Video Interviews

One of the best ways to capture family history is to video interview our older family members. I've been doing this over the last 25 years or so; these videos are an essential source of what I know about my family.

It's my experience that many elderly people don't feel comfortable being interviewed on video. It's sometimes better to put less emphasis on TV production values (lighting, sound, composition) and more on getting the information. One technique is to gather at a table family picture albums and other photo treasures, then to focus the camera on these as the interviewee describes who is in the pictures. A good interviewer can then draw out much more of the family stories.

Here's a clip from an interview I did at Thanksgiving with my son-in-law's 100-year-old grandfather.