From Scotland to New Zealand to California—A Story Spanning Centuries

Nine years ago, we took our first trip to California for Heritage Films. We had no idea the impact it would have.

Our subject—let’s call her Sheila—was well into her 90s. Born in New Zealand, she married a U.S. Marine during World War II. At the time, there was an R&R outpost for Marine Corps officers in NZ, and with most Kiwi men off at war, a lot of young women ended up marrying American Marines. Sheila was one of them.

As we sat with her, she shared something that stopped me in my tracks. Her great-grandmother lived to be 100. Born in the mid-1830s in Scotland, she had told Sheila stories of her childhood—specifically, her journey by ship from Scotland to New Zealand. Her family left Scotland because of...sheep. Landowners of the time were booting their tenants to make room for sheep and their more profitable wool. When you hit the history books and you read about things like industrialization, you don't often consider the families that were displaced. Sheila's was one of them.

Anyhow, Sheila, as a little girl in the 1920s, listened as her great-grandmother described the ship’s smells, the rough seas, the food, the crew—memories so vivid that, nearly a century later, Sheila was now passing them on to me.

Her tremendous recall made me realize: This is how history used to be preserved.

For millennia, we relied on oral tradition. Grandma telling granddaughter about her growing up years. Mouth to ear. Then came writing. Now, we can capture voices, faces, laughter...preserving legacies in a way that future generations can see and hear for themselves.

It made me wonder…what’s next?

One thing is certain...stories matter. And I’m grateful every day that we get to preserve them.