Capture How do we gather the tales?

Every family holds a wealth of unique stories - achievements, challenges, successes, losses, loves, tragedies, triumphs, adversity, and even the minutiae of everyday life. Recording these stories captures the details for them to be shared both now and into the future.

I often recall stories my grandparents told around the dining table when I was a teenager and wish I taken the initiative then to write down all the details. Trying to research and document those stories many years later would have been a lot simpler with some of the crucial details inked on paper in black and white!

Technological advances since those pen and paper days however, offer a variety of ways to capture the yarns and tales.

But don't just think of it as recording others' details - our own stories are just as important to capture. We can do that in many ways.  Milestone moments, for instance, offer a great opportunity to reflect on our own thoughts, experiences, achievements and challenges. Or perhaps you'd like to start writing micro-tales of your own life to collate into a longer narrative?

Don't let your family's unique stories slip through your fingers! Let's record them right now.

Just some of the ways I can assist you include:

• conducting oral history interviews (audio and/or video)
• transcribing oral interviews - either your own, or ones I conduct
• helping you work out the questions to ask in your own family story interviews
• conducting 'milestone moment' interviews (audio and/or video) for special birthdays or occasions (such as graduations, births, engagements, retirements etc)
• documenting 'object biographies' for your special items to ensure the whole family knows their background
• analysing, collating and organising your family records into a written narrative
• helping you get started in writing your own stories or the stories of your family
• creating 'birthday questionnaires' for you to record every special milestone for the littlest people in your family

Just like each family, every project is unique, so I offer a free no-obligation 30 minute discussion where we can chat about what stories you want to capture, and the best way to do that. Then I prepare a scope of the project with a quote before you give me the go-ahead by signing a service agreement and paying an upfront retainer.