How to record your grandparents' stories
Updated
To record a grandparent's stories, use your phone's voice recorder in a quiet room, ask permission first, and start with easy, specific questions about their childhood. Record in short sessions, label every file with the date and names, keep copies in two places, and let the grandkids ask some of the questions.
What equipment do you need?
The phone in your pocket is enough. Its built-in voice recorder will capture a clear voice if you set it close to the speaker (about an arm's length or less) in a quiet room. Turn off the TV, close the window, and put the phone on a soft surface, like a folded towel, so it doesn't pick up knocks.
Video is lovely for faces and gestures, but audio makes people less self-conscious, and many grandparents talk more freely without a camera pointed at them.
How do you ask for permission?
Ask before you press record, and say what it's for: "I'd love the kids to have your stories in your own voice." Tell them they can skip any question and ask you to delete anything.
If you record over the phone or a video call, say so at the start. Beyond good manners, several US states require everyone on a call to agree before it's recorded (the Digital Media Law Project's guide lists them, though it is no longer updated), and other countries have their own rules. Asking first keeps you on the right side of all of them.
What should you ask first?
- Easy, concrete questions: Where did you grow up? What did your house look like? What did you eat on Sundays?
- Firsts: first job, first car, first day of school, first home.
- People: who was the funniest person in your family? Who did you look up to?
- Then bigger questions, once they're warmed up: hard times, proud moments, advice.
- Follow every answer with "What happened next?" or "What was that like?"
How long should each session be?
Thirty to forty-five minutes is plenty. People tire, and a short session that ends on a good story makes the next one easy to start. Ten short recordings over a year usually capture more than one long afternoon.
How do the grandkids take part?
- Let them pick the questions, from a list sorted by age, and ask them in their own words.
- Give younger kids one question each; grandparents tend to tell a story differently when a child is listening.
- Teens can run the recording and edit short clips to share with the family.
- Turn a story into a game afterward: our mysteries are built from a grandparent's answers, so the kids meet the stories again as clues.
Are there free tools built for this?
StoryCorps offers a free app for recording an interview in person and a free browser tool, StoryCorps Connect, for recording over video. Interviews become part of the StoryCorps Archive at the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center; you choose whether to share yours publicly. Participants must be 13 or older, and under-18s need a parent's consent to register.
How do you keep the recordings safe?
- Name every file the same way: date, storyteller, topic (2026-11-26 Grandpa Joe first job).
- Keep two copies in different places, like a cloud folder and a computer or USB drive.
- Share a folder with the family so the recordings don't live on one phone.
- Write a one-line summary of each recording, so people can find stories later.
Sources
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