curated links to blogs and articles of interest to personal historians and family biographers

“Live, love, laugh, leave a legacy.” –Stephen R. Covey

If you’re visiting this site, it means you’re a memory-keeper, a storyteller, the family archivist. However you identify yourself, I am fairly certain you’d agree that preserving our most meaningful stories for the next generation is paramount.

Welcome to the first in what promises to be a weekly roundup of stories geared just for you!

Personal history is a vital industry that includes oral historian bookmakers like myself, videographers, ghostwriters, genealogists, biographers…and many more; we are united by a shared mission of preservation & story gathering. This site has plenty of advice and book ideas & inspiration, and we’d love to work with you to create a coffee table book bringing your stories to life. But we can also refer you to personal historians with services more closely geared to what you’re looking for, or who are closer to your home—many of them whose blogs are featured in this roundup.

Please leave comments about any of the topics featured here (they’re nothing if not conversation starters, I hope!) and share with other like-minded memory-keepers. And if you're a blogger with content you'd like to see featured here, of course click the link and share what you’ve got!

Roundup of Personal History Blogs - June 27, 2017

In the News

Explore 22k immigration photos & read the accompanying personal stories from the @naagovau's collection on the revamped “Destination: Australia” site

Did you know your home movies may be unwatchable soon?
“Why You Need to Stop Procrastinating and Transfer Your VHS Tapes to Digital ASAP”

“Videotapes Are Becoming Unwatchable As Archivists Work To Save Them”

Some insightful writing & glorious photos documenting lesbians from all walks of life, from perhaps a surprising source: “American Women: Pride”

On the Blogs

“Turn, Turn, Turn” by Verissima Productions' Pam Pacelli Cooper on the nature of change, and her company's next big documentary endeavor (can't wait to learn more!).

“Stories Are Everything” by Dawn Roode of Modern Heirloom Books: Why Soledad O'Brien and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. value stories so much.

“In the Beginning, or How We Created Something from Nothing,” a conversation between personal historians and partners Samantha Shubert and Susan Hood on the occasion of the first anniversary of their business, Remarkable Life Memoirs: “There’s such a market for preserving people's stories that I feel really positive about how it’s going to go for us.” So do we, so do we! Happy first anniversary, ladies ; )