How to Collect Family Memories, Photos and Recordings

First: what could disappear

• Voice messages. In messaging apps and on the phone itself. In most apps you can long-press a voice message, choose “Share” or “Forward”, and save it or email it to yourself. If the person’s phone line is about to be closed, save the voicemail first.
• Their phone and computer. Before a device is reset or given away, back up the photographs, recordings and messages.
• Social media accounts. Photos they posted, messages they received. Most networks let you download a copy of an account, and several have a process for the families of users who have died.
• The oldest people. Siblings, cousins and old friends who remember the years nobody else does. This is the most urgent of all, and the one thing that cannot be backed up.

Ask the family: one clear message

Most people want to help but do not know what to send. A simple message in the family group works better than a general request:

If the link is to a memorial page, relatives can use it to send memories once the page is open. Until then, ask them to send things to you.

Questions that bring out stories

“Tell me something about Dad” is a hard question. Small, specific ones work much better:

• How did you meet him? What do you remember from the first time?
• What did he cook, hum, or say when something went wrong?
• Where did you see him happiest?
• What piece of his advice do you still remember?
• Is there a story about him the family probably does not know?

Scanning old photographs

• A phone is enough. Scanning apps straighten the picture and remove glare, and an ordinary camera works too.
• Shoot in daylight, near a window, without flash, with the photo flat on a dark surface.
• Photograph the back as well: sometimes a date, a place or names are written there.
• Write down straight away who is in each picture. In ten years nobody will know who the aunt on the left was.

Record while you can

If parents or grandparents are still here, this is the time. A half-hour recorded conversation on a phone, using the questions above, will be one of the most precious things the family owns. No equipment is needed: record on a phone in a quiet room, and start with an old photograph (“who is this?”) to open the conversation.

On Place a Stone you can also start a page about yourself while you are alive and write your own story in your own words. You choose for each entry whether it is for you alone, for the family or for everyone; until the page is open to others, only you see it.

Gather it all in one place

A shared folder is a start, but it does not tell a story, and nobody opens it on the anniversary. A memorial page puts the material in order: the story, captioned photographs, recordings, and, once the page is open, the memories family and friends send in directly, which you approve before they appear. How to create a memorial page