Letter O challenge

Interview Nico & JC, managers

Christophe Losberger via Compfight

Sorry for the long delay since the last letter challenge in April but doing online study at UTAS has been taking up a lot of time but we are back in the swing of things again now.

Oral History

  • How often do you formally interview or tape stories told to you by your relatives?
  • Have you ever been to a nursing home or residential home for the elderly to tape their stories?
  • Maybe you live in a neighbourhood with lots of migrants. Have they ever told you their stories.

Recording and editing the interview

This was one of the units I have just completed at UTAS. I had already interviewed my dad using the Soundcloud app, but when I went to use it again, I found I couldn’t record with it, only listen to a recording. This meant I had to use a new app for the actual interview. I downloaded three of them on my iPad – Recorder (looks like a tape recorder), Quickvoice and Quick recorder. I used the Recorder app as it looked more comfortable to my aunt who I was going to record.

Once the interview was complete, it was in m4a format when I emailed it to myself. It needed some editing and as I had used Audacity before with lots of problems (it also doesn’t like m4a format), I found another editing program called Wavepad. I got the free trial version and it was just like using copy and paste on a word document – very easy to use so I would recommend that to anyone in future.

What type of questions do you ask?

There are quite a few great websites written by genealogists and oral historians giving lots of questions to think about. But remember to make sure the person you are interviewing is comfortable before you start. You also need to make sure you have their permission to use the interview and recording, whether it is for your own personal family history or to put on a blog like mine or to include in a book or put in a display for the public.

I used some of the questions from the Centre for Oral History Research, but you can also look at these from Family tree magazine, About Genealogy (be careful of all the ads) and don’t forget to look at Oral History Australia and their guidelines.

Readers: Please leave a comment about my post or something beginning with O that relates to your family history or your research.

Copper Uppercase Letter O

5 thoughts on “Letter O challenge

  1. O is for OPTIMISM that I’ll break down brick walls.
    O is for OPENING messages that make new connections to family.
    O is for OTHER ways to gather and share family history- oral interviews, objects, photographs.

  2. O is fo OH! Where is that relative of mine?
    O is for On-line. We are so lucky to have this
    Option today to do research and study.

  3. O’BYRNE

    My fifth great grandmother was Catherine O’Byrne who was born in County Wicklow, Ireland in 1750. She married Thomas Phillips in 1767 and went on to have three sons: Edward, Phillip (yes, Phillip Phillips!!!) and Myles.

    I am hoping to learn more about her life as my research takes me further back.

  4. O is for all the family Objects that get passed down through families. Our mother told us stories about each piece she had inherited, who had owned it and where it had come from. Now it will be my turn to hand on pieces of jewellery , photographs, china etc. to my daughters and granddaughters.

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