Recording Your Story on Tape

If you don't like to write, don't let this deter you. Simply get out your tape recorder and record your memories.

• Keep a small recorder with you to use whenever you recall incidents and events.
• Record everyday happenings as you experience them, too. Today will be part of your family history tomorrow!
• Chat with a family member and record their remembrances. It's interesting to see how two or three siblings recall the same event. Or what they recall that another may have forgotten.
• Set a specific time each week when you might record some of your memories.

A journal or diary is a great place to record information about your life, for yourself and as a treasure for future generations. What fun to go through my grandmother's and my mom's dairies.

From my grandmother's diary I get an idea of her daily life, year after. She was a very regular diary writer, faithfully recording just a few sentences every evening.

My mom's diaries were intermittent over the years. But the tidbits I glean there give me greater understanding of her. Of particular interest to me, as a teacher, are her years at her first school in the early 1900s.

I have kept journals for years...for ideas as a writer, and to record my daily life, which I can refer to later. When I started, I had no idea I was jotting down a heritage for my family.

Don't Throw Out Letters

When I read those letters of my great, great grandmother's, I realized that the letters I have of my mom's and my grandmother's are part of family history, too, and shouldn't be thrown out. Then when I had to move my mom from her home as Alzheimer's disease made it impossible for her to live alone, I discovered that she had saved just about every letter I'd written her over the years. These are gathered together in a box, for me to catalog. They give me a record of my life from my days at college, my marriage and life as a military wife, the birth of my daughter, and then of grandchildren. Some of these are more detailed than a journal and give a glimpse of my husband's and my life over the years that may be of interest to my descendants if I can get them in some order that is easier to save.

Ideas are Numerous

The ideas are numerous for keeping a record of your own history. Items like report cards, birth and marriage certificates, diplomas, news clippings, and other items of recognition all add to the record you can keep for your family.

If this becomes too much to keep, try scanning the important items into your computer; preserve them on video and on CDs. However, remember that these items will deteriorate just as paper can, so check out the best methods of preservation.

Remember...the events in your life are of interest to someone in your life, now and in the future. Begin recording it. You'll often find this great fun, too.