PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Interview your relatives!

Shellie — Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:16 pm

Author: Shellie

Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 7:16 pm

Zenon,
I couldn't agree more - interview them before it is too late! Those who read my Forefathers Traces Tour blog will remember my heartbreak when my 88 year old great Aunt died shortly after I visited her for the first time in 20 years. Luckily I recorded every minute of our weekend visit and have some wonderful memories preserved forever.

I am convinced that every family historian should have a recorder. Mine is very small and quite easy to use. It is an RCA digital voice recorder (VR5220) with a built in USB port so I can download my recordings directly to my computer as an MP3 file.

http://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/product.aspx?product=416

I got mine at Walmart for about 35 dollars. There are many others out there, so I can't comment on whether this one is better or worse than others, but it's very easy to use and records hundreds of hours. I even forgot to turn it off one night when we were looking at family records in Poland and I have an extra 9 hours of snoring as a keepsake from my trip LOL!

Interview your relatives!

Zenon — Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:18 pm

Author: Zenon

Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:18 pm

By interviewing your relatives you can gain most precious information - "jewels" in your genealogy collection.

Not long ago, together with my father, we talked with my almost 90 years old grandma (and his mom). My father was surprised by many details he wasn't aware and his mom started to reveal. (My father's father died when he was three and he knew very little about him.)

Now I have everything recorded on hard disk, including my grandmother's voice... This is my jewel.

And I just came across interesting website encouraging to interviewing your relatives and describing National Day of Listening, November 27, 2009. A day after Thanksgiving day in the US.

Click here for the website: http://www.nationaldayoflistening.org/ where can be also found Great Question:

What was the happiest moment of your life?
What are you most proud of?
What are the most important lessons you've learned in life?
What is your earliest memory?
How would you like to be remembered?

And interview your relatives, before it is too late!