A Columbian reader asks, "I want to record my Dad’s stories before he gets any older. How do I get started without a lot of expense?"

Our reader is wise. If she begins now and documents the stories, she will capture the history of her immediate family and the history of an era. Fifty years from now, family members will read these treasures and be grateful for her foresight.

Sitting down to interview someone is different than listening to their "teaching" stories. Teaching stories are the ones that begin with, "When I was young, we walked five miles to school, through snow drifts, with no shoes, and this was after we milked the cows and did the barn chores." These may be interesting tales, but they may not be a factual representation of what really happened.

To do an interview, we should have a plan that includes a list of questions and a method for recording what we hear.

An economical way is to read a guidebook, develop the question list, and record what we hear with a pencil and a pad of paper. For a little more expense, tape or video recorders and cameras can be added.

I have a simple tool kit that I use. It consists of a small notepad and a pencil. I tuck the pad and pencil into my pocket and slip them out when the conversation gets around to family. Even my most resistant great-aunt was not too bothered when I took out this small notepad. Of course, I could count on her first response being an aggravated, "Why do you want to know that?" After she made her suitable fuss, we could get down to the interview. Later, I taped the notes onto a piece of letter sized paper, dated them, and put them in my family notebook.

It took a while to learn the types of questions to get Auntie to respond. Nowadays you can find tips for oral interviews in books and on the web. Questions that do not allow a yes or no answer are best. For instance, "What were some of the chores you had when you were a child?" and "What do you recall about the trip from Slovenia to the United States?" Auntie remembered lots. She recalled that the food was terrible, and she only ate the bread. Then, there was the man who slipped on the deck and died from the fall. They tossed him overboard for a watery burial. From that moment on, she never went up on the deck.

Auntie is no longer with us, but the information she gave remains. The notes allow me to remember her stories about her childhood in Podgora, near Sodrazica, making hand-woven baskets, the family's cottage industry. My grandmother, who was her sister, made more baskets than did Auntie who would rather play. These notes provided clues so I could trace our family line back to the 1700s. They allowed me to learn about my Slovenian roots.

For those people who do not want to do it themselves, there are personal historians who can be hired. Personal historians are trained in conducting oral interviews and can produce a written transcription of the interview. There is a website at http://www.personalhistorians.org/ with a directory list of personal historians.

The local library should have a number of books for conducting oral histories. Some of the genealogy magazines on their shelves have articles on the subject. The May/June 2000 issue of Heritage Quest magazine has an article about "Oral History: The Often Overlooked Genealogical Tool."

BYU Broadcasting, online at www.byubroadcasting.org/capturingpast/, has a guide to interviewing relatives. It is broken down into planning the interview, preparing the interview, conducting the interview, and preserving the interview. Sample interview questions are given. These range from "What do you remember about the Saturday night bath," to "Tell me about what you did for fun (favorite games or sports, favorite toys)" to "What was life like during World War II?"

Cyndi Howells, on her Cindy’sList, online at www.cyndislist.com, has a section for Oral History & Interviews. Here you can find web links for general resource sites; libraries, archives and museums; publications; and software and supplies, and vendors.

© 2000

Connie Lenzen, CG