From Recording to Revelation: Processing Our Second Family Biography Interview with My 92-Year-Old Grandmother
When I wrote about our first interview session with my 92-year-old grandmother, I shared how we began preserving family stories through a structured biography interview process. Today, I’m excited to reveal what happened next: how we processed that wealth of memories, prepared for our second family biography interview, and discovered the techniques that make interviewing family members for biographies so rewarding. This post will guide you through the essential steps of creating meaningful family histories.
Processing Family History Interviews: Behind the Scenes
After our unexpectedly long first session (two and a half hours!), we were left with substantial recordings that needed careful handling. This is where the technology we’ve built at Abrevity really proved its value.
Uploading and Processing
We recorded the interview using two iPhones: one capturing video in cinematic mode (resulting in about 15GB of footage) and another recording audio through the dictaphone app. Our secure online environment made uploading these large files straightforward, allowing us to begin the important work of processing.
Once uploaded, our system automatically generated a transcription of the entire conversation. But the real magic happened next: our algorithms organized and structured the interview, mapping anecdotes chronologically and identifying key people and places mentioned throughout.
This wasn’t without its challenges. When my grandmother mentioned attending “A.S. Talmaschool” (a Dutch school), our transcription service didn’t immediately recognize it. These specific details required manual verification to ensure accuracy—a reminder that while technology can do much of the heavy lifting, the human touch remains essential for preserving these precious memories correctly.
Discovering Hidden Patterns
What surprised me most was how our analysis revealed patterns I hadn’t noticed during the interview itself. One fascinating insight: throughout her life, my grandmother had repeatedly started anew in different places. While each move made sense in context, seeing this pattern emerge gave us a fresh perspective on her life story—a thread of resilience and adaptability we might explore further.
What makes this approach uniquely objective is that our system works solely with the isolated input from the interview. Without any preexisting biases or interpretations, it simply organizes the raw memories as they were shared. This fresh, unfiltered perspective has proven invaluable for crafting a more authentic final biography.
Biography Interview Techniques: Preparing for Your Second Session
With the first interview processed, we could now make informed decisions about our second session. Our system had:
- Generated preliminary storylines based on the first interview
- Created a draft index of key events, people, and places
- Identified gaps in the timeline we needed to address
- Compiled a list of follow-up questions
Since we had only covered about half of my grandmother’s life in the first interview (with particular depth on her experiences during World War II), we knew we needed to focus on completing her timeline while deepening certain storylines.
The First Draft Chapter
One of the most rewarding moments was creating a draft chapter about the first part of her life to share with my grandmother before our second interview. I was nervous about her reaction, but her response made me smile: “You definitely have not inherited your writing skills from me,” she said with a playful grin, clearly proud to see her life beginning to take shape on the page.
This preview served multiple purposes:
- It gave my grandmother confidence in the process
- It allowed us to correct any misunderstandings early
- It helped us align our expectations for the next steps
- It made the abstract concept of “writing a biography” tangible
How to Interview Family Members Effectively: Our Second Biography Session
Armed with our organized notes and draft chapter, we approached the second interview differently.
What Changed in Our Approach
In the first interview, we relied heavily on photo albums as memory prompts, which worked beautifully. Unfortunately, for our second session, the relevant album was at my aunt’s house. This seemingly small detail made a noticeable difference—my grandmother’s recollections were less structured without these visual anchors.
Another significant shift: while the first interview covered periods before my mother was born, this session delved into events my mother had witnessed herself. This created a fascinating multi-perspective dynamic, with my mother occasionally adding context or gentle prompts when my grandmother hesitated.
Emotional Discoveries
What continues to amaze me is my grandmother’s energy throughout this process. Once again, what we planned as a shorter session stretched to over three hours—and still, we didn’t cover the last 20 years of her life! There’s a wealth of memories waiting to be preserved.
This session traversed some of the most difficult chapters of her life, including the loss of her first husband while raising small children. Hearing her describe these events in detail gave me a profound new understanding of her strength and the decisions she made.
Perhaps most unexpectedly, I began noticing personality traits my grandmother and mother share—connections I’d never fully appreciated before. For the first time, I saw clearly how certain characteristics had passed through generations of our family.
Multi-Perspective Family Storytelling: The Therapeutic Value
One element of the biography process that’s becoming increasingly apparent is its potential for healing. In our family, like many others, there are tensions or unresolved feelings about past decisions—in our case, surrounding my grandfather’s death and my grandmother’s subsequent relationship.
Rather than avoiding these sensitive topics, our biography project has created a neutral space to explore different perspectives. I’m planning to interview my aunt about her perspective on this period in my grandmother’s life, capturing multiple viewpoints on these formative events.
I don’t yet know how these different narratives will ultimately weave together in the final biography, but I’m hopeful that simply opening conversations about these moments might foster greater understanding among family members—an unexpected but precious benefit of this project.
Family Biography Interview Process: Essential Tips for Your Project
If you’re inspired to begin preserving family stories through interviews, here are essential techniques we’ve developed through our biography interview process:
Prepare memory prompts: Photos, letters, or mementos help structure recollections significantly.
Record everything possible: Even small details might connect to larger patterns later.
Process between sessions: Taking time to organize and analyze between interviews allows you to go deeper in subsequent conversations.
Share drafts early: Letting your subject see how their stories are taking shape builds confidence and excitement.
Be ready for emotion: Later interviews often touch on more sensitive topics—approach with care and patience.
Digital Family Biography Service: Preserve Your Family Stories Today
If you’re searching for how to interview family members for biographies and want to preserve those precious stories, you’re exactly who we created Abrevity for. Our digital family biography service combines technological tools with personal guidance to make the family biography interview process straightforward and deeply meaningful.
For a limited time, we’re offering our complete biography package for $99 (regularly $249), which includes:
- Access to our secure online environment for uploading and processing interviews
- Guidance on interview preparation and techniques
- Automatic transcription and organization of your recordings
- A beautifully printed hardcover biography
- Three personalized digital versions to share with family members
Don’t wait until these stories are lost to time. Click here to begin your family’s biography journey today.
What’s Next
With two successful interviews completed, we’ve now covered about 90% of my grandmother’s life story. We’re planning a final session to fill in the remaining details, but I’ll save those insights and preparations for my next update.
I look forward to sharing more insights as this journey continues. As always, I’d love to hear about your own experiences with family storytelling in the comments below.
