Over a decade ago, I received a welcome gift from my cousins – about 5 CDs. On those disks were voices of family members who were no longer living – my maternal grandparents, some paternal aunts and uncles, and my brother. Little did I realize that within a year after I received them, I would add my mom to one who would also be gone. Several years later, it would be my dad.
Back in the 1950s when my parents and older siblings lived in Japan, they would record their “letters” home on a reel-to-reel tape recorder. My grandparents would reciprocate. To hear the details of their days and all that was happening in their world was amazing. To hear my parents’ young voices was sometimes comical.
In the 1960s my dad and his siblings also recorded some of their reunions. I even heard my young self singing “Downtown” as well as a couple of stories that (for this family historian) was exciting to hear! What seemed “normal” was reliving the conflict that some of the Amore family members had with each other or their in-laws!
I am so fortunate that my cousin’s husband took all those reel-to-reel tapes that he had from my brother and convert them to CDs. I may no longer be able to speak to those family members I love, but I can still listen to their voices. Voices that may have been lost but thankfully have been found.
This post is part of the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” blog prompts for Week 2: Favorite Find. For more information please see https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/
(Images are courtesy of Pixabay – no attribution required. Collage created on Fotor.)
All My Branches Genealogy 
Wow, what an amazing gift! I’ve often wondered why I didn’t record my parents as they told stories. Now I’d give anything to hear their voices again.