You can become your family's own personal StoryKeeper with a little practice. You'll first need to purchase a digital audio recorder, and then set aside some quiet time with your storyteller for a little Q&A. Try to ask questions in chronological order if possible, beginning with any knowledge of ancestry, working your way forward in time, touching on each chapter of life: Memories of parents and grandparents, childhood experiences, siblings, old neighborhoods, hobbies and interests, school days, vacations, occupations, marriage, children, retirement, and right up to today.

 It'll take some practice getting used to the questioning, knowing when to dig deeper into subjects and knowing when to back off, but you'll get the hang of it after a while. Once you've got your recording completed, plug this recorder into your computer, transfer the audio files onto the hard drive, and then burn them onto a CD to hand out to family members. This recorder converts audio clips to MP3 format each time you press the stop button, so there's no need to buy any  file conversion software.