The Family Triage Method: Who to Record First

Urgency is not the same as importance.

Most families know they should preserve someone's story. Almost none know where to start. The Family Triage Method is a simple decision framework for prioritizing who gets recorded first, not based on who matters most, but on who has the least time.

Triage in medicine means treating the most critical patient first, not the most important one. Applied to legacy preservation, the same logic holds. Start with the family member whose window is shortest, not necessarily whose story feels biggest. Age and health are the primary variables here. Willingness is secondary, and it can often be worked around.

Here's how to actually apply it:

• List every family member whose story is unrecorded

• Score each on two axes: Urgency (health/age) and Openness (willingness to be interviewed)

• Start with high-urgency, high-openness first

• For high-urgency, low-openness, begin with a casual dinner table conversation, not a formal recording session

• Schedule the first session within 30 days of making this list, the list itself is not the action

The family member whose story feels smallest often has the least time to tell it.