history

Oral History: Everyone is a primary source and all historical experience is important. 

Read the details in the prompt attached below regarding the assignment and how to conduct an oral history interview. Then, do an interview with an older family member, someone of your parents’ or grandparents’ generation (or, if an older family member is not available, another older member of your community or a family friend).

Then write a typed, double-spaced, two-page essay that explores a family, community member or older family friend’s experience from their life. Note: You may write this essay in the first person, as in “On March 31, 2016, I interviewed my great-uncle J.D., who is 68.” “My family history reveals....” “I discovered that our community....”

You will share these interviews and experiences in your facilitator groups on Wednesday, September 13. Bring your essay to class that day and be prepared to share both the information shared with you about your family member and the experience you had doing the interview.

Oral History: Everyone is a primary source and all historical experience is important.

Oral history provides a fuller, more accurate picture of the past by augmenting the information provided by other primary sources. Eyewitnesses to events contribute various viewpoints and perspectives that fill in the gaps in documented history, sometimes correcting or even contradicting the written record. Remember history is an interpretation of past events and of past experiences. Interviewers are able to ask questions left out of other records and to interview people whose stories have been untold or forgotten. At times, an interview may serve as the only source of information available about a certain place, event or person. In this unit, you will interview an older family member, community member or friend about a memorable experience in their life tied to a historic event of your interest or about their experience immigrating/migrating to California or some other place in the US if applicable.

Format: Write a typed, double-spaced, two pages, 1” margins essay that explores a family, community member or older family friend’s experience from their life. Note: You may write this essay in the first person, as in “On March 31, 2016, I interviewed my great-uncle J.D., who is 68.” “My family history reveals....” “I discovered that our community....”

Prompt: Read the details below regarding how to conduct an oral history interview. Then, do an interview with an older family member, someone of your parents’ or grandparents’ generation (or, if an older family member is not available, another older member of your community). During the interview, be sure to take copious notes or if the subject is willing record the interview (all smart phones have digital recorders). Based on what you learn in that interview tell the subject's story and  ADDRESS all in the last few paragraphs of your essay: 

1. What does your family’s (or community’s) history of immigration to the United States, migration to California, or the other event they described reveal about your family or the person you interviewed? Here you're drawing conclusions about the person or community based on their experiences. In other words, you're interpreting their lives based on a primary source (your interview with them). 


2. What did you learn about your family/community history that changed or expanded your understanding of your families’ history?

3. Are there any primary sources you could include with the essay to back up the assertions made in your family’s story? What are they and what do they reveal about your family?

ORAL HISTORY
For your interview, you will use a modified form of oral history methods. Oral history is a distinct history practice which involves careful guidelines regarding obtaining an interviewee’s permission, recording the interview, preserving the interview, and so on.  You will not be following formal oral history practices, but you will be drawing on some of the techniques for your interview. To that end, please bear in mind the following recommendations:

· Ask a subject to agree to be interviewed, and set up a date, time, and place to do so. Decide how you will record the details (by taking notes or doing an audio recording), and let the interviewee know. If you plan to record the interview, make sure your technology is working. 

· Begin the interview by thanking the interviewee. 

· When you conduct the interview, no one else should be present in the room beside you and the interviewer (two family members may disagree with each other’s memories of what happened, when it happened, and why it was important). 

· Don’t ask simple yes/no questions, instead ask open-ended questions, such as: “What do you know about your family’s decision to immigrate to the United States?” “Why did your mother move to California?” “What did they do for work? How did they like it?” “What was your family’s experience at home like during grandfather’s service overseas in World War II?” (Open-ended questions will get more information than a yes/no question like, “Did your family come here for economic reasons?”). 

· Allow your family or community member time to answer—don’t interrupt. You can certainly follow up by repeating something that person said or asking for more detail, as in, “Can you tell me more about that?” or “That’s really interesting. Why do you think that happened?’ 

· Before you finish, offer your interviewee the opportunity to speak, as in, “Is there anything else that you think is important about our family/community’s experience in this period that you would like to discuss?” “How did you feel your experience fit into larger U.S. history developments?” 

· Conclude by thanking the interview, and follow up, if you can, with a thank you note expressing your appreciation for that person’s time and assistance. 

You will share these interviews and experiences in your facilitator groups on Wednesday, Sept. 13th. Bring your essay to class that day and be prepared to share both the information shared with you about your family member and the experience you had doing the interview.