Family Memory Books

A family memory book offers a unique opportunity to bring together the stories of your family in one beautifully bound book. Your family will cherish it for generations as the people, places and events come to life for all who read it. Our family memory book combines the precious stories captured through oral history interviews with old photos and memorabilia to create a well-written, beautifully designed hardbound keepsake book for generations to treasure.

The Chapters of Life book
is a treasure! Our children
love to have me read the
stories before bed. We
will cherish this book, one
generation after another!
What a wonderful gift!
Cathleen Cooney, St. Louis

A family memory book can be written in first-person narratives, third-person narratives or a more formal (but often less readable) question-and-answer format. Information for these stories comes directly from the interview transcripts, which are edited and organized to create a narrative that flows smoothly from start to finish.

Your family photos and memorabilia are scanned on quality equipment, then stored on a computer hard drive and inserted into the book wherever they best illustrate the stories.

We can print the pages of the book in full color or black and white. We work with clients to create catchy titles that illustrate the life story captured inside the book. We can print and bind as many books as the client desires.

You may find our free article 13 Reasons to Create a Memoir interesting as you explore this exciting idea.

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What to Expect

After receiving your call, we meet with you to show samples of the work we’ve done and discuss just what you would like to see in a finished product. We provide you with a biographical information sheet to fill out and mail to us, so that our interviewer is well prepared to ask intelligent questions to inspire thoughtful reminisces by the narrator (you or whomever is sharing stories).

I love to hear stories
about our heritage. The
pictures and stories make
it all come to life.
Francie Cooney, age 11½,
St. Louis, MO

During the first interview, we converse casually with the narrator to create a warm and comfortable rapport. We explain the interviewing process and assure the narrators that we genuinely want to hear the stories they will share.

We find a quiet and comfortable spot in the home to set up the recording equipment. We clip a lapel microphone to the narrator’s clothing to ensure those precious memories are recorded clearly on our high-end and unobtrusive equipment. We clearly ask brief, specific questions that trigger memories and start the stories flowing.

Focusing on the narrator at all times, we remain attuned to signs that the narrator may be tiring or might prefer a change of subject. We are always honored and humbled when narrators share their precious memories with us, and we let the narrator know how much we value them and the wisdom they’ve gained through their life’s journey.

We help the narrator sort through photos and other memorabilia, which we store in a fire-safe container to ensure the safety of those precious keepsakes when we borrow them for scanning. We scan photos, slides and other memorabilia on high-end equipment, then save them to several computer hard drives and backup files on CD-roms.

All material entrusted to us is returned untarnished in the condition received. We care for your historical keepsakes as if they were our own.

Read more about our process.

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Options

Family memory books can be long, sometimes more than 250 pages, or much shorter, perhaps 50 to 80 pages. The length of the book depends on the number of interviews, the number of people interviewed and the willingness of the narrator or narrators to share stories.

A family memory book can focus on a family’s general history, a special chapter of a family’s life, such as a emigration, childhood years, reunions, exotic trips, or courtships and marriages.

If someone has already passed away, we can interview family members and friends to capture the stories of the loved one’s life, and then retell those stories within the pages of the family memory book, illustrated with photos.

Most books contain anywhere from 50 to 250 photos, depending on what you desire. They are printed on acid-free, 32 lb. paper, trimmed in a predetermined size—5 in. x 8 in, 6 in. x 9 in, 7 in. x 10 in, 8½ in. x 11 in.—whatever size you prefer. The books can be hand-bound or case-bound using quality endpapers.

Payments are accepted in four separate installments, corresponding to different stages throughout the interviewing, editing and book production.

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Getting Started

After meeting to discuss your proposed project, we will provide you with a biographical information form to gather the basic factual details about the family's information. We also will better define the desired memory book. Filling out the biographical information form helps us avoid unnecessarily frustrating a narrator during an interview with questions about dates, spellings and other factual details.

When meeting for the interview, we will arrive on time and quickly establish rapport and ensure the comfort of the narrator and quietness of the interview setting. Then we’ll settle down for a friendly “chat.” Although perhaps feeling a bit uneasy at first, narrators begin to relax during the interviews as it becomes clear how much we relish hearing their precious stories from the past.

We always bring narrators back to the present when winding up the interview, by scheduling the next session or perhaps discussing current events.

Samples

Go to the Family Memory book samples page.

Have you read about oral histories and spiritual legacies? Learn more about Julie Zander, or contact us to order your family memory book.

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