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Creating Oral Histories: Difference between revisions
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==Whom to Interview== | ==Whom to Interview== | ||
Your first task is to decide whom to interview and why. You may want to interview someone who can provide | |||
information about a particular ancestor. Or you may want to do more general interviews with perhaps your | |||
oldest living relative, another member of y our family, your town’s oldest resident, a neighbor, or anyone who | |||
may have ties to or information about your family. | |||
You should usually conduct interviews one on one. Some situations, however, such as extended family | |||
gatherings, may provide a unique opportunity to capture the memories of several people at one time. In this sort | |||
of situation, you might simply set up your video or tape recorder and introduce a discussion topic to the group, | |||
such as inviting them to share their favorite memories of Grandma. | |||
As the group shares their memories, individuals will tend to remember more than they would if they were | |||
interviewed alone. Keep in mind that you may not always be able to distinguish who is saying what on the | |||
recording on the group session, particularly if you only have an audio recording. And group noise may make | |||
parts of the interview inaudible. You can compensate for those disadvantages by using more than one recording | |||
device and by identifying the different voices as soon as possible after the recording session. | |||
==Before the Interview== | ==Before the Interview== | ||
==At the Interview== | ==At the Interview== | ||