Family Stories
~ A family is remembered through more than names and dates. ~
Family history can tell us who came before us, where they lived, and when the important events of their lives took place.
But the stories around those facts are often what help us understand who they were.
These guides are here to help preserve the memories, voices, photographs, and everyday stories that give a family history its life.
Guides
Beyond the Family Tree:
Preserving the Stories Behind the Names →
A family tree can show us who was there. Their stories can help us understand who they were.
How Do I Record My Parents' Life Stories? →
Gentle ways to begin the conversations, questions, photographs, and recordings that can help preserve a parent's stories in their own voice.
How Do I Preserve the Stories Behind Old Family Photographs? →
Ways to preserve the people, places, memories, and family stories that a photograph cannot tell us by itself.
What Should I Ask My Grandparents About Their Lives? →
Thoughtful questions that can open memories about people, places, ordinary days, family, friendship, and the life that came before you knew them.
How Can I Preserve Someone's Voice? →
Simple ways to preserve the voices, stories, laughter, and ordinary conversations that may mean more with time.
How Do I Preserve the Stories Behind Family Keepsakes? →
Ways to preserve the memories behind recipes, letters, heirlooms, everyday objects, and the things a family has chosen to keep.
How Do I Preserve the Story of Someone Who Has Died? →
Gentle ways to preserve memories, photographs, voices, ordinary moments, and the different ways a person was known.
What Should I Do With Family Belongings I Can't Keep? →
Ways to preserve the photographs, names, memories, handwriting, and stories connected to family belongings before they are passed on, donated, sold, or let go.
What Should I Preserve Before Clearing a Family Home? →
Things worth noticing, photographing, identifying, and asking about before a familiar home is emptied or changed.
What Information Should I Record About a Family Heirloom? →
What to photograph, ask, write down, and preserve so the story of a family object can travel with it.
How Do I Preserve Handwriting, Letters and Old Cards? →
How to preserve not only old letters, cards and handwritten notes, but the people, relationships and stories that give their words context.
The Ember Library