Recording life stories in their own words and voices

The project, called A Lasting Tale, ensures the voices of ageing relatives are not lost to future generations.

Ms Jones has only done one recording so far but found it a very rewarding experience.

A Lasting Tale was started by Dimity Brassil, whose father and sister died within a few months of each other. She realised she would never hear their voices again.

She didn't want the same to happen with her mum, Anne, 90, so asked if she could record her life story. Anne agreed and together they formed A Lasting Tale, without realising the impact empowering older Australians to share their life stories would have.

"When my father and sister died, I realised we really didn't have a lot of history recorded about them - particularly of my sister, who was only 52 and left behind a 12-year-old daughter, and that we hadn't captured many of her stories in her voice for her daughter to hear," said Ms Brassil.

Penny Jones saw an advertisement for interviewers and thought she fitted the bill.

"I have been working as a personal historian for the last few years so when I saw that ad looking for interviewers for life stories, I thought that's me."

She recorded a Lawson man in his 80s relating his life story to leave as a legacy to his four children.

"It was just wonderful," Ms Jones said. "I love interviewing people and I think elderly people in particular can often be ignored.

"There's an enormous amount of untapped wisdom in the elderly. It's just tremendously enjoyable to hear about stories from the past."

She did the interview in two parts, after his first session left him a bit drained.

"He was orphaned at a very early age and passed from relative to relative. It was a hard story for him to talk about... He needed a rest."

But when she went back for part two, he was ready to go. "He said it's been like a type of therapy. I felt very honoured and happy to have heard that."

For further information, see alastingtale.com.