A LOCKDOWN project to preserve precious family memories has turned into a new business for a former Daily Echo journalist.

Carolyn Thomas, from Southbourne, usually works as a cycling guide in Portugal for part of the year.

When the pandemic hit, she was unable to travel abroad so decided to draw on her previous career to create a family biography for her relatives. This has become her new venture called Our Family Memories.

As a Daily Echo reporter in the 90s, Carolyn often interviewed Bournemouth families about important milestones, such as diamond wedding anniversaries and 100th birthday celebrations.

Carolyn said: “Some people had the most interesting life stories to tell and I knew that one day I wanted to write down my own parent's memories but I never seemed to find the time.”

“I was concerned I might forget them and that stories about my parents, and the lives of my grandparents, would be lost forever.”

Her mother and father, Jean and Peter Madeley, grew up in Manchester and now live in the New Forest.

Carolyn said: “They always had fascinating stories about life in the big city, their wartime experiences, their alarmingly strict school teachers and many interesting recollections about their own parents’ and grandparents’ lives.”

“When Covid struck and we were all in lockdown, I realised I’d finally have time to write down those memories.

"My parents were stuck indoors too, so each day I phoned them and formally interviewed them about their childhoods and beyond.”

Her dad recalled how as a 10-year-old he emerged from an air-raid shelter to see the devastation of the Blitz and was just so thrilled that school was cancelled the next day.

A year later, he was excited to try his first banana, astounded at how big it was.

These are just two of many anecdotes included in the personal book Carolyn created. The project continued when two friends commissioned her to write their own family’s biographies.

Carolyn added: “There is so much interest these days in family histories and such memories can be lost when loved ones die.

"The recent publishing of the 1921 census gives us so many facts about the past but doesn’t include the details of people’s feelings and their experiences of what it was like growing up all those years ago.”

“Family stories are precious and recollecting and recording recent history can be so fulfilling for those wanting to preserve those stories for future generations to enjoy. But sometimes people don’t know how to go about writing them down and this is where I can help.”

For Our Family Memories, Carolyn interviews families, writes down their stories and creates personal biographical books which include favourite photographs.

To find out more visit www.our-family-memories.com. Or contact Carolyn by email ofm.books@gmail.com, or call 0740 1114168.