If any of you reading these exchanges have access to a video camera (or more up to date digital movie camera) give some thought to taping your oldest relatives relate their 'growing up' experiences. Here are a few tips if you want to do that - Don't try to be all spontaneous. Some spontaneous moments will occur and they will be fun but if you don't plan the interview you won't cover everything you intend to. Make a script of questions and have the person being interviewed go over it, keep it for a few days and add new things to it if they want to and can think of more topics. Give the interviewee time to collect old photos, certicifcates, other things he or she may want to hold or point to while talking. Enlist someone else to hold the camera while you ask the questions. Keep handy and electrical extension cord, batteries, videotape or memory and whatever else would help keep the camera running. Don't be static as to location. Film the outside of relevant houses while the subject talks. Film from behind the subject as he or she walks up to a house, school or cemetery. If filming inside, you likely will get best results in the daytime. If panning with the camera, do it about half the speed you think you should. Fast moves won't look right when shown on the TV. Visit as many places of interest to the story as you can (schools, houses, places of employment, lakes, rivers, farms) to make the stories come alive. If your relative has some of the old farm or factory tools used long ago, show them and have him display how they were used. This is off the top of my head - I believe there are books and probably online guides to help. The key thing to keep in mind is the more it is planned the more you are likely to get out of it. Some things will happen spontaneously but plan as much as you can and you will come away with something of value for many generations. Russ Sprague Kensington, Maryland From: gmfree@juno.com To: NYJEFFER-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NYJEFFER] Old Days Upstate NY Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 15:25:26 -0500 It is interesting to hear about former days in Upstate NY. While I was born and raised in Upstate it was not in Jefferson Co. Nevertheless the stories have a familiar ring. Having to split and carry wood as a kid as well as other tasks were commonplace, at least among those of us whose families were going thru the Great Depression. If one lived in small burg as I did it was great to visit grandparents and aunts and uncles in the country and play in the haymow. Better yet was when we were invited to stay with them for a week or more plus sliding downhill before many cars were around. In town we even in the 1930s had ice delivered by horse and wagon as well as trash pickup by horse and sled. Those guys emptying the trash which included coal and wood ashes must have been glad for a warm house to say nothing about the filthy clothes they must have had from dumping the trash cans. And milk was delivered by horse and wagon early in the morning and it often froze in the cold Winter. Keep the stories coming. The younger generation has little concept what is was like to "bathe" in a washtub even when one was going into the teens or any of the other "hardships" we had to endure. No wonder those who were drafted in WWII were called the Greatest Generation. We did not even think of ourselves as such! G. M. F. Maranatha ============================== Jumpstart your genealogy with OneWorldTree. Search not only for ancestors, but entire generations. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13972/rd.ashx