Imagine you could watch a video of an interview of your great grandmother or great grandfather. Wouldn't it be great to hear their story in their own words? And wouldn't it be great if your children could see it too? And their children?
This thought came to me after my grandmother passed away about ten years ago. She kept in touch with everyone through good ol'fashioned snail mail and she knews tons and tons of stories. She had pretty much dedicated her entire life to both immediate and extended family. She was the hub of it. And I very much regret that I never caught her on video tape. I was too late. My children will only ever know her by a photograph.
We're lucky to live in an age where it is so easy and inexpensive to capture images and sounds. The only problem is to get past social taboos and stigmas. It's hard for people to admit that their time on this planet is limited. We don't want to think about our loved ones not being with us. It's also hard for people to talk about themselves to a camera.
Luckily my other grandmother is still with us and a couple of years ago I spent an hour interviewing her on camera about her life. I have that safely tucked away. I'm glad in time to come my children will see more of their great grandmother than just a photograph. I also interviewed my father too. My mother on the other hand hasn't been keen but I think she's finally agreed to it. And since an hour isn't really very long to talk about a lifetime, I plan to film my mother and father together talking about life after they got married.
Of course video interviews should not be restricted to elders. It's reasonable to interview anyone at anytime. I've interviewed my daughter together with her first cousin when they were both at age five. There's no reason to have only one interview. I'm slowly working on getting more interviews done. It's easy to procrastinate.
Imagine how rich a family history can now be if there were video interviews of everyone! And that history can be passed to generation after generation with ease.
You can be sure that storage technology will continue to increase at an enormous rate. In the near future that incredible family history could be stored on a single plastic disk and easily duplicated. It's a great opportunity.
So I'm posting this idea for all of you to consider. Many of us shoot video of family events and travels. I suggest you take it one step further and interview a loved one. If you want to try it out, here's some interview questions to help you. Of course you should make up your own. Questions should be open-ended to avoid it being an interrogation. You should also ask about feelings and values as well as facts.
Let's talk about your birth. When, where...
Why were you named as you were. Who chose it?
Tell us a bit about your parents. Do you remember your grandparents?
What are your earliest memories?
Do you remember being frightened or overjoyed as a child?
Where did you go to school? Did you like it? Who were your friends?
What were your favourite subjects? What were you good at? What did you hate? Why?
What do you remember about your siblings? Did you get on together?
What fun things do you remember? Were there difficult times?
Did you ever get punished? What jobs did you do?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
What did school teach you?
So what did you do after you graduated from school?
What was important to you then? What did you want? Why?
What happened next...?
Tell us about your love life? Did you have any boy/girl friends?
How did your career progress?
If you hadn't chose that career, what else would you have done?
How did you meet ? Tell us about your courtship. What attracted you?
What was the wedding like?
Was it marital bliss or did you ever disagree on things? What things?
Why did you move? How did you feel about that?
What was fatherhood/motherhood like for you?
As a parent, what was the most important things to you?
What values did you try to instill on your children? How did you do that?
What was your social life like?
As you got older, how do you think you changed?
Who have been the most influential people in your life? Why?
What are the most influential books you've read?
Do you have any heros?
If you could have been anyone in history, who would you pick?
What have been your proudest achievements?
What have been your biggest mistakes?
What was the most embarrassing event in your life?
If you could live your life again, would you change anything?
What advice would you give to a new generation?
What do you consider the most important things to do in ones life?
So, what do you want to do now?
Tell me a joke.