Interviewing Relatives: A Conversation with Personal Biographer Francie King

Have you ever thought you’d love to interview a member of your family about their life?  In this episode, personal biographer Francie King shares tips on how to get individuals to talk and the importance of listening as you record. As a former journalist she knows how to refine a story and gather the facts. We chat about ghost writing, the process of putting it all together and the power of hearing our relatives voices. She’s a master at the art of gently encouraging individuals to share their past. I love her passion for the topic as expressed in this quote “Personal history and biography,” she says, “are always larger than a singlefinished book. The story of an individual, or a family, is the story of us, partof our shared history, always worth preserving, always deeply valuable forthe next generations. Whenever that history remains untold, then it is lost tous forever.”Links: Contact Francie King at HistoryKeep.com Sign up for my newsletter.Watch my YouTube Channel.Like the Photo Detective Facebook Page so you get notified of my Facebook Live videos.Need help organizing your photos? Check out the Essential Photo Organizing Video Course.Need help identifying family photos? Check out the Identifying Family Photographs Online Course.Have a photo you need help identifying? Sign up for photo consultation.About My Guest: Francie King has worked for more than 40 years as a journalist, writer, andeditor, and as a director of nonprofit publications strategic planning andmanagement. Her workplaces include more than a half dozen majoruniversities and colleges in New England, as well as the Museum of FineArts and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. She fell in love withpersonal biography and memoir around 2007 while editing a book about herfather, a world-renowned nuclear physicist. In 2009, after finding inspirationin a community of supportive, like-minded writers, she turned her longtimewriting consultancy into a memoir and personal/family biography business,HistoryKeep, based in Marblehead, Massachusetts.Building on a love of biography and family stories and with long experienceas an interviewer, Francie has written or edited more than 20 bespoke books,and often teams with other personal historians as a developmental and copyeditor. She works with graphic designers, proofreaders, and printers to createa book suitable for the coffee table or for sharing around the dinner tableamong family and friends. Several of her books are now available onAmazon.About Maureen Taylor: Maureen is a frequent keynote speaker on photo identification, photograph preservation, and family history at historical and genealogical societies, museums, conferences, libraries, and other organizations across the U.S., London and Canada.  She’s the author of several books and hundreds of articles and her television appearances include The View and The Today Show (where she researched and presented a complete family tree for host Meredith Vieira).  She’s been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, The Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Germany’s top newspaper Der Spiegel, American I'm thrilled to be offering something new. Photo investigations. These collaborative one-on-one sessions. Look at your family photos then you and I meet to discuss your mystery images. And find out how each clue and hint might contribute to your family history. Find out more by going to maureentaylor.com and clicking on family photo investigations. Support the show