Creating a Family Oral History: Asking the Right Questions

You suggested sending in personal accounts of my starting my oral histories of relatives and friends. I interviewed my elderly school teacher on countless occasions without her even knowing it. She would forget that I was asking the same questions over and over and would gladly answer again and again. I loved it! I particularly loved hearing her tell about things that annoyed her about her neighbors, how her childhood home and neighborhood had changed, friends and students who had died, trips she took while teaching. Typical questions: how did she decide to go into teaching? Tell about her favorite Christmas tradition growing up. What were some of the names of family pets. If she could travel anywhere, where would she go? Why? For other relatives, I asked questions relating to their growing up years, where they went to school, how did they meet their spouse, did they have a sense of direction of what kind of occupation they went into, their favorite kind of music, favorite music artists. Many of these questions would lead to other stories or other topics. As far as I know, I'm the only one in my family who did this on a regular basis. Some of it is written and some are on video or cassette tape. I did not know I like to write until I started this venture 40 years!