Everything we do revolves around Recorded Oral Storytelling (ROS).
What is Recorded Oral Storytelling?
Simply put, it's when a person tells a story about their life that they wish to pass on to their kids, grandkids, or future generations, and that story is recorded on audio or video.
It's the fastest, easiest, and most authentic way to keep your family heritage intact.
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3 Things You May Not Know
About Recorded Oral Storytelling
It only takes an hour a week to preserve a legacy.
Every day, people lose access to their family stories, heritage, and connection when their loved ones are taken by natural aging, disease, or death. Most of them never realize what they lost until it’s too late. They didn’t realize there was a simple, efficient, and genuine way to ensure that never happened.
Most people think they’re properly documenting memories, but they aren’t.
There is really only one way to genuinely know where you came from, connect with the people who came before you, and what you really want to understand about them—AND to provide that for your kids and grandkids. Photos, social media, scrapbooks, genealogy services, and even the periodical retelling of stories at family get-togethers will only scratch the surface.
It only takes an hour a week to preserve a legacy.
In as little as one hour a week, you can ensure your family stories will never be forgotten. Give an invaluable gift for you, your family, and generations so that, despite age, disease, or death, the connection to your loved one, the sound of their voice, and their stories, will never be lost.
Ancient Practice. Modern Spin.
We've been telling stories since the dawn of humanity. It's in our DNA.
But in the modern world, most of us don't have the time to memorize our parents' and grandparents' life stories, much less will our kids do that for us.
But we have the technology to solve this problem. Tell your stories once and preserve them for all time on a video recording.
Staying connected with a loved one or learning about your heritage is made so easy using this method. And the pressure is off of you to remember everything.
It's not Genealogy. It's Living Memory
Genealogy is:
- extensive research
- charting birth dates, marriage dates, death dates
- locating where in the world your family came from
- finding cool old articles, letters, photos connected to your family
We love genealogy, but it isn't what we do.
What we do is Living Memory, which is:
- what is in your head
- the information no one else knows
- the stories only you can tell
- the stuff that actually connects you directly to your loved ones
- the stuff that will vanish if something happened to you or your cognitive function
- the stuff you and your family will miss the most if it is lost
We help you capture your living memory on video so you these stories can stay in the family forever.
“When there's no one left in the living world who remembers you, you disappear from this world. Our memories… they have to be passed down by those who knew us in life—in the stories they tell about us.”
--Hector, from Disney's Coco
How Does It Work?
We offer a lot of solutions to fit your goals and situation. But overall, the general process is:
Plan Your Project
Record the Storyteller Speaking
Process the Stories
Plan for the Legacy and Storage of your Stories
And you can approach this process in two ways:
Do it yourself and use our DIY resources to help you.
Let us save you time and energy by doing everything with or for you with our Done-For-You (DFY) Services.
Who This Is For
If you cherish storytelling and value the stories of your elders
If you're seeking to stay connected to your loved ones, even after they're gone
If you're a proactive person who appreciates your family's history, heritage, and culture.
If you're a parent who wishes to ensure your kids know their grandparents and feel deeply loved.
If you enjoy reflecting on your life and enhancing your family connections
If you're interested in writing memoirs or discussing talents, skills, or passions
If you're curious about understanding your parents', grandparents' and generational experiences //115695_magnifying glass_zoom_find_search_icon.svg//
If you want to preserve irreplaceable memories and avoid uncertainty //9054919_bx_save_icon.svg//
Better Than Other Mediums.
Many people think that their photos, journals, scrapbooks, memory books, or memoirs are all they need to pass down their memories to future generations. But in reality, these only scratch the surface.
We don't want you to stop your other memory preservation methods. Quite the opposite in fact. We want you to supplement what you already might be doing with Recorded Oral Storytelling. Read on to better understand what we mean by that.
Photos / Video
A picture is worth 1000 words, but only if you remember those 1000 words. Without context, your photo collections become meaningless to future generations—including your kids and grandkids.
ROS allows you to talk about your photos and provide the context of people, location, story, and other details, creating context for your descendants.test.com
Benefits of Recorded Oral Storytelling
If You're the Storyteller
- You’ll have a deeper appreciation for life.
- You’ll have an increased memory and you’ll get to remember the details you preserve for the rest of your life.
- You’ll have a backup of your memories, just in case you developed Alzheimer’s or other memory affective disorders.
- You’ll feel uplifted, giving the gift of your knowledge, experience, wisdom, opinions, and stories to your kids, grandkids, and future generations.
- You’ll feel seen, heard, and understood.
- You’ll have a deeper connection with the people you love.
- You’ll have the opportunity to talk about things you’re passionate about and teach.
- You’ll be contributing to history and posterity.
- You’ll leave no regrets about things left unsaid.
- Your memoir will be a breeze to write.
If You're the Recipient of the Stories
- Even when your loved one is gone, you’ll still be able to see their face and hear their stories.
- You’ll have relief and peace of mind.
- You’ll have a deeper connection and appreciation for your loved one.
- You’ll never feel guilty for forgetting a story because your video library remembers for you.
- You’ll have a deeper appreciation and understanding of heritage, culture, and legacy.
- You’ll see your parents/grandparents as more than those roles—as individuals who had lives outside of being your parent or grandparent.
- Your kids and grandkids will know where they came from at a deep level.
- Your kids and grandkids will appreciate your parent/grandparent.
- You’ll have sympathy and empathy for your parents/grandparents and the experiences they had in life.
- You’ll have a better understanding of generational trauma so the cycle can be stopped.
Why You Shouldn't Wait
We wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t make you aware of the statistics that could affect your ability or your loved one’s ability to remember and share stories. Nearly every day, we have conversations with people who say, “I wish I would have known about this when my mom first got sick with Alzheimer’s.” Though we want to encourage all ages of life to capture their memories, our focus is currently on the elderly, because they are the most at-risk of losing their living memories or the ability to tell them. Let’s look at some statistics.
Some studies show we forget about 50% of new information within an hour of hearing it, and 70% of it within 24 hours. It’s no wonder when we try to recall the details of stories even just a year later, they’ve faded already.
The peak age for memory is in your 20s, and declines from your 50s to 60s. This is why it’s such a great idea to start documenting your memories as early as possible. You stand to benefit the most when you do.
About 40% of people over 65 have age-related memory loss. That’s 16 million people in the US alone. 1 in 7 Americans 71 and older have some kind of Dementia.
In 2023, an estimated 6.7 million Americans 65 and older have Alzheimer’s. That’s 1 in 9 people age 65 and older. After age 65, the risk of Alzheimer’s doubles every 5 years.
Strokes, which can take away the ability to speak and tell stories, is a leading cause of death in the US. About 795,000 people suffer a stroke each year in the US alone. That means someone has a stroke every 40 seconds. And every 4 minutes, someone dies of one. Around 1/3 of people who have strokes have difficulty speaking after.
This is to say nothing of the other types of dementia, MS, Parkinson’s, ALS, Huntington’s, cancer and its treatments, that can take away your ability to recall and share stories by affecting your memory or speech.
Even if these statistics don’t scare the storyteller, consider the impact on you as the caregiver of someone with dementia. Your loved one’s recorded stories could help you remember them as you knew them, and not as the disease made them—giving you peace and comfort in an unthinkably difficult time.
The bottom line is, the earlier you preserve your memories, the more you and your family will have to remember later in life. The more you’ll have to pass down. The more your family heritage will grow instead of shrink.
