Oral Personal History

Oral histories are are a method of gathering life stories and memories through recorded interviews. They provide an additional means of preserving personal histories besides written histories.

Oral histories may add details that might be missed in a written history as well as an alternative means of capturing memories for those who do not have the time or inclination to write their own histories. The questions asked by the interview may spark memories that might otherwise have not been included in a written history.

Oral histories may be done with just audio or with video. With a video recording, you not only capture the voice of the person being interviewed, but you can see also see how look and record their facial expressions and other non-verbal communication. They may also show and tell with photos or family heirlooms.

Here are some do’s and don’ts on the recording of personal histories either for yourself or others. These ideas also apply if you are using a video recorder.

Before the Interview

When making arrangements for the interview, let the person know what time period or what subjects you will cover but not in detail. This preparations allows the mind to start searching its memory banks to get memories a little closer to the surface.

Be careful not to give them the exact questions you’ll be asking. Giving them the questions ahead of time has a tendency to reduce spontaneity and create set answers.

You’ll want to capture other memories that are almost always triggered by spontaneous responses. Besides, it is fun to watch the person’s eyes as the memories start to come back.

Know Your Equipment

• Know your equipment well and make sure it is working that day. There is nothing more unnerving to your interviewee, than seeing you fumble with your machine trying to figure out why it is not working.
  
  
• Make sure the battery on your recording devise is fully charged and be prepared with backup power sources, such as the charging chord and plug, extra batteries, or portable charger.
  
  
• Test beforehand and do a sound check with the interviewer to make sure the equipment is recording properly, and picking up the sound well. You will know extreme frustration, if you have had a wonderful interview and then find the machine was not recording correctly or the volume was so low that you can’t hear anything.

Where To Record

• Try to record in the person’s own home. They will feel much more at ease than in a recording studio.
  
  
• Select a quiet room to record in. Keep away from the front of the house where the street is. Stay away from rooms where the TVs or a radio is playing. Keep away from the kitchen where appliances can come on at any time. Keep windows closed to keep out noises from the neighbors.
  
  
• Arrange a couple of comfortable chairs facing each other to sit on.

Start The Interview Right Away

Set up your recording machine as soon as you arrive. Don’t engage in small talk before you turn on the machine. There may be some things in the small talk that should be recorded.
To start, put the person at ease by asking some opened ended questions like:

• ”How are you feeling today?”
• ”Have you been looking forward to this?”
• “Are you nervous?” (Acknowledging this and being reassured by the interviewer can help relieve the anxiety.)
• ”Do you have any questions before we start?”
  

Hopefully they will be loosened up by the time you get to the real interview. Be sure to have the recorder on even with these questions. You might learn something here too.

Have a list of questions to ask

Here is a list of 1800 possible questions you can choose from to use in interviews.

Be A Good Listener

Don’t talk or interrupt while the person is speaking.

Don’t finish their sentences or otherwise put words in their mouths

Let them speak until they have completed their thought before you go on to the next question.

Allow their personality to come through on the recording, it is just as valuable as anything they may say.

It is good to take notes on items that you feel need more detail.

Think About The Next Question

In the interview, be flexible enough to think of additional questions as suggested by the answers the person is giving you. He or she may just touch on an event that you think should be gone into greater detail.

A good interviewer is a good listener and will be making sure that the answers are clear and complete. Be on the look out for answers that should be elaborated on.

Wandering From the Topic

If the interviewee starts to deviate from the topic, don’t worry too much about it. These wanderings sometimes yield more interesting material than the answer to the question at hand.

But, be sure to get back to the original question.

Minimize How Much You Speak as the Interviewer

If the person wants your reaction to what he or she is saying, especially if it is controversial, tell them you are here to interview them not exchange views.

It's their personal views that the listener is interested in not yours, the interviewer.

Plan on Multiple Sessions

Don’t try to complete all interview questions in one sitting.

It is best to keep your interviews to no more than a couple of hours unless the person feels otherwise. People get tired after a while of talking.

External Microphone

Most recorders are equipped with a built-in or a hand held microphone, however, these are often not the best choice to use for recording audio.

Built-in microphones often produce a poor quality sound and will pick a lot of sounds in the room.

A hand held microphone can be intimidating to a lot of people. They will have a hard time thinking and remembering when they have to talk into one. In addition, you’ll find that you’ll have to keep reminding them to hold it up to their mouth as the hand has a tendency to drop as the interview progresses.

A small microphone that clips to the lapel under the chin is better. By using a lapel microphone, the person soon forgets they have it on and will relax.

Make sure your recording device as either an external microphone jack to plug the microphone into or that it can connect wirelessly. If the lapel microphone has a cord, make sure it is long enough to reach or use an extension.

Get Help If Recording Yourself

To record your personal history it is best to have somone else interview you.

There are several advantages to this. Interview questions may prompt you to share things you had not thought of. The interviewer can also ask follow-questions if a memory you share is not clear or lacks detail. If it is someone who knows you or the time period, they may think of things that you should include.

Transcribe The Interview

It is a good idea to transcribe the interview. The main reason is to give the interviewee a chance to see what he or she said in the interview and if they have second thoughts about anything they said. They may want you to take out things they feel are better left unsaid now that they have a chance to think about it.

In addition, the transcription gives them a chance to see where they might want to enlarge on an event described. The subconscious mind might come up with some more details. These details could be captured through an additional recording or by taking notes and adding them as a supplement to the interview transcript.

Reading at transcript can be easier to review than a recording. Areas that need more details or explanation can be marked for additional research. This is hard to do on a recording.

Again, you can circle those areas that may need to be clarified.

Voice Recognition Software

If creating a transcript seems like a difficult task, the computer can do it for you. There is computer software that will convert the voice recording to the printed page. These transcribing computer programs are called voice recognition software. You can transfer the recording to the computer and the voice recognition software can produce a typed copy of the interview.

If you should have a lap-top computer with you during the interview, you can see the words appear on the screen as the interviewee is speaking. If you had a printer with you, you could print a copy of the interview right then and there. These programs are wonder but they are not perfect. There will always be some words that the computer just could not make out and so you may have to go over the recording to figure out what was said.

In addition, you will probably have to do some editing. There are may be sentence fragments to complete, unfinished sentences to either remove or figure out what they were trying to say, and stammerings to get rid of. You can listen to the recording in those spots to see what was said and edit the transcription accordingly.

Editing Out The Interviewer

Oral history interview recordings and transcriptions may include the interview questions, or these may be edited out, if there is enough context provided by the person being interviewed. The way the interviewer phrases the questions can prompt the interviewee to give enough more complete answers that either restate the question or give enough context to understand what the question was. You can also suggest to them at the beginning to try to restate all the questions during the interview.

For example, instead of asking "When you were born?" Which might prompt just a response of the date, you could ask, "Tell about the day you were born," which could prompt a more complete response, such as, “I was born on April 24, 1941.” It could also get them to share other details then they might otherwise give.

When the interviewee answers by restating the question or states context with their response, then the questions are understood.

If the responses are not clear without knowing the question, it is best to leave the questions in.

Check Facts

If something said in the interview that did not sound right or maybe was not true, you can check it out with other people who may have been a witness to the events described. You may even have to check out official records such as wills, birth, etc. Corrections or alternative viewpoints can be included in notes accompanying a transcription. These should be put in brackets or footnotes, or otherwise noted to make clear that they were not transcribed from the interview.

Preserve Recordings

Once the recording is complete, it is best to make backup copies to other media, such as an external hard drive or cloud storage service. With permission, you maybe able to share the recording and/or the transcript online. Keep copies in other locations, like a relative's home, or in a safety deposit box. This is in case of fire, vandalism, etc. or a computer drive failure. Keep your copies of recordings in a secure place where they are least likely to be damaged.

Label everything: who, when and where.

Your Personal History Can Be Preserved Forever

Recorded personal history can now be preserved forever. Copies can be passed down through the generations or, with permission, preserved and shared online. Generations from now, people can learn about the life of a person, and also get to know them by hearing their voice or even seeing video of them, recorded in an oral history interview.