Record Your Family History With These Tools

Imagine looking into the attic of your childhood home and discovering a box full of notes, photographs, documents, and diaries compiled by long-dead relatives. Congratulations, you won the family history lottery.

Even if you do not have such a cache left, you can easily become a person who will begin to document family histories and events so that curious posterity will one day discover them. We’ve listed the best tools for recording your family history, from blank-filling workbooks to decent recording tools for saving audio and video.

Take a notepad

To get started, you may need a book that records the historical facts and connections you find in your research and conversations.

One easy option is the Genealogy Organizer , a notepad for jotting down facts like vital statistics and family ties, with space for photos and notes. This is a portable size (6×9 inches) with 100 pages for notes and additional pages for notes.

For more guidance, try the Family Tree: 30+ Step-by-Step Worksheets for Creating a Family History workbook . This is the starting point for a more serious research project that you can work on with other family members, both older and younger than you.

Record the voices of your relatives

You probably already have the only tool you need to start recording conversations (with the proper legal clearance, of course): your phone. Congratulations, you are a documentarian.

If you are recording a private conversation, simply place your phone between you and the other party(s) and start recording through the Voice Memo app on your iPhone. Android phones have a similar built-in audio recording app called Recorder or Voice Recorder, depending on your phone. For even better sound quality, try a wireless lavalier microphone like the Maybesta Professional Wireless Lavalier Lapel Microphone .

Recording telephone conversations is more difficult. Because phones can’t record an ongoing call (and apps that claim they’re unreliable), you’ll likely need one device to make a call and a second device to record. From an ethical point of view, it is nice to inform the interlocutor that the conversation is being recorded, but this is not always required by law. Here you can find out what is required by your state law.

If you have to record a lot of sound, you may want to purchase a separate digital voice recorder, such as the Sony ICD-PX370 mono digital voice recorder . It has room for 59 hours of recorded audio and room for an SD card if you need more. Transfer your recordings with the built-in USB port.

Shoot video too

If you want to record the look on your dad’s face when he talks about returning to his hometown after hitchhiking across the country, your phone will do the job again. For face-to-face interviews, set up at least a small flexible tripod so you don’t have to fiddle around with your phone.

You can also record video when talking to family members from a distance. Zoom , Skype , and Google Meet support call recording as a basic feature. You can also use these audio recording apps if your family member doesn’t want to record video for any reason.

Memories Recording Apps

StoryCorps (available for Apple and Android)

You may have recognized StoryCorps, NPR’s staple that has been helping people record and share their stories for 20 years. The free app will help you with the interview guide and recording instructions. You have the option to add photos and keywords to your stories and save them to your device or upload them to the StoryCorps archive maintained by the Library of Congress.

Storycatcher (Available for Apple, $4.99)

Feel like a real director as you record, edit and share your work with others. The app comes with tips for your interviews and includes access to training modules that will guide you through the entire process, from interview tips to adding music and captions.

Remento (free for Apple phones)

Remento also includes hints and recording tools for recording conversations with family members. The essence of Remento is to deepen connections with family members in the present by writing down their stories and identities while discussing memories. Your recordings are stored locally on your device and you decide who to share with.

Additional Resources to Get Started

“Tell me your life story” will be a stunning prompt at the start of your family history journey. Take advantage of the StoryCorps experience by choosing from a selection of great questions . It includes interview questions sorted by topics such as parenting, religion, work, love, and relationships. Prepare your questions ahead of time and consider giving the interviewer a chance to think about them beforehand.

Even if you’re not interested in DNA tests or digging down the rabbit hole of deep family genealogy, consider browsing Ancestry.com with a 14-day trial. Looking through genealogy and DNA records with a family member should reveal some stories. If that doesn’t work, try their conversation hints to keep the conversation going.

If you’re tempted to delve deeper into your family’s genealogy, check out the National Archives for research tips.

Tips for Getting Restrained Family Members to Open Up

When you start asking relatives to share stories, you may see some odd looks or “no thanks.” For family members who are hesitant to record or remain silent face to face, try the following indirect approaches to revealing family history:

• Ask them to help the children with a family tree project. Every child eventually does this. Let this be an opportunity for you to ask a few questions about Great Aunt Beulah.
• Give them a manageable journal that they can respond to confidentially at their own pace. There are many versions of this concept, such as the Tell Me Your Life Story series . You can even create your own managed journal by taking the questions from the resources above and adding them to a blank notebook.
• Try a service like Storyworth . It’s an investment: for $99, you get a year of weekly emails to your family member and one printed book containing all the stories and photos. You can also buy additional copies of the book. This is ideal if you have a family member who dreams of writing a book but needs some support. They will receive one email per week and will be able to respond at their convenience. Everything is done at the end of the year. You can choose which questions to send each week.

Finally, when you go looking for family stories, don’t lose sight of your generation. Cousins ​​can have different memories of events that you consider canon and can be great accomplices to encourage parents and grandparents to open up.