Has anyone made recordings of elderly relatives?

LEJC

We recently did a "memory box" as part of my mums ongoing care in a care home...it was slightly different to a recording but certainly over the past year that we were collating and adding things to it we learnt a lot about not just the immediate family members but also friends and the wider circle of people that she met over the years..we also made sure as events happened we added to it,so weve lovely photos and memories of things like the olympics,golden jubilee,christmas and birthdays..

We also took it a step further and put in a small bottle of her favourite perfume and a few hair clips etc

We used a box that was used for printer paper and decorated the outside of it with pieces of wallpaper from her house and things that she would possibly remember from the past....the experience was very rewarding to do as when we opened the box and talked to her about the contents, the stories flowed and it was a joy to see her talking freely about the past

We are currently updating it slightly to include a cushion thats been covered with small fragments of her favourite clothes that we remember her wearing and documenting our memories of her wearing them and the signifcant times

That box is a treasure as my mum passed away suddenly in Feb and its a wonderful memory of her life for us.

Personally though I'm glad we didnt do a voice recording, I think that it would be too painful to listen to...but each to their own and if its an idea that you are toying with then I really recommend doing something, it was a really good thing for us!

meames_2

In 1971 (before I was born), a recording was made on New Years Day of my great grandad talking about the time he was shot in the Battle of the Somme. Fascinating!

zaksmum

My daughter got me a book entitled From You To Me. It's a sort of question and answer book...there are blank pages for the recipient to fill in response to such questions as what games did you play when a child, what are your memories of early schooldays, what was fashionable when you were in your teens, how did you meet my father etc.

It ends the book by asking what you would have done differently if you had the time again - and what would you like your epitaph (!!!) to say.

Your whole life history really. It was interesting to fill in and my daughter says she will treasure it always.

daisiegg

fluffnutter wrote: »

It's a lovely idea but I bet it depends on the person. Not everyone has got an interesting story to tell and simply being old doesn't automatically make pearls of wisdom fall from your lips.

My grandma would have just rattled on about how 'ladies' shouldn't ride bikes or eat sandwiches or some such bizarre nonsense.

I think most people would find the memories of someone who lived 100 years before them (as it will be when my future children are teenagers or young adults) interesting even if they are just mundane and about day to day life.

My grandparents have both lived all their lives within about 2 miles of where they were born, so they hardly have lived the most exciting lives. However it is still really interesting to hear about how our town has changed so much; what it was like during the war; to hear my grandma talking about working as a solicitor's secretary when she was 15 and the types of dresses and shoes she would wear (it all sounds like a small town English version of Mad Men!); about my grandad working as a fireman in the RAF or my grandma having evacuees from London during the war who gave the whole family fleas, or to hear my grandad talking about his before school job carting boxes around at the fishmongers that he had from the age of 9, and how he had no friends at school because he stank of fish! And much, much more.

Even though all those things are very mundane, they are SO different to what life is like for young people now (I know whenever I tell the students I teach about my grandad working 6 hours a day around school when he wasn't even secondary school age, or it being the norm to leave school at 14, etc, they are absolutely flabbergasted) that I am confident they will only become more interesting with time .:)

Out of interest....why shouldn't ladies eat sandwiches do you think?! Intriguing!

ttc39

zaksmum wrote: »

My daughter got me a book entitled From You To Me. It's a sort of question and answer book...there are blank pages for the recipient to fill in response to such questions as what games did you play when a child, what are your memories of early schooldays, what was fashionable when you were in your teens, how did you meet my father etc.

It ends the book by asking what you would have done differently if you had the time again - and what would you like your epitaph (!!!) to say.

Your whole life history really. It was interesting to fill in and my daughter says she will treasure it always.

ooh sounds good. who is the book by please? can it still be bought?

LEJC

I'm a great fan of social history and actually think that a lot more children are insiped by knowing about their family and direct encounters with people who have experienced situations than by a lot of things they read in text books.

When my son was at primary school and they did the war years many of the children were encouraged to bring a grandparent to school for the day to recount tales from the war...not just those who were away fighting etc but also those who stayed behind in everyday life...it proved an area that really interested my son as its now something hes researched more as hes got older.

In light of the "memory box " thing we did...it also got me thinking about recording or saving memories a little more,and in a way as a family we have been able to piece together a family memory box as well...I am naturally a hoarder so its not been difficult for me to find things like my first valentines card,or the christmas cracker toy that I had on the night I met my husband!

Anything that keeps social history going is a really good thing and its also so rewarding to compile
Ive also been in the process of renovating my old family house and under the floorboards found a small time capsule that was placed there by my grandfather in around 1930 just after he and my grandmother married...and in it was a picture from their wedding,its the only photograph we have of them together as my grandmother died shortly after my Dad was born...
You never know what the future holds...so documenting things as you go along is never a bad idea where social history is concerned however mundane it seems at the time.

Person_one

Realistically, would anybody ever actually listen to hours of 'chat' on a dictaphone? I love my grandparents (well, two of them) but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't.

daisiegg

Person_one wrote: »

Realistically, would anybody ever actually listen to hours of 'chat' on a dictaphone? I love my grandparents (well, two of them) but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't.

I was thinking more along the lines of doing say 5 minute snippets that can be labelled by topic e.g. 'How nanny and grandad met' or 'Our town during the war' or whatever, stored digitally and even shared via Facebook etc in the future. No, I'm sure they wouldn't be listened to on a regular basis but it would be nice to have them there and I bet they would get listened to sometime, particularly when I have my own children. If I had anything like this from my great-grandparents I would definitely be interested in having a listen.

meg72

fluffnutter wrote: »

It's a lovely idea but I bet it depends on the person. Not everyone has got an interesting story to tell and simply being old doesn't automatically make pearls of wisdom fall from your lips.

My grandma would have just rattled on about how 'ladies' shouldn't ride bikes or eat sandwiches or some such bizarre nonsense.

Thank you for this,made me giggle, My Paternal Grandmother was adament that Girls should not ride bikes and bought both my brothers one but not me, she disowned me when she discovered I was borrowing my Brothers, and totally had a freaky fit when several years later I also borrowed my Brothers motorbike and crashed it into a neighbours garage.

Thank you for the giggle and the memory.

Errata

Person_one wrote: »

Realistically, would anybody ever actually listen to hours of 'chat' on a dictaphone? I love my grandparents (well, two of them) but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't.

Recorded oral history is rare but a very rich source of how life was lived, the mundane is particularly interesting. My stepdad's written memories of his years in WW2 POW camps were gratefully accepted by the National Archives as his account contained details of his experience of being in an extermination camp, thankfully he was moved out after a short time.
You may be uninterested in your grandparents memories, but they may be fascinating to others.