Oral History Form

To get an idea of the kinds of stories people might tell about their pasts, and what information to prompt for, first check out the:

Sample Narratives:

Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938

Life History Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940.

What would you do to prompt such narratives? What kinds of questions might you ask? Here are some kinds of information to ask for:

1. Real Stories
   You want to ask parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents,and even great grandparents (if you are lucky enough to have yours still living) about their parents and grandparents, right? What kind of questions might elicit some real stories?
2. Names of Brothers and Sisters Who Lived in a Household
   Make sure to ask the relatives (aunts, uncles, parents, grandparents, greatgrandparents) you interview the names not only of their parents, but of their parents' siblings (brothers and sisters). These help to verify that a listing in the census for a household is the right one.
3. Occupation
   Make sure to ask about what people did for a living. From the 1870 U.S. census on everyone who is listed on the census--regardless of age--is listed with his or her occupation--though evidently from time to time the census taker did not consider the occupation of anyone but adult males important to note. (School age children might be listed as simply, "in school," younger children as "at home," and of course, a number of children work! For their parents perhaps? Or? Not all people who work live at home; some are listed on the census at their place of work! For 1850 the occupations of the heads of households are given and for 1860 the occupations of males old enough to work are given! In earlier censuses only the number of persons engaged in either agriculture, manufacturing, or commerce is provided, and there are errors, especially as a few census-takers confused the columns listing 'farmers' and 'foreigners.') While census takers might pay little attention before 1880 to place of birth, most census takers considered at least the occupations of adult males extremely important and took pains to get this information right! Thus it might be possible to trace an ancestor through several censuses by knowing his (or sometimes her) occupation. (See the page, USrailroadoccupations.html for a list of some of the occupations possible--I traced an ancestor through several censuses whose name turned out to be quite common by looking for occupations related to railroad work!)
4. Military Service
   Make sure to ask about military service. (I found my great great grandfather by locating his military service record! Then I was able to place him on the census. Of course I knew his occupation and it was listed on his service record along with his age and his place of residence! I was interested in learning about his different residences and here I found them all!)
5. Different Names People Had
   And do not forget, in the case of female ancestors, to ask about maiden names, and other married names (some people married more than once)!
6. Different Addresses Too
   Finally, where people were born is not always where they were living when the census was taken; so make sure to get people to tell you about as many different addresses as they know of.

Links

For more tips see the guides at roots web and other places:

Richard A. Pence, Searching your family tree (http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/roots-l/genealog/genealog.fhsearch)

Pence reminds people seeking information about ancestors to ask very specific questions!

Memory Book Questions--a List of Possible Oral History Questions (http://www.kindredkeepsakes.com/products/questions/index.asp)

(Note: since the Memory Book Questions can now only be had for sale, you might want to download the sample questions at: http://www.kindredkeepsakes.com/products/questions/sample.pdf.)