Why You Should Collect Oral Histories

So you don't lose your memories. Everyone should be taking steps to preserve their family histories. So much is lost when an elder person dies without leaving behind their hard won experiences and memories. For instance, the generation in their 80s and 90s lived in two tumultuous centuries. They rose to every challenge. They also carry knowledge of their kith and kin from even earlier times in the form of stories, songs, pictures, and memories of conversations with their own elders. Your children and grandchildren will want to know where they came from and someday it may turn out to be important that they know these histories. Oral Histories often impart valuable information such as inherited rights (e.g. Native American tribal membership) or predisposition to certain diseases that may become preventable in the future. As a visitor to the museum that I work in put it, "If you know where you came from, it's easier to figure out where you're going."

Who Are the "Witnesses" You Want to Interview?

Whose Life History you want to record is the first decision you must make. Be clear about why are you doing a Life or oral History. (Oral histories do not have to cover whole lives; they can cover a single event through the eyes of a witness.) For instance, if what you want to know more about is your family's origins or past, then you will want to interview the oldest member who is able or willing to talk about that past. Trust is very important to your success, so it helps if the person you want to interview already knows and trusts you. Make it a project you are working on together. They are helping you preserve history, and you are helping them pass along the wisdom of a lifetime.

The rights and feelings of the person you interview is paramount. You couldn't get this history without the person's cooperation. In return, you owe them every consideration. If they don't want a recorder (sound or video) then don't use one. NEVER record people without their knowledge and permission. Always let them know what you will be doing with the material you gather from them. Share it with them when you are finished. If you ever benefit monetarily from the project, it is ethical to share it with those who made it possible.

How to Gather an Oral History

The message is more important than the media. Modern technology, such as audio and videotapes can help, if used correctly, but is not absolutely necessary. Your purpose in collecting the information will help determine what you want to use. It certainly is easier and more fun if you can videotape your grandfather telling his stories and answering your questions, but if he won't hear of it, ditch the camera! An audiotape is very helpful, especially if you are not a fast note taker. If all you want to do is make sure you don't miss something, you can explain that to a reluctant interviewee and even promise to destroy the tape in front of them—after you have used it to make sure your notes are complete. Often you can compromise.

If you use audio and/or video tape machines, your must make sure the person is comfortable with it and, and better yet, becomes unaware of it. Once permission to use it has been granted, a recorder can be put out of sight as long as the microphone can clearly pick up the sounds.

Murphy's Law Will Be With You

• FIELD TEST your equipment, preferably in the same place that interviews will happen. Check the sound quality, the distances, the lighting (in the case of videotapes or cameras), etc. Nothing is worse than trying to transcribe interviews from a garbled tape.
• ALWAYS take paper and pencil notes—no matter what. Pens are all right, but take more than one. Ink will run out.
• Take a manual pencil sharpener, not an electric one, and make sure you have good erasers.
• Have extra tapes or videotapes with you if you are going high-tech.

If equipment fails, laugh it off and continue with your trusty paper and pencil. And bring extra paper. You can use legal pads, steno pads or whatever you are comfortable with. I like the paper that had a wide margin line so I could put key words from each answer in the margins. I could easily find particular topics later. People skip around a lot while remembering things.

Establish a Time Line: "Just the facts, ma'am."

The first interview(s) can help you deal with this problem of meandering memories. They should be spent establishing a time line of the person's life. If it is not a whole life, but a single event, a time line of what happened leading up to, during, and after the event is helpful. You will be asking questions with factual answers. When were you born? When did you start school? What dates were brothers or sisters born? Marriages, deaths, joining the army, all these datable events of a life should be put on the time line. You can draw an actual line and tape the papers together, so you have a visual representation of the person's life history. You can just record the dates any way you want to, just as long as later on you can easily explore it and look for events and gaps between events. If there are ten years and no events, then next time ask what happened during those years. You may want to schedule a couple of "TIME-LINE" sessions, so you have the opportunity to see where you need to ask more questions. The time line will give you clues to future questions. The rest of taking an oral history really consists in filling in the blanks and building on this time line. You go back and fill in the spaces with lesser events, and more importantly, the memories and feelings elicited by recalling those events.

Don't turn of the spigot of words while it is running. Sometimes, you will get those memories and feelings while you are just doing the time-line. If that happens, keep taking notes, or keep the recorder running! Don't tell someone to wait until later to tell you something.) You may also take off on tangents and run into events that didn't come up on the original time-line. Put them in and run with it.

Interviewing Techniques: Closed, Leading, and Open-ended Questions

• Closed-ended questions are specific questions with a specific answer. Questions that can be answered with a "yes" or "no" come under this heading. I try never to ask a "yes" or "no" question in an interview. I always want more than a one-word answer. Sometimes you need to ask a specific question, such as "When were you born?" That's all right when all you really want are the facts, such as when building the time line or filling in a lost detail. That's about the only time you want to use them.
• Open-ended questions are questions that leave the answer very open to what informants wants to say. It gives them a topic, but doesn't tell them what to say about it or even hint at what you'd like to hear. For instance, "Did you like your grandfather?" is a CLOSED question. But, "How much did you like your grandfather?" is not totally closed, but it is a LEADING question—it assumes they liked their grandfather and guides them to say so.
• Leading questions are poison to a good interview because people almost always try and tell you what they think you want to hear. A good open-ended question is "How did you feel about your grandfather?" Practice by inventing a few questions and answering them yourself. For each question, come up with the closed, leading, or open-ended version of it.

"How/what do you feel/think about…" are good lead-ins for a general, open-ended question. If the answer they give to a question seems too short, follow up with "Tell me more about that."

I often go back, even to the beginning of a time-line, and ask questions like "What is your earliest memory?" "How did you feel when your older sister got married?" If they claim they don't remember their childhood, there are several ways to try and elicit information by being a little specific. You can ask, "What did you want to be when you grew up?" Or "What games did you play?" "Who was your first friend?" "…best friend?" Even these specific questions should be generalized…you don't want to lead too much and put words in their mouths. Remember to use your open-ended questions.

Gradually fill in all the gaps in the timeline and, as you go, record anything that comes up, even if it doesn't fit in linear time. Emotional life doesn't follow time lines. Gather jokes, pictures, stories, and memories of older folks in the family who are long gone. Stories may be second hand, but the person telling them now is passing along what is important to them or it wouldn't come up.

The Importance of Active Listening

Silence is (a) GOLDEN (OPPORTUNITY)! It would seem that silence would be an enemy in an interview. Long, empty spaces in a conversation, when no-one talks and the tape is going around and around are frightening to the neophyte interviewer. Make silence your friend. The key is to remember that your informant doesn't like them either. You can train yourself to wait them out. You ask a question and your grandfather is silent. Don't panic. It may mean he's thinking, or he's not sure how much he wants to tell you, or whether he wants to say anything at all. The best way to make sure he does is to put your teeth together, keep your lips closed, keep eye contact (smile if you can and its appropriate—not if you're talking about a funeral) and WAIT…and WAIT…and WAIT. Nine times out of ten, people can't stand the silence, and what comes out when the silence is broken can be very emotional and deep stuff. This is the mother lode of memory. (Make sure that it is not YOUR memories that break this silence…WAIT!) This technique is based in psychotherapy so don't overuse it. You are not a doctor. Remember the first rule: the welfare of your informant is your FIRST consideration.

What to Do With an Oral History

• Write it up now: So you've taken your notes and/or filmed or recorded your interviews. Now comes the hard part. If you have taped or videotaped interviews, transcribe them, as soon as possible. If its audiotape and you're planning to do more than one of these histories, it may be worthwhile to invest in a transcribing machine. If you're REALLY getting into it in a serious way, a machine with a foot pedal will save you time and sore fingers. Force yourself to sit down while the information is fresh in your mind and turn your notes into a written history.
• Label and date everything: No material will be any good to anyone, now or later, if there are no names, dates or descriptions of who and what they depict.
• Keep it safe: It will also be no good to anyone if it disintegrates, so store all materials in acid-free environments. Fortunately, there is lots of acid-free paper and photo-storage available at reasonable prices. Digitalize as much as you can and back up what you put on the hard drive.
• Pass it on.: If what you're doing is a family history, then package it attractively and leave extra paper and space for those who come after you to add to it. This is a fantastic gift to leave your descendants!

Guess what??!! Just as you (finally!) became curious about your ancestors and family history, so will your children and grandchildren. I work in a museum and almost every day, someone laments that "Grandfather knew our family's real name", or "Grandma told all these great stories…" but they died before anyone thought to record these memories. To your grandchildren and great-grandchildren, YOU are the family history. Make it easy on your descendants. Write down and/or record your own memories, insights, stories, etc. and include it in your History. Leave it to posterity in your will.