Oral History Resources
13 Tips for Oral History Interviewing
Talking to relatives will help you get the stories behind the names and dates on your tree. Here's a simple guide to planning a great interview.
20 Questions for Interviewing Relatives
Use these questions as a springboard for planning your oral history interviews.
50 Questions for Family History Interviews
By asking the right, open-ended questions, you're sure to collect a wealth of family tales.
Books About Oral History
A list of books to help you gather the stories of a lifetime and share them with your family.
Oral History and Heirlooms
These forms help you preserve those precious pieces of your family's past.
6 Reasons to Quiz Your Kin
Reluctant to interview your relatives? Maybe you haven't considered all the benefits.
Recording Video Interviews
These tips will help you successfully preserve oral history interviews on video.
Family Tree Legacies: Preserving Memories Throughout Time
Family Tree Legacies helps you keep track of basic information and special memories, including traditions, heirloom histories, family records, newsworthy moments, family migrations and immigrations, old recipes, important dates, and much more.
5 Oral History Basics
By Sunny McClellan Morton, FamilyTreeMagazine.com
1. Schedule your chat.
Get advance permission to interview—and to record it. "Give them an idea ahead of time what you're going to be asking about," offers Delta Stacey, a consultant at the Family History Library and veteran family history interviewer. "That way, when you ask, they've got those details in their minds."
2. Record it.
Take notes, use a video or tape recorder, or a combination of these. But be sensitive. "I had someone who was uncomfortable talking face to face, so we did all of our interviews over the telephone," says Stacey. "That way, she didn't have to look at me."
3. Ask open-ended questions.
"You never ask a question that can be answered with a yes or no," advises Nancy Gould, a counselor and family historian who specializes in personal history interviews. Instead say, "Tell me about..."
4. Set a time limit.
People wear out. Many interviewers find that an hour to 90 minutes per session is about right. After that, Stacey finds, "people get rambly even if you have good questions."
5. Know when to stop (even before the time limit).
"It's the nonverbal cues," says Gould. "When the person starts looking at the clock, losing eye contact completely, or gazing off in another direction," it's time to close the conversation.
|
Sites for the Family History Lover
Dan Curtis, Professional Personal Historian
Dan is a personal historian, an award winning documentary filmmaker, adult educator, and certified life coach.
Family Oral History
They tell where you come from. They hold secrets to who you are.
This site explores how to use digital tools and media to record and preserve spoken memories of family members.
Library of Congress American Folklife Center
There are many ways to document and preserve families histories. Recording oral histories can be a very effective way of capturing information that is difficult to obtain by any other means.
Library of Congress Veterans History Project
The Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.
StoryCorps Do-it-Yourself Guide
StoryCorps is a national institution that gives everyday people the opportunity to record interviews with loved ones, and ask the questions that matter.
Collecting oral histories isn't just for adults. With a little help, kids can use these guidelines to gather oral histories.
• Let children pick a theme or focus for the interview, such as school, holidays, or childhood. And keep in mind a few special considerations. Help kids develop questions that link interviewers and narrators, such as: What is your earliest memory? What was your life like when you were my age? What was your favorite book? What do you remember about me when I was younger?
• Have narrators bring photographs, toys, or other family treasures that might interest children.
• Be sensitive to special issues facing adopted children and children whose parents have divorced or remarried.
• Help young interviewers be sensitive to powerful issues that can come up in an interview, such as the difficult experiences some family members may have had. Some parents and narrators will want to avoid these subjects, and others will want to be ready for them.
Source: Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
|
