Collecting Oral History

[Joseph Puentes <makas@...>]

Just some of  thoughts to keep in mind when interviewing relatives or 
people that knew your relatives:
1) if you can ask if its okay to interview the discussion on cassette 
tape. Don't make a big deal about this as some people tend to freeze up 
if you stick a microphone in their face. Rather get a high quality mike 
and set it between you and your relative turn it on and forget about it. 
If you get resistance emphasis how important their words are for the 
future generations and how it wouldn't be right to deny her/his great 
great great great grandchildren the privledge of hearing their voice.
2) if you do telephone interviews then go to Radio Shack and buy a 
telephone line recording system (less than $50) that lets you plug into 
your phone line and tape from any phone in the house. Still ask 
permission to record.
3) if you seemed to get a good session with no problems with a cassette 
recorder ask if it would be okay to do video camera. I personally don't 
think a video carmera is necessary for more than a session or two. But 
the cassettes are a must everytime if possible.
[Oh didn't I mention that this "Oral History" thing is something that 
will take many many sessions. After all you don't expect to get 30-50 
years of a persons life experiences in one 1-2 hour interview, did you? 
Rather if you start mining gold from beginning ask permission to have 
another session in 2-3 weeks. If you get permission call them on the 
phone or go for the face to face. Enjoy and learn and transcribe your 
notes and on the next visit ask questions about things that might not 
have been clear the first time or that provoked other areas of discussion].
4) never have the interview to ridgedly scripted, you need to leave a 
lot of room for your relatives to give their history their way.
5) try to ask open ended questions that will get the stories going: 
"What were things like when you were 10 [20, 30] years old?" "Tell me 
about that town." "What were your neighbors like or your school 
friends?" "Tell me about the time that Grandpa Julio gave my dad 'that' 
whipping?"
6) if you get to a point that needs some clarification be careful not to 
ask direct questions about dates. For example is your Tia says that her 
grandfather died when she was young. Don't say "What year was that?" But 
rather say "Do you remember how old you were at the time?" "Were you 
married by then?" "Were any of your children born by then?" "Do you 
remember how old little Ruben was when Abuelito died?" Any kind of 
question that would help you calculate the date of the event from know 
facts. In fact you'd be surprised how those sideline questions will 
provoke the conversation into other areas for you to persue when 
finished with finding an approx. time period for your death date questions.
7) Come back again and again. This Oral history is something that CANNOT 
wait. The records we are mining have been waiting for us for 100's of 
years but with every generation that passes . . .so passes countless 
gems of our history that will be lost forever. Most people get 
interested in Oral history when they are old and don't have many older 
relatives that they can interview. Don't make this mistake. Honor your 
relatives interviewing them and keeping them and the memories of so many 
past generations alive. Who knows but you might be a link between a 
story that has been alive in your family for many hundreds of years and 
that needs YOU to keep it alive.
joseph