The best thing you can do for your family history is to preserve what you know about your earliest relatives. In many cases you may be the only person who remembers those stories and facts. Think of what a treasure you can create for your children and grandchildren! A
treasure that otherwise might be lost forever!
You can preserve your memories in several ways. The easiest and fastest way is to dictate your stories into a tape or video recorder.
Memories are saved almost as rapidly as they come to mind, and there is no concern about how best to word your descriptions. If someone
is with you they can ask questions that bring out more details or additional memories. Later you can transcribe the tapes or have
someone do that for you. The transcription can be written by hand or typed on a typewriter or word processor. Writing and typing are much slower than speaking. Most people pause to choose their wording and that can interrupt the story line or cause a temporary lapse of memory. But a handwritten story can become a valuable keepsake in its own right.
Did your grandparents tell you anything about their grandparents? Record or write or type those stories first. Save as many stories, and as many details about each story, as you can remember. Reviewing those stories later will remind you of additional details and more stories.
Next, do the same for your grandparents’ parents. Then save stories about your grandparents themselves. What and how much you remember
are not important. Saving what you remember is important. The fact that your children and grandchildren will treasure these
stories is important. Give your family a gift nobody else can give them; one you made yourself; a record of their history and heritage!
Ted Bainbridge, Ph.D. has been a genealogy researcher, teacher, speaker, and writer since 1969. Ted is President of the Longmont enealogical Society and a staff member in the Longmont Family History Center. He is listed in the Speakers Bureau Directory of
the Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies. Contact Ted’s Email.