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2010 Backgrounder on the
Association of Personal Historians
Contact: APH President Pat McNees
Phone: 301-897-8557
View/print the full version of the APH 2010 Backgrounder ( pdf).
Personal Historians Save Lives - One Story at a Time
- What is a personal history? A personal history is often the story of a life, or from a life. It can be a memoir, a tribute, a life story, an autobiography, a biography, or an oral history. It may also be a legacy letter or ethical will.
- Personal histories come in various formats—chiefly print, video, or audio—and are often illustrated. A life story, for example, might be as simple as an audiofile and transcript or as long and polished as a book; a video might be a short tribute or a full-length documentary. Personal histories can also take such unexpected forms as a family or community cookbook, a personalized quilt, a memory box, or a photo-art collage.
- Personal historians help their clients—individuals, families, communities or organizations—preserve memories, images, voices, stories, and histories, often (but not always) in narrative form.
- Projects range in price from a few hundred dollars (for an edited oral history with transcripts) to tens of thousands of dollars (for complex projects).
- Personal histories connect generations—including generations unborn.
- Personal history often reflects nostalgia, but is often more than that. Reminiscence and life review are now recognized as important life processes—sifting through memories to find the patterns, meaning, and value in one’s life.
Families collecting information about family births, deaths, and marriages are learning that stories bring to life all those names on the family tree. The two main things that keep people from collecting and preserving those stories are lack of time and lack of skill. Many of us plan to interview aging family members or record our own life stories, but we put off doing so — often until it is too late, when those who lived the stories are too frail to tell them, or their memories have faded, or their voices are silenced. There is often a sense of grief when it’s clear those stories are lost forever.
Luckily, more than 500 members of the Association of Personal Historians (APH) are available to help. The rich and famous have long employed professional writers and editors to help with their memoirs. The profession of personal historians helping “ordinary” people tell their stories is still developing. APH, founded in 1995 by Kitty Axelson-Berry, has led in developing the profession.
“Personal historians love family photographs and share a passion for hearing and preserving the stories behind them,” says APH president Pat McNees. “And the process is fascinating. It is not therapy, but time after time I have seen its therapeutic effects. By understanding where they came from, people come to understand who they are—and that their life has had value. Best of all, they are leaving behind a valuable piece of family history for generations to come.”
Putting together a personal or family history on one’s own can be a daunting task. “Most people don’t know where or how to start,” says McNees. “The advantage of working with a trained interviewer is that they see you as a unique individual, not as Mom or Dad, Grandma or Grandma. And by asking the right questions, they can help you tell a well-rounded story—while giving you control over the final product. Telling your life story to a neutral outsider, someone trained to listen and to ask good questions, often elicits a fuller, more revealing story than one you might write on your own, inhibited by modesty or the felt need to stick to your family stereotype.” A professional personal historian typically has the skills to help even the most reluctant storyteller share a fascinating story or valuable lesson. Besides getting the narrator’s story through interviews, a personal historian will often do research to place the individual’s story in historical perspective. Working with a skilled collaborator turns the process from overwhelming to energizing.
“Story-catching is not just for families,” says McNees, who has helped write the life stories of an Ohio industrialist, a Philadelphia pediatrician, and a German-American engineer who managed research and development on America’s nuclear submarines. McNees has also written many organizational histories, including those of a lift truck firm in Ohio, the Young Presidents’ Organization, the NIH Clinical Center ( the nation’s research hospital), and the department of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. “Companies and organizations want their stories told for all kinds of reasons. Often it’s easier for someone from outside the organization to ask the ‘dumb’ questions that elicit an interesting and revealing story.”
Personal history services are labor-intensive, involving hours of interviewing, transcribing, filming, editing, revising, and preparing materials for publication or broadcast. Prices vary widely, depending on the length and complexity of the process. Costs range from several hundred dollars to $40,000 and more, with fees for organizational histories substantially higher. Some projects can be completed in a matter of weeks, most require from six to twelve months, and some take up to two years.
Often, a personal history is commissioned as a gift — for a holiday, special birthday, anniversary, or milestone event. Family members often share the cost, making the project an affordable investment for everyone, from which all benefit. Histories of companies and organizations are used for promotion, to boost employee morale, to explain the organization to donors and supporters, or to inform clients and vendors.
APH Leadership - Board Members
Meet the APH Board of Directors and read their bios.
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