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Comments
yes may be!
you want to keep a tab on the family history…
thats a bitter truth
Mike
Hey thanks for the mention of StoryofMyLife!
Hope you keep writing and preserving your family history!
What a wonderful blog Susan. You really said it all. I was captivated. It was like someone had got into my head and was saying all the things I say to other people - or think myself. Wow! You write so well. I could be sitting reading all your blogs for quite a while - or maybe I’ll read a couple a day to catch up.
I’ll definitely be putting this link on my facebook fanpage and twitter. More people need to read it!!
Keep Smiling
Louise @itsmylifedvds
Very nice and informative article. Keep up the good work. I really enjoyed reading it.
Dang, you sure put great stuff up here! Thanks so much.
Just wanted to share a technique that I use and encourage when it comes to interviewing loved ones.
Don’t do it!
Wait.
Don’t jump to conclusions. I didn’t say to abandon the project—I mean that you might want to have someone else do the interview. There are tons of reasons why it makes for a better oral history:
1. They’re going to provide details to a stranger that they wouldn’t think they need to provide if they’re talking to a family member who “already knows” the stories or information.
2. They’re likely to reveal some family secrets (secrets you didn’t know about) to an outsider. There’s no chilling effect of confessing to a family member.
3. The interviewer who doesn’t know them will come up with questions that you might not have asked, because you think you know the answer.
4. You’ll have captured your loved one talking in a voice that’s different than the voice they use with family members. For example, my mother would always talk baby talk with me if I were interviewing her. You know how mothers are.
By the way, I invite you to watch a short portion of the interview one of my former students did of my mother about a years before she died. I shot the video, but I wore headphone that were playing Latin Music so loud in my ears that I couldn’t hear what she was saying. When she was convinced I couldn’t hear her, she told stories that we had never heard before. The piece at this website tells how the dream of getting a bicycle may have saved her life when she was small. You’ll find it at http://www.OralHistoryInstitute.wordpress.com. There are some other interesting links and stories there.
For more information, contact me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or at (818) 237-3728.
Don,
Thanks for articulating the reasons NOT to do it yourself. I will include those in a post on the site as I get further into my “interviewing family” series.