility on her 100th birthday about her life. She is my 1st cousin, 3 times removed I believe, the first cousin of my great grandfather.
I interviewed all my then living great grandparents when I was a teenager (between 16 and 19 mostly) and I do wish I'd asked them additional questions as I was more into relationships back then and not stories about their lives and what they felt/experienced during historical events like the stock market crashing, the Depression (I did talk to one of my great grandmother's about that because she brought it up), the way our local area has changed since they were children, what they remembered most about their parents/grandparents/siblings, etc.
I ask about all these things now with my older relatives. I have a great aunt who is in her late 80s she is the oldest maternal relative I have now. Our cousin recently passed away and he was 96. I was sad I didn't get to interview him since he was moved out of the area by his son and it was hard to get in touch with his son who doesn't really know me. This cousin was my great grandmother's nephew.
I also wish I would have recorded more conversations with both of my paternal great grandmother's who I knew/grew up around. Also the siblings of both of them. One of my 2nd great aunts was born blind and I would have loved to ask her about her life. Everyone in the family says she was a hoot and my mom, who didn't get to know her until around a year before she passed said she was the most inpsirational, funny, woman she had ever met and she was devastated when she died only because she didn't get to know her better. I met her once when I was very young and she made an impression on me and I had always thought she had passed away when I first started doing genealogical research. So I miss that I missed interviewing her.
Today I try to interview all my living, older relatives again, all of them. I only have one grandparent left and he doesn't like to really talk a lot about old things but I have interviewed him and he is open to getting a DNA ancestry test done. Even though I haven't done one myself, I'd like to do him and a female cousin of his also my great aunt who is the oldest person on my maternal line and her brother who is the 2nd oldest. I haven't interviewed him officially yet but I've spoken with him a lot. He doesn't live where I live so I'll have to take a trip up to see him and officially interview him and his wife.
I think most of us who are older recognize the value of, and would love the recorded stories and wisdom of our parents/grandparents, but, by that time, they are long gone. A generation ago, those records were also much more difficult, cumbersome and expensive to produce. Further, at the time of their lives these recordings would have been particularly meaningful, they weren't thinking about leaving a legacy.
Today, technology has made it a pretty simple and inexpensive proposition (they don't have to be professional quality - Anyone with a video phone/tablet could do it! - I'll bet there are applications with built-in questions set-up for that very purpose.) - By default, many are creating such records on Facebook or similar vehicles.
Ultimately, I think it is a matter of taking the time and making an effort to do it. I've got several hundred recorded sermons that my great/grandkids and others might be interested in after I'm gone -- I've also written a book ... but, none of these things simply 'happens' by itself. (and honestly, I didn't really do them for that purpose either).
I don't have experience with getting stories from distant relatives as most of the interviews I've done have been in person.
However, I would do some phone interviews and just put them on speaker and record our conversation with their permission. Or I would ask someone to video them while we spoke on the phone.
I have a cousin who is over 100 years old. I interviewed her in person at her nursing facility on her 100th birthday about her life. She is my 1st cousin, 3 times removed I believe, the first cousin of my great grandfather.
I interviewed all my then living great grandparents when I was a teenager (between 16 and 19 mostly) and I do wish I'd asked them additional questions as I was more into relationships back then and not stories about their lives and what they felt/experienced during historical events like the stock market crashing, the Depression (I did talk to one of my great grandmother's about that because she brought it up), the way our local area has changed since they were children, what they remembered most about their parents/grandparents/siblings, etc.
I ask about all these things now with my older relatives. I have a great aunt who is in her late 80s she is the oldest maternal relative I have now. Our cousin recently passed away and he was 96. I was sad I didn't get to interview him since he was moved out of the area by his son and it was hard to get in touch with his son who doesn't really know me. This cousin was my great grandmother's nephew.
I also wish I would have recorded more conversations with both of my paternal great grandmother's who I knew/grew up around. Also the siblings of both of them. One of my 2nd great aunts was born blind and I would have loved to ask her about her life. Everyone in the family says she was a hoot and my mom, who didn't get to know her until around a year before she passed said she was the most inpsirational, funny, woman she had ever met and she was devastated when she died only because she didn't get to know her better. I met her once when I was very young and she made an impression on me and I had always thought she had passed away when I first started doing genealogical research. So I miss that I missed interviewing her.
Today I try to interview all my living, older relatives again, all of them. I only have one grandparent left and he doesn't like to really talk a lot about old things but I have interviewed him and he is open to getting a DNA ancestry test done. Even though I haven't done one myself, I'd like to do him and a female cousin of his also my great aunt who is the oldest person on my maternal line and her brother who is the 2nd oldest. I haven't interviewed him officially yet but I've spoken with him a lot. He doesn't live where I live so I'll have to take a trip up to see him and officially interview him and his wife.
You are very lucky to have had living great grandparents when you were a teenager. You're also lucky that you had the wherewithal to interview them. I would love to go back in time to when I was a teenager to interview my maternal grandparents before they died (I never met my paternal grandparents or any great great grandparents).
My grandparents had very difficult lives though with multiple tragedies that affected them greatly (my grandmother's mother died in front of her when she was a teenager, my grandfather lost his father when he was a child, their oldest daughter died tragically, and my older brother died suddenly in their care). So I'm almost glad that I didn't because I think sharing their life stories would have upset them greatly.
I always tell my mom that a benefit of her having children so young (she was a teen mom) was that I got to know a lot of my great grandparents and great great aunts/uncles.
I got into genealogy when I was 16 and i remember reading a book that said the first thing you should do is interview your older relatives. Luckily my great grandparents were my childhood babysitters (on both sides, but the maternal set watched me the most) and so I had a good relationship with them and they weren't hesitant in letting me interview them and record them with my old school, boombox tape recorder lol.
So I interviewed 1 great great grandmother (she lived to the age of 105!), 3 of my great grandmothers and 2 of my great uncles when I was a teenager (my maternal great grandmother's brothers).
I regret not asking the uncles more questions. They both died around 10 years ago. I spoke to them and my great grandmother about their brother who was killed during WW2 but I later found out that one of them was a Tuskeegee Airman!! I didn't know that when I was a teen and didn't ask either one of them about their own military experiences. Both of them served in WW2 as well. I've sense discovered articles about them written in newspapers and I'll be sending off for whatever records I can find of them from the national archives. But I wish I had a "do-over" with all my older relatives I spoke with back then. I was especially shy with 2nd great grandmother and didn't ask her nearly enough questions. But I'm glad I got her voice on tape.
The best thing I ever did was get my grandparents to sit down and write down their memories / history. I have them on tape (and it's so nice listening to their voices again), their own words, and interviews with questions as well as personal letters.
However you decide to do it, just get it done. Ask for pictures, keepsakes, and get those on record, too. I have some paintings my great grandmother painted and I treasure them. She graduated from an art school at a time when women didn't do that sort of thing. She had six kids and didn't take up her art until the last one was grown.
Stuff like that is so interesting and enriching. It tells us where we came from, what was important to them, and what we can learn about their lives to encourage us in ours.
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