How to Research Your Land's History · Section 3 of 7

3. Talking with people: oral history basics

Written by AI A draft for Dr. Bob Zybach's review, written by AI from his four published documents (one of them, Coquelle Trails, written with Don Ivy). Words inside quotation marks are quoted from those documents, with the page. He has not reviewed this draft.

An oral history is more than a visit on the porch: “Oral histories are tape recorded and transcribed interviews with individuals that document living memory.” (Thesis 1999, p. 26). Oral traditions are different: they tend to pass culture along through spoken words, songs and the like, while oral histories set out to record historical information (paraphrase; Tiller 2011, p. 13). The Soap Creek study is built on oral histories (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 27).

Choosing people

The Soap Creek study applied two tests: “participants must have had a first-hand knowledge of events in Soap Creek Valley and they must have lived or worked in the area for a significant period of time” (Thesis 1999, p. 35). It also sought women and men, different occupations and experiences, and a range of ages (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 35). And it did not wait: “Older participants were given priority and interviewed first whenever possible” (Thesis 1999, p. 36), because “the oldest members of potential interviewees held the earliest and most fragile memories of Soap Creek Valley” (Thesis 1999, p. 36).

Most people were found by referral; the first interview led to several more (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, pp. 36–39). So end every visit by asking who else you should see.

Asking, and recording

People were interviewed when and where it suited them, and were told what kinds of questions would be asked, that they could stop at any time or skip a question, and that the recording would be transcribed and shared, with a chance to edit the transcript first (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 47). Recorded sessions typically began with introductions, then with discussing and signing an informed consent agreement (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 47). Do the same: ask before you record, explain what will happen to the recording, and put the agreement on paper. Question for Bob: is a written agreement the right suggestion for landowners, and should the booklet offer a sample?

Record rather than take notes: a recording keeps tone and background sounds, and the talk usually flows better (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 33). Most Soap Creek sessions ran one to two hours, and repeated questions were kept few so as not to irritate anyone (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 48).

Prompting memory with places, photographs and objects

“In order to facilitate recall, interviews were often conducted at locations in which specific events had transpired” (Thesis 1999, p. 46). Interviews also used maps, aerial photographs, sketches, prehistoric tools “and even broken glass, old bricks, and nails” (Thesis 1999, p. 46), prompts that “proved very effective in rekindling memories or triggering additional thoughts” (Thesis 1999, p. 47). A one-page outline of topics served as a checklist (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 46). General topics included family history, how the family made a living, neighbors, major events, old documents and objects, and changes in plants and wildlife (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 45). Bring photographs, and walk the ground if your guest is able.

Transcripts the speaker checks

New recordings were typed up, then checked against the tape by people who had been at the interview (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 48): “The interviewees were often the best people for this step because they were most aware of who and what was talked about, general accuracy, how names were spelled, what they had intended to say, and what had been left unsaid.” (Thesis 1999, p. 48). The Soap Creek interviews leaned toward an approach in which, if a date is later found to be wrong, the transcript is corrected and a note added (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, pp. 43–44), while the tape keeps the original: “The recording can always be used to determine exactly what was said, and the oral historian can safely quote transcribed text with assurance that historical documentation is given priority over human recollection.” (Thesis 1999, p. 44).

Testing memories against documents

In the Soap Creek study, doubts about spoken memories “were resolved by triangulation of oral history transcripts with other scientific and documentary sources of information” (Thesis 1999, p. 59). Triangulation, as the thesis uses the term, means using two or more sources, methods or theories to check one another (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 24). The usual result was “striking degrees of consistency in detail” (Thesis 1999, p. 59).

Memory’s limits

Memories differ: two of the people interviewed gave quite different accounts of the same structure from before the First World War, and two others gave contradictory accounts of a local flock of what were believed to be feral sheep (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 46). In the Soap Creek study, memory seemed to keep its own calendar: “most memories seem to focus on key events that occur about once every generation—on average, about every 30 years, no matter what topic is considered” (Thesis 1999, p. 56). For older people, “a decade is generally too short a period to discuss in detail, and a century is too long” (Thesis 1999, p. 56). Some effects slip past: a long-term study the thesis cites found that a sudden cold spell in 1955 had measurable, lasting effects on trees’ health and survival (paraphrase; Thesis 1999, p. 68), yet “these effects went undetected by Soap Creek Valley subjects, several of whom were foresters, farmers, loggers, and ranchers” (Thesis 1999, p. 68). Question for Bob: the thesis dates this cold spell to October 1955 on p. 68, and its Table 22 (p. 204) lists a major cold snap in 1956; are these the same event? Ask about the big events, then check the dates.