"True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen."Francois de La Rochefoucauld
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15 Ways to Create Some Extra Holiday Money
Originally this was going to be a list for my two teenagers but some of these ideas are better suited to adults with a valid driver's license and a bit of know-how. Some of these take a bit of planning and organizing, but most of them could be done on a ...
Children’s Author Creates New Family Classics
Children’s Author Creates New Family ClassicsAuthor Interview with Mary Quattlebaum, Family ReunionBy Lisa M. HendeyI love the joy of discovering new authors and sharing them with my children, both of whom love to read as much as I do. One of my new ...
The Family Bed: A Story in Generations
If I had been born at home, surely it would have been into a family bed. As it was, my parents brought me home from the hospital, where I was promptly given a place aside my mother in the bed which slept us all: mom, dad, my brother and I. I nursed until ...
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Although the phrase, "everybody has a story to tell" may sound like a cliche, it's true.
And after working as a newspaper reporter for nine years, I know that everyone does, indeed, have a story to tell, including your family members.
Think about it.
Do your grandmother and grandfather — mother and father — aunts and uncles — tell stories about the "good old days?"
Do they talk about going to school? The fun they had with friends? Family celebrations and holidays? Picnics on the Fourth of July? Snow that was so deep it covered fences? Pets that were so smart they belonged in the Guinness Book of World Records? Making ice cream? Their parents? Their grandparents?
Have you wanted to write down those stories to share them with other family members and to preserve them for generations to come but don't how to go about it?
Guess what? You don't need "literary talent," special training or special equipment. All you need to preserve those stories is a list of people to interview, a willingness to listen, a set of questions to ask, a tape recorder and a computer (or even a typewriter would work!).
Here are the steps for gathering and writing your family stories:
1. Decide which people you would like to interview and make a list.
2. Ask for permission to conduct an interview.
3. Set a formal date and time for the interview.
4. Provide a list of questions several days or weeks before the interview.
5. Focus on a single subject or event in each list of questions.
6. Use the “who, what, where, when, how, and why” strategy when formulating your questions.
7. Ask open-ended questions and not “yes or no” or “one word answer” questions.
8. Use a tape recorder to record the interview.
9. Chat about something else for a while if the person
you are interviewing seems nervous at the prospect of being tape-recorded.
10. Transcribe the tape and write up your notes after you have finished the interview.
11. Edit the manuscript.
12. Spread out your interviews.
13. Print the stories from your computer or publish them in another way.
*Preserve Your Family History* includes step-by-step instructions for conducting interviews as well as 30 sets of questions (more than 400 questions in all) on 30 different topics that you can print out to use "as is" or that you can use to generate your own questions. To see the table of contents and several sets of sample questions visit — http://www.ruralroute2.com/family_history.html
*Preserve Your Family History (A Step-by-Step Guide for Writing Oral Histories)* (66 pages; $7.95) is available from http://www.booklocker.com/books/1545.html
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From the e-book: Preserve Your Family History (A Step-by-Step Guide for Writing Oral Histories) (66 pages; April 2004; $7.95) available at — http://www.booklocker.com/books/1545.html
To see the table of contents and several sets of sample questions visit — http://www.ruralroute2.com/family_history.html
© LeAnn R. Ralph 2004
LeAnn R. Ralph is the author of the book, *Christmas in Dairyland (True Stories from a Wisconsin Farm)* (trade paperback; August 2003). For more information, visit http://ruralroute2.com
bigpuines@ruralroute2.com
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Labor Day weekend time to stretch legs with family - Herald News
Families who want a break from backyard barbecuing during the Labor Day weekend have several options. Among the highlights are a baby giraffe, an "everybody marches" parade, fireworks, a cool IMAX movie and fireworks. Here's a closer look at the ...
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