‘Recording interviews with relatives’

Paul Brooks - 20 Feb 2008 - speaking at the BerksFHS Computer Branch, Woodley

Paul began by looking at the documents relating to his family in the 1700s and the lack of anything that actually provided an understanding of the character and emotions of his ancestors. Whilst photography, letters and diaries, etc, helped to define their personalities in the 1800s, he explained how the darker side often remained hidden, except through whispers passed down orally in the family.

From the late 1970's Paul had been collecting and sharing the documents and photographs of relatives, but it was the loss of his wife's father at the beginning of the 1990's that made him realise that chunks of the undocumented family history were permanently lost, and as a result he began a more systematic approach to interviewing.

Paul explained the problems of using a simple home camcorder for interviews outside and indoors, and the problems of keeping interviews on-track. His main message was to encourage interviewers to see the whole person in front of them, and to help transport them back to their childhood, teenage years, their hopefully confident twenties, etc.  

The talk did not concentrate on the equipment used, but did mention the problems of different recording formats in a digital world where equipment is rapidly becoming obsolete.

When looking for inspiration he recommended having a look at web sites like
www.yourstorymatters.com/video.html    or    
www.youtube.com         with search keywords such as       family history interview

Although family interviews could be found on the web, and that this might be a method of sharing some content, he warned about the legality and ethics of such a step, and recommended various sites which discussed these issues, and provided examples of "release" forms

www.archives.org.uk/thesociety/specialinterestgroups/filmsoundandphotographygroup.html
www.ohs.org.uk
www.readingmuseum.org.uk/Documents/oral_history.pdf

For general suggestions on questions to ask, then Cyndislist provided a whole section of links on oral history
www.cyndislist.com/oral.htm

and video guides on how to conduct an interview could be found on Roots Television
www.rootstelevision.com
 

updated 11^th March 2008