CALLING ALL FAMILY MEMBERS...FAMILY PROJECT

I got this email from Laura Sims (Donny's oldest daughter). I think this is a great idea and all of us need to jump on board with this one.


Hello All!

I have an idea. I've been thinking about this for almost a year now. I have mentioned it to a few people already (Mom & Katie) and I really feel like this is something that needs to be done. Last year my roommate, Alyssa, and I got into a conversation about our families. We discussed how things have changed in the world we live in today, compared to what it was when our grandparents and great-grandparents were growing up. In our conversation, Alyssa came up with the idea of sitting down and interviewing both her grandparents and great-grandparents, asking them questions about their lives. I thought that it was such a great idea, but I never made time to put anything together. Today when I went to the Bentley Family News blog, I saw the pictures from Mammaw B's 97th Birthday party. She's 97...HOLY COW!!

When I realized this, it finally hit me. I need to do this interview. I think that getting her story on video would be just an amazing thing for all of us to have and share in (I know I would definitely enjoy having it). I wanted to email everyone and see what you think?! I would like to get the taping done at Christmas time, since that's when I'll be in NLR. I was planning on sending Mammaw B a letter, asking her if it's alright that we do that, once I got some feedback from everyone. In the letter I would probably need to give her a general idea of questions that would be asked. So here's where I need some help. If you have any questions that you think should be in this interview please let me know. I want to get a good number of questions so we can have some sort of direction when we're interviewing. I want this to be somewhat like an interview but also like a documentary style, with pictures and maybe even other people sharing stories of Mammaw B. Once all the video taping was finished I would bring it back to school and edit it together, putting it in a nice DVD format. Then every one can, if they wish, get a copy of it.

I guess just let me know what you all think of this idea? Give me any feedback you want. I will probably need help in arranging questions, getting pictures, etc. so maybe if anyone wants to help me with that, fantastic! I hope that this is something that everyone is interested in doing. I know that I, along with many others, would be blessed to have Mammaw B's story, especially if it's on a sweet DVD! (hehe) So let me know what you think, give me tips and/or ideas! Oh and I think I would eventually like to do it for Mammaw Berta as well, so be thinking on that too!

Love you all! Miss you bunches!!

oh...and if you know of anyone else to send this email to, then by all means...go for it!! (I, for some odd reason, don't have many family email addresses...bummer)

(here's a link I found with some questions. I'll probably use a lot of them, so if any stand out to you, please let me know. http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm)

Thanks everyone!!
Laura

*If you have any questions or ideas to give to Laura you can either leave comments (which are always welcome) or you can send them to bentleyfamilynews@yahoo.com and I will pass them along.

I think this is a great idea Laura!!! We should have a great time pulling together to have something to pass down to the next generations.