The Oral History Workshop: Collect and Celebrate the Life Stories of Your Family and Friends

book condition worse than described / expected - obviously, it was soaked and dryed out with, so it looks deformed now

Know Your Family, Know YourselfI wished I would have had this book before my dad died. He died in 2008 (my mom is in a home in the last stages of Alzheimer's). It was while staying at my parents house clearing out all their belongings I found this unmarked audio cassette tape. It was my dad reading a poem about St. Nick. The tears rolled down my cheeks as I listened. It made me realize how much I missed the sound of his voice.This book is great to know your family and friends, and to know yourself. In chapter 3, "Ask a Question, Gather a Story, you will find seventy-three pages of questions. Just reading the questions gives you insight not just about the person you would interview, but yourself. The categories of questions alone give insight for painting a picture of one's life. For example, just reading: "The Terrific Twenty questions on page 56-57 is a good way to know people better. There are around forty-three categories and seventy-three pages of questions. There are the usual categories like, Teen Years, Career and unusual categories: "Rites of Passage" category: "Who taught you to ride a bike." "The Wider World," asks, "What kinds of world events were discussed at home." It makes you think about what matters.This book has everything you need for an oral history, writing a memoir, or just questions to know your family better.You, or the person being interviewed, may not be famous to the wider world, but I bet you are the heart and world to people who love you, and vice versa. Capture that life, those special moments in a form that can be shared and remembered. Do an oral history of your own life. An oral history is a priceless gift.

I AM SOO PLEASED WITH THIS BOOK! I looked at my library for somthing and did some searching on Amazon. Our local library had nothing under this description and this was the best I found on Amazon. I LOVE it. It arrived the day I was flying to see my grandma, so I was bummed that I couldnt use it on that trip. But I still plan to call her and ask the questions! Just need to figure a way to record the convo over the phone. It has a great list of questions to ask! Highly recommend it! OUR History is is so important to know and pass onto our kids and their kids! Take the time to listen to your elderly loved ones and record their stories! THEY LOVE TO SHARE THEM!

Very good list of questions in a whole chapter of forty or so pages that gives you great ideas of questions to ask while doing alive story interview. If you are planning to do a family history this is a great resource as there are a dozen question suggestions just on grandparents or just on school experience or on hobbies, definitely many more questions than you could think off yourself.

This book is excellent if you are going to be interviewing family.... Has hundreds of questions and they are very thought provoking. Helped me with my interview of family members for genealogy. Great book!!! glad i have it in my collection.

This is not what I expected. I am not doing an interview, i am just doing this on my own at my own time.I would have liked more on how to select topics at randam, how to put them together, how to make a booklet with photos,and oral memories.for example, I used a digital recorder to remeber Mothers Day's through out my life,now I am doing remembrences of trains as the train just returned to our old Union Depot after 45 yearsThis book is too technical and way to wordy

I am starting a business interviewing seniors and documenting their lives. Thsi book was perfect. I have bought others but this was easy to read.....great tips. Yes yes yes.

I'm working on doing a video where I interview my grandparents, then parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, etc. As I mentioned on a few other books, they all start to blend together eventually as they're pretty similar, but I still found this text to be helpful!

This serves as a gold standard for anyone starting out in the field! Loved reading the whole book and there are 100's of questions which are more than enough for 100's of interviews I would say.Very well-written guidance book.

Offers a toolkit to get to know your friends and family.

A good selection of how-to's. Excellent cross-section of recommended questions and strategies.