By Jonathan Crane,

The Personal Documentary Company

Traditions are strong in the farming and countryside communities and many families are ‘old’, in comparison to those in towns and cities. We are proud of our heritage and our traditions but, even with the strongest of family ties, memories and moments can slip away and be forgotten.

Most of us wish we’d talked more to elderly relatives about their lives and the stories they have to tell and the history of our farms and rural communities. We let time fade the memories of special events in our lives. We take endless photographs and videos only to let them gather dust in the attic. Sometimes we make a family tree – but names and dates on a piece of paper can only tell part of the story, and will only be of limited interest to our children, grandchildren and future generations.

But there are lots of ways to bring our family trees to life.

Stories

To make a really vibrant and living family tree you need stories about the people in it. We all have elderly relatives who tell stories about their lives – and truth to tell sometimes we hear them more than once and get a little impatient. But those stories are important. They can capture a time and a lifestyle that’s gone forever. And although our children and grandchildren may not be interested in those stories now – it’s likely they will be when they’re of an age to appreciate the past, by which time Granny will be long gone, and her stories buried with her.

Capturing those stories isn’t difficult. Smartphones these days have good quality video cameras and audio recorders, so it’s quite easy to sit elderly relatives down one afternoon and record their memories.

Ask them about their earliest memories, about their own grandparents and parents, about growing up in the countryside and the farming methods and traditions they remember, about school, about meeting their other halves and popping the question, about what life was like decades ago.

Family treasures

When we lose a loved one, we often look for a keepsake, a family treasure that brings back memories of that person. Jewellery is the obvious one, but family treasures needn’t have any monetary value. People keep all kinds of things that are precious to them as mementoes; wedding invitations, train tickets, school play programmes, figurines bought on honeymoons or holidays. They all help to flesh out life stories.

So, if you’re filming Grandma telling her stories, get her to talk about those treasures – they might trigger special memories that illuminate the everyday object. One thing’s for sure her great-grandchildren won’t be able to make head or tail of that knick-knack from Spain unless they know the story behind it.

Family photographs

Most of us have old family photographs, grandparents on holiday by the sea, even great-grandparents, perhaps posing stiffly in the photographer’s studio. But how often do we know when and where they were taken, or why? And even who exactly these sepia people are?

So, the first rule for old photos is don’t just dump them in a shoebox and park them in the attic – find out as much information as you can about the people from the rest of your family and write it on the back of the photo – or better still put them in an album. Then, even if you never get around to making the family tree, when your (grown-up) grandchildren find that shoebox or album they’ll have a treasure trove of memories to explore rather than a bunch of dusty, meaningless images.

And don’t be put off if those photos are in bad condition, even if they’re faded and torn, they can be restored.

Old films

A surprising number of people have old home movie film reels hidden away in boxes. But it’s too difficult to watch them, setting up a projector and screen is not something we’re up for these days. And anyway old film deteriorates; it shrinks and fades and becomes too brittle to use. I recently had a client who unearthed a box of home movie film reels of her family shot by her father in India before and after World War 2. Sadly, many of the reels – the older footage, of pre-war India – were completely unusable.

Old home movies are so important to bringing family trees to life, they must be digitised and preserved. It’s not necessarily an expensive process. Try and find out about the who, what and where of the people in the films from living relatives, those future grandchildren won’t be interested in wading through hours of footage of anonymous people in unidentified locations, but if they know that it was Grandfather Fred going off to the war they’ll be more interested.

So, the answer is to get the films digitised and copied onto DVD for easy viewing.

If you’re feeling ambitious you can transcribe the stories, add those restored family photos to the family tree and hey presto you’ve got a book about the family that will enchant future generations.

If all this feels a bit daunting, you can always turn to a professional to do the job for you, there are lot of companies who can help you with different parts of bringing your family’s past to life. For example, The Personal Documentary Company specialises in making films and books about ordinary peoples’ lives.

Personally, I believe it’s important to capture these memories of the past; future generations will want to understand their family’s past and traditions and how rural life has changed over the generations. A family tree is a great way to start preserving your family’s story – but if you really want to bring it to live, go beyond just the names and dates. Make the best of your photos, films, treasures and, above all, your living family’s memories. They’re too important to ignore.

About the author

Jonathan Crane is an award-winning BBC TV documentary maker and founder of the Personal Documentary Company http://www.personaldocumentaries.co.uk/about-us/ which creates high quality personal documentaries to help preserve the legacy of your family for you and future generations.