Keeping Family Stories Alive: Discovering and Recording the Stories and Reflections of a Lifetime. 2nd ed.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This is a practical how-to manual for recording oral history, packaged
with some great examples of family stories.

Everything the beginning family historian needs to know about recording
family stories is spelled out in careful detail by Rosenbluth. She
elaborates on why family stories have value and how the act of recording
them affects both the person telling the stories and the interviewer.
From this philosophical and sociological base, she moves on to the
mechanical: recorders, microphones, tapes, audio vs. video, the setting,
and even storing and duplicating finished tapes. There’s a chapter on
dealing with sensitive material (“Family Secrets”) and sections on
questioning techniques and lots of sample questions. Another chapter
explores the link between oral history and genealogy.

Teachers will find all the information needed to initiate oral history
class projects, including procedures and sample forms.

Throughout the how-to part of the book, Rosenbluth uses examples drawn
from family stories as illustrations for the topic being explained. The
technique is effective in generating enthusiasm and fueling the
reader’s motivation to get started. The reader is then prepared to
welcome a section of more than 50 pages devoted to the transcripts of
some oral histories. These are emotion-packed stories, told by ordinary
people when interviewed by family members (sometimes children). They
make the strongest possible case for finding time now to record the
stories our parents and grandparents have to share.