“It was probably the loneliest time of my life.”

Sue Adam (L) tells her daughter, Deborah Dimasi (R), about her decision to place Deborah for adoption as a baby.

Recorded in New York, NY

“We were working for what they would let us have and that was not a lot.”

Johnny Bradley tells his daughter Kathy about growing up in Georgia as the son of a sharecropper.

Recorded in Savannah, GA

“The windows did not have window guards...”

Marvin Goldstein (L), who fell out of a window of his family's apartment when he was 3 years old, tells his son, Eric (R), how he survived.

Recorded in New York, NY

“When the school blew up, the ink bottles on the desk flew clear to the ceiling.”

97-year-old Willis Cressman, who survived the Bath School disaster of 1927, with Johanna Cushman-Balzer, the daughter of his younger sister, Wilma, who was also at the school that day. For images from the disaster, click here.

Recorded in DeWitt, MI

“Everybody was hard hit.”

91-year-old Donald Huffman talks about surviving the Bath School disaster of 1927. For images from the disaster, click here.

Recorded in Cedar Springs, MI

“She was a formidable presence.”

Nancy Wright tells her son, JD, about her mother, Frances Ericksen.

Recorded in Gainesville, FL

“We had to do a good deed every day...”

John Hope Franklin, the late scholar of African American history, tells his son, John, about being a Boy Scout during the 1920s.

Recorded in Tulsa, OK, in partnership with National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC)

“He did all his typing with his two fingers...”

George Edwardson tells his cousin, Doreen Simmonds, about watching his grandfather translate the New Testament into Iñupiaq, their native language.

Recorded in Anchorage, AK

“I was eighteen years old, and I had a fake ID...”

PJ Goetz tells her son, Sam, about how she met his father.

Recorded in Tampa, FL

“Everywhere we went my mother would make sure that they enrolled us in school.”

Lourdes Villanueva tells her son Roger about growing up in a family of migrant workers.

Recorded in Tampa, FL, in partnership with Redlands Christian Migrant Association