CELL PHONE CALL RECORDING-Apps for Interviewing Relatives Near or Far

Cell phones have great microphones now and can be the perfect medium to encourage relatives to share family stories from the comfort of their own home. You can record in several simple sessions. Family members actually look forward to these phone calls. Later, pictures can be added to the voice to create slideshows or movies.

You can choose from a myriad of cell phone call recording apps. Read the reviews for the apps that work with your phone and get a highly rated one.

Make sure that the AREA IS QUIET and don't make noises like ruffling papers, tapping a pen, or closing a drawer. Make sure that pets are quiet. Be sure that the person you interview is also in a quiet place. Cell phones are pretty sensitive and will pick up those little noises!

There are lots of interview ideas books and lists online. Just google "Family Interview Questions". These can give you ideas of questions to ask family during a conversation/interview. Just make sure the questions suit the situation and the individual.

TIPS

1. DON'T INTERRUPT- You certainly don't want to try to salvage a recording of you talking over them while they are making an important point. Interrupting throws off their train of thought. If you have questions, make a note, and wait until they have finished what they had in mind to say.

2. DON'T BE AFRAID  OF LONG PAUSES- Let them finish their thought completely and then still allow a pause. Often they will fill in more information if they think you are waiting to hear more. Let them fill the pause. A good interview has lots of long pauses and is brutal to listen to pre-edit. But you get the best material this way.

Vance Parker Interview Unedited- Brutal to listen to!

 Vance Parker Interview Edited-Much Better!

3. DO ASK OPENED ENDED QUESTIONS- Like: "Tell me about... (your favorite foods growing up)" --Not "What were your favorite foods growing up?"

4. DO EDIT-Simple EDITING can turn your interview into a masterpiece. Audacity is a free audio editing program. It is powerful enough to use in a recording studio but simple enough for editing audio voice recordings.

Be sure to SAVE the recording in the Voice Recording App and then transfer it to your computer, with multiple backups, ASAP! (You might need to YouTube how to move the saved recording from your phone to your computer for editing.)

Audio Editing Blog Post

Comments

  1. MaurioSeptember 14, 2017 at 8:37 AM

    Peggy, you have so many great ideas. Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 10 Handcart Utah Pioneer Companies

Image
Summary of the 10 Handcart Companies 1856 Handcart Companies 1.   Edmund Ellsworth Company - Crossed the Atlantic on the ship “Enoch Train” .   Left Iowa City on 9 June with 274 individuals. 13 died. Arrived in the Salt Lake Valley 26 September.   Traveled with the Daniel D. McArthur Company. 2.   Daniel D. McArthur Company - 117 English who crossed the Atlantic on the ship “Enoch Train” plus 104 individuals from the ship “S. Curling” .   Left Iowa City on 11 June with 221 individuals. 7 died. Arrived in the Salt Lake Valley 26 September.   Traveled with the Edmund Ellsworth Company. 3.   Edward Bunker Company - Mostly Welsh who crossed the Atlantic on the “S. Curling” .   Left Iowa City on 28 June with 320 individuals.   Less than 7 died.   Arrived in the Salt Lake Valley October 2. 4.   James G. Willie Company - Mostly English with roughly 100 Scotch and 100 Scandinavians.   Crossed the Atlantic on the ship “Thornton” .   Left Iowa City on 15 July with 500 i
Read more

Quick, Simple, Fun, and Yet Instructive Family History Ideas

Image
I have dreamed for years of creating a simple plan for introducing the novice to family history concepts in short fun increments. I have provided my first plan for fun, simple, quick, and yet instructive activities that will introduce both young and old to FamilySearch . The goal is to introduce them to the essentials and then let the spirit of Elijah direct their family history path. These links will take you to the PDF version and the Word version of my one-year plan.  Use it as you please.  OVERALL YEAR LONG FAMILY HISTORY PLAN-PDF OVERALL YEAR LONG FAMILY HISTORY PLAN-Word Document I will share the step-by-step instructions on the Consultant Resources Blog Page  and update the 2022 Plan as FamilySearch changes throughout the year.
Read more

MAY Family History Goal

Image
  For May I have updated the monthly family history goals to include QR Code handouts. The QR Code takes you to the monthly goal with explanations and links to optional fun activities. We hope this will appeal to young and old alike! This month we are celebrating Memorial Day! To see other goals with their helps go to the Consultant Resources  page. May QR Code Handout
Read more