Note taking or voice recording?

[William Douglas]

Imagine if you could listen to your great grandmother tell her life story! She talks about her childhood - where she lived, went to school; about meeting her grandparents; recounting her anecdotes, etc.

Now, fast forward to the next family meet up, and quizing family members about your genealogy quest. The chances are that they will demurr when asked if you can record the conversation.

How sad!

So what is the alternative?  It is pen and paper, I suppose. Do you travel prepared?  I like to take a notepad in a conference folder (I have lots of freebies collected over the years.  They are a history in themselves.) I recently learnt to take two notepads - one lined as usual, and one with a faint graph background.  This is used to make drawings, map outlines, etc, even family trees, which all help to record what I have been told, or have seen. And I like to take my camera.

Looking at some of the new style Facebook pages - the ones with the large photos across the top - I realise I have been missing opportunities to photograph family members in interesting places that have an historical context.

And then everything has to be transcribed and filed.  Umm.  I am not good at that!

Any advice on getting those recordings?