New Techniques for Saving Memories

The treasured diary, journal, letter, document, and photo are so very important in learning more about one’s family and ancestors. If names, dates, and stories of events are captured at the time or even years later, they are very helpful to a researcher / a family descendant in the future. One of the best resources I located for my family research was the book compiled in 1883 of information and family stories on my mother’s Everhart side in Maryland.

In the 21st century with all the new electronic devices, there still can be books, letters, journals, etc., but there is another option for ‘saving memories’ for future generations. There are digital cameras, videos, recorders, but another method was developed by ‘Saving Memories Forever‘. This program was designed to record, save and then share memories one story at a time with a very private and secure online service.

The developers saw a need to save their own family stories and created this program online for the computer user, Android tablet user or iPhone user method. The best part is it is made simple and easy to use. For families who have completed their family tree or have just started, the most important element is still needed, that of the personal touch, a sense of who each relative really was, their likes, dislikes, achievements and adventures they had along the way.

Even if a certain relative is no longer living, there usually is another family member or friend who knew that person well and could certainly relate and share some interesting tales. Not just stories, but photos, videos, heirlooms, etc., can be shared. By having another method to save personal memories and experiences, they can be shared with more family members and generations in the future.

On the site, you can register to use the ‘Free’ account. Later, if you are interested you can get the fee-based account which offers additional services. No matter which account you start with it does offer complete instructions, step by step instructions and best, categories with a large selection of questions to help jump start someone’s memory. Never let someone say “I don’t remember.” Most of the time they can recall a person, an activity, event, if only they are sparked with the right keywords. There are different methods to record the memories, including the easy to carry laptop computer, a tablet, iPhone or IPad. A recording (on the computer in MP3 format) is made and then can be heard right away and shared with others.

An example of a recent memory shared with my husband’s family was the time he and his older brother, both under age 10 years old, went up into the house attic alone (which they were forbidden to do) and ‘thought’ they saw something so horrible and scary in the dark attic, they both came running down the attic ladder and headed outside frightened to death. They learned later it was nothing more than filled pickled fruit and vegetable jars. So even simple, cute little stories are great to preserve and share.

An account can also be shared with other family members, miles away, and they can add stories. On the free account up to six people can share. On the fee subscription the number is unlimited. Another good example of something to share would be family recipes. Next time Aunt Mary is making that Shoo-Fly pie, she could just record the process.

An advantage of the fee-subscription is that photographs and word documents can be added to the shared story. Both types of account do allow a photograph of the story teller, which is great.

So another new and novel method to save family memories.

Photo: The memory shared of the Richard Walters family coming to Miami, Florida in the mid-1920s from Maryland as told by the oldest daughter decades later.