Family Oral History Interview Kit: Record Stories With Consent

A family oral history interview preserves a person's voice and perspective, including ordinary details that photographs seldom explain. The Eftsona Family Oral History Interview Kit is a digital, do-it-yourself resource for planning, recording, documenting, and preserving interviews.

What you are buying

Eftsona Family Oral History Interview Kit is supplied as a ZIP package. Current license options are $4.95 for personal use, $14.85 for a small group, and $39.60 for an organization. Read the license terms for your intended use before purchasing.

The kit focuses on recording consent, documenting memories as evidence, and preserving the interview. You conduct the conversation yourself. It does not include a hired interviewer, genealogical research, or a printed keepsake shipped to your home.

Worked example: an afternoon with a grandparent

Illustrative example: you want to preserve your grandmother's memories of the family kitchen. Before recording, explain what you hope to capture, who may hear it, and how you intend to store it. Ask whether she wants an audio recording and whether any subjects should remain private.

Start with a concrete question: “What did the kitchen look like when you were a child?” Follow her answer with questions about people, routines, and occasions she remembers. A recipe card can prompt a story about who cooked it and when. Let her skip questions, pause, or end the interview.

Afterward, label the recording with the interview date and speaker's name, note the permissions you agreed, and record uncertain names or dates separately. Keep her account distinct from your interpretation. Share only in the way she agreed.

Choose the right starting product

Choose this kit when you want to collect spoken memories yourself. Choose recipe preservation when the main task is scanning and transcribing existing cards. Choose genealogy research when you need an evidence-based investigation of a specific deceased ancestor or family question.

You can combine these projects: interview a relative about a recipe, preserve the original card, and separately investigate a historical detail. Each output serves a different purpose.

Does an interview prove a historical claim?

An interview records what the speaker remembers or understands. Memories can contain uncertainty or secondhand stories. Note those limits and compare claims with independent records when historical accuracy matters. Avoid silently turning an uncertain recollection into a confirmed fact.

Can I preview it?

View the existing kit preview, then review the current description and license. Choose a scope the speaker is comfortable with before planning a long series of interviews.

See the Oral History Interview Kit →

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Prices checked October 9, 2026. Current product details apply. Worked example is illustrative, not a customer testimonial.