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Mary, I don't know how much you know about all the new-fangled technical
gadgets besides audio recorders and digital cameras that are available to
serve our genealogy purposes, but if you could, maybe you could get some and
take them with you. You might be able to access some computers in certain
towns at internet cafes too if you can?t take a laptop along. The people
at the genealogy society here and at the local FHC have some amazing
things. One lady showed me a gadget she uses to scan books. Honest,
it was no bigger than a ruler and she would start at the top of the page and
move it down, then she showed me on the computer what it had scanned.
Amazing. Then others have these little tiny things no bigger than a
lipstick case that attaches to the back of the computer and they upload or
download all sorts of stuff. There are also these microfilm viewers that
attach to your laptop so you can download images directly, no need for a copier,
etc. They also have tiny portable copiers for the laptops. It is
just amazing what tools are out there. Even if I could afford them, I
probably wouldn't know enough about how to use them (sigh). I tried going
to one of the genealogy society's computer classes, but it was all above my
head.
Joseph's suggestions about interviewing techniques are right on the mark
too. I am so grateful to those university students who recorded oral
histories on my mother's cousins and neighbors and in-laws. Also kudos to
those WPA projects where writers would go out and interview people in various
communities during the Depression. I have found many of my relatives' and
their neighbors' stories in these records, and some are online, others are on
tape at the universities and they will make copies of them for small fees.
Have a wonderful time in Mexico,
Emilie Garcia
Port Orchard, WA ---
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 5:46
AM
Subject: Re: [ranchos] Collecting Oral
History: Re: Travel to Mexico
Thank you, Joseph. With all the wonderful suggestions I am
receiving, it will be possible to put together "Oral History Interview
101" This is really important because one could blow a meeting and even
cause annoyance or alienation. It already happened with our last
surviving uncle. I asked an innocent question and hit a
nerve. A good warnwing for newcomes; we don't need to learn some things
genealogical by experience. Mary Joseph Puentes
<makas@...> wrote:
Mary
just a quick word about collecting Oral history. You probably have been
doing it for a long time so please excuse me saying stuff that you might
already have been practicing (just pretent that I'm talking to someone
else). I've found that if you go into an "interview" loaded with questions
you won't get as far a if you just let "them tell their story (their
stories)." Many times asking "when did so and so pass?" will make for a
difficult question as compared to "Were you married when so and so died? . .
.and "were any of your children born yet when so and so had passed?" Later
you can calculate from their birth the date. Something about asking them to
remember exact dates that throws a wrench in the whole works. I have had
good success with questions like:
"Tell me about what things were
like when you were in grade school?"
"Tell me what it was like during
the depression?"
"Tell me what things were like when you were 20
years old?"
"Oh, tell me more about that story?"
"Oh, tell me
about your parents and did they ever tell you stories about their
parents?"
"Tell me about if you heard of relatives living in other
parts of Mexico?"
"etc., etc., etc.,"
Once they start rolling
on some story let them go even if they stray, but be ready with some related
question to gently bring them back on topic if the straying goes to far. Its
amazing how much people that say they "don't remember anything" know when
you let them just tell stories.
joseph
Mary Allen wrote:
Thank you, Victor. Now I know where San Felipe is located and
it is not a surprise visit. And I will purchase a cellular phone.
There are two more places I need to visit, but perhaps not on this trip:
San Luis Potosi, SLP and Salinas, SLP. Something to look forward
to.
It's a strange feeling: I have been working so intensely on this
project for the last few weeks. Now that I have a few photographs,
their faces are so etched on my mind that I dream about
them. I feel as if I know them and I am just going to go "meet" them
on their own turf. I have been sharing each step with my family and
we all feel as if something great is about to happen, as if one of them
walked in the front door, we wouldn't be surprised. It's just
that we have been looking for them for so very long and now, suddenly,
they start to appear with their stories, some of them quite sad. They
are more than names and dates and pictures; they are real. As if
they are coming home to us.
Mary
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