A guide for family historians

Attach the voice
to the name in your tree.

Your LegacyWorks interview isn’t meant to sit alone on a drive. Because it’s transcribed and documented, it belongs right where your research already lives — attached to the very person it’s about. Here’s how to link it to your family tree on the two platforms most families use.

Why bother linking it? A video on your computer gets watched once and forgotten. A video attached to your family tree becomes a permanent part of the record — discoverable by relatives, preserved alongside the documents, and waiting for the descendant who searches that name in eighty years. It turns a keepsake into a source.

🌲 FamilySearch free
🍃 Ancestry subscription
💾 Your own files always
🌲 On FamilySearch

FamilySearch is free and lets you attach audio, video, and stories directly to a person’s profile through its Memories feature.

1

Sign in and find the person

Log in at familysearch.org, open the Family Tree, and navigate to the profile of the person your interview is about.

2

Open their Memories

On their profile, find the Memories tab or section. This is where photos, stories, audio, and documents attached to that person live.

3

Add your interview

Choose Add Memory. FamilySearch supports uploading a video file or an audio recording. Upload your interview clip, or a short highlight if the full file is large.

4

Add the transcript as a Story

Use Add a Story to paste in your LegacyWorks transcript. This makes the words searchable on FamilySearch even for people who can’t play the video.

5

Title and tag it clearly

Give it a clear title like “Oral history interview — [Name], 2026” and tag the people who appear in it, so it’s connected across your tree.

💡

Good to know: Memories you add to FamilySearch are visible to others in the shared tree — a gift to distant relatives researching the same ancestor. If you’d rather keep it private, use Ancestry or your own files instead.

🍃 On Ancestry

Ancestry lets you attach media to a person in your tree. Video support is limited, so the reliable approach is to attach the transcript and a link to the film.

1

Open the person in your tree

Sign in at ancestry.com, open your tree, and click the person your interview is about to open their profile.

2

Go to their Gallery / Media

On their profile, find the Gallery or Media section, where photos and documents attached to that person are kept.

3

Upload the transcript as a document

Add your LegacyWorks transcript as a PDF or image. This puts the full, searchable text of the interview permanently in the record.

4

Add the film link in the description

In the media description or a note on the profile, paste the private link to the video (your YouTube, Vimeo, or shared drive link) so it’s one click away from the record.

5

Add a source citation

Treat it like any primary source: note it as an oral history interview conducted [date] by LegacyWorks. Now it’s citable evidence, not just a family video.

💡

Good to know: Because the interview is transcribed word-for-word, you can quote directly from it in your research notes — a first-person source in the person’s own words, properly attributed.

💾 In your own family archive

Whether or not you use a platform, keep your own organized copy. Platforms change; your archive is forever.

1

Name files by person and date

Use a consistent format like Surname_FirstName_Interview_2026.mp4 and the same for the transcript, so any relative can find them instantly.

2

Keep the Story Record with the files

Store the LegacyWorks Story Record sheet (who, when, where, what) in the same folder. That documentation is what keeps the file meaningful decades from now.

3

Back up in more than one place

Keep a copy on your computer, one in a cloud drive, and one on a physical drive. A single copy is one accident away from being lost.

Do it like a professional

Four habits that make it count.

🏷️

Always attach the transcript

The video may not play in fifty years, but text always will. The transcript is the most future-proof version of the interview — attach it everywhere.

🔗

Link people, not just files

Tag everyone who appears in or is discussed in the interview, so it connects across your tree rather than sitting on one lonely profile.

📌

Cite it as a source

Record it as an oral-history interview with a date and interviewer. That single habit turns a family video into genealogical evidence.

🔒

Choose your privacy deliberately

Decide before you upload: shared trees are public to relatives; your own files stay private. Match the platform to how open you want it.

Capture it first

First, capture the interview worth linking.

You can’t attach a source you never recorded. Book a free 20-minute call and we’ll help you capture your family’s oral history — transcribed and ready for your tree.

Book a discovery call