KSHB 41 reporter Claire Bradshaw covers eastern Jackson County, including Blue Springs and Independence. Share your story idea with Claire.
—
The Midwest Genealogy Center believes everyone has a story to tell, and it doesn’t want to miss hearing them.
The center’s Tell Me a Story Pod has been traveling to various Mid-Continent Public Library branches for almost a year. Its goal is to provide a way for people to record their stories so memories and moments aren’t lost over time.
“We're hoping that this will help each community that we visit become more in touch with its own narrative, its own history. We're also hoping to empower our customers as individuals to preserve their own story, to be able to pass that on, or to be able just to keep that for themselves,” said Emily Wildhaber, assistant branch manager for the Midwest Genealogy Center.
The pod is currently at the Colbern Road Library in Lee’s Summit. In June, it will move back to the center.
Here is how it works: the pod is free to use. When you sit inside, you fill out a consent form that asks for your basic information and if you want to share your recording publicly or if it is just for personal use. It will also ask how you want the genealogy center to return a copy to you.
From there, you press record and start sharing your stories. There are dozens of prompts inside to help, too.
“There's not a day that goes by that we don't have someone at the Midwest Genealogy Center who says, ‘I just wish I had asked my grandma about this,’ or, ‘I just wish I had talked to Uncle Ricky about X,'" Wildhaber said. "The oral component… It's such an intimate way to share your story, a way to hear your loved one's voice, a way to get their expressions, their mannerisms and connect that."
The Midwest Genealogy Center said the pod is more for “bite-sized” stories and not someone’s life history.
However, the center has other options for people to record their oral history. Learn more here.
