Family Oral History Across the World

Mary Contini Gordon, Ed.D, Educational Psychology, UCLA with honors has held lead roles in corporations and educational institutions for research and development. She taught the introduction to graduate research in the California State University System. She has authored a family history under contract and biography with the support of NPS, both based on oral history interviews.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD

MAP OF MAJOR LOCATIONS

PREFACE

PART I: ORAL HISTORY APPLIED TO FAMILY HISTORY

CHAPTER 1: ORAL HISTORY AS PART OF FAMILY HISTORY

Family History Defined by Families and by Those Who Study Them

The Role of Oral History for a Family History

Family Oral History as a Research Methodology

Memoirs, Autobiographies, Biographies

Why Stories Matter

A note on the author’s family in a wide, wide world

CHAPTER 2: WHAT MAKES A FAMILY? WHO SAYS?

The Real-time Concept of Family

From Exploratory Research for This Book, Who Says?

From Census Data

Multi-generations, More Interview Opportunities

Internal Country Differences

A note on the author’s family in a multigenerational world.

CHAPTER 3: KINSHIP IN CHANGING DEMOGRAPHIES

Census Data Combined with Other Sources

Backdrop Research to Give Context

What Different Types of Families Have to Say

Alternative family? It never felt like one!

Not Married, with Children

The Possible Impact of Gender

Step or Blended Families:

Friends and Other Associates

Single People

A note on the author’s friends like family

PART II: CASE STUDIES

CHAPTER 4: SMALL BUSINESS AND CAREER FAMILIES

Small Business Families

The Bakers

The World on Wheels

Market Gardeners

Career Families

National Park Service Families

Scientist Musicians

Mine Workers

A note on the author’s family agricultural roots transplanted

CHAPTER 5: THE COLD CASE OF A LOST PLANTATION FAMILY

Oral History Challenged by Silence

A View Across Boundaries

Getting Away from Family

Breaking Silence to Find Family and Family History

Getting Started

Finding Grandmother and Her Family

Finding Aunt Ella’s Blue Bloods

Finding His Biological Father

The Ancestry of Tensquatawa

Academic Research: Effects of Slavery on Descendants of Plantation Slaves

Lost Census Data

Demographic Studies and Discoveries, Plantation Effects

A Plantation Descendant on the Plantation Effect Over Generations

A Plantation Descendant on the Value and Validity of Oral History

Author’s Note: A Freeze Frame Connection

CHAPTER 6: INDIGENOUS FAMILIES OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST

Special Terminology

Family And Lineage Histories of California Mission Indians

Overcoming Stereotypes and Extinction

The Mission Context and Challenges to Family History

The Role of Mission San Fernando Rey as a Lost and Found

Oral Tradition and DNA: Do They Concur?

Years Later, Changes Affecting Mission Indian Family History

Family Histories in Yaqui Communities

Trilingual Family Oral Histories of the Pasqua Yaqui

Voices from Penjamo, another Yaqui Community

Meeting, Listening, Searching

Iteration to Trust

Protocols of Navajo Family Oral History

Toward Indigenizing Family Oral History

Effect of Boarding School on Language and History

Interviewing Family Members, the Importance of Place and Protocol

Passing the Stories On

Author’s Note: Where did they all go?

CHAPTER 7: FAMILIES FROM WAR-TORN, POVERTY-STRICKEN, AND/OR OPPRESSIVE REGIMES

Family Voices, Escaping, Remembering, Moving On

Remembering a German Grandma, Research to Prevent Another Holocaust

Wartime Effects on Australian Market Gardeners

A Japanese American Family Experiences and the Passage of Time

Coming from Poland under Soviet Rule

From Vietnam to France, Leaving the Fear Behind

Coming from Mexico: Murder, Poverty, PTSD, and a Matriarch’s Interventions

Orphaned in the Philippines to a Cross World Family

From the Warm Seychelles to Snowy Canada

Summary Statement from a Dedicated Life

Author’s Note: On Behalf of Dreams

PART III: FAMILY HISTORY MEMORY, EMOTION, AND ETHICS

CHAPTER 8: THE ROLE OF MEMORY IN FAMILY ORAL HISTORY

Quick Examples of Memory Sources and their Range of Emotions

Types of Memory Especially Important to Family Oral History

Family Memory, Autobiographical Memory

Collective, Public, Historical, Individual Memories

Long Term Memory Subsets

Family Memory in Practice

Childhood Memory

Oral Historical: Making Family Memories in Nontraditional Ways

Pointers from an Oral Historian Working in Hospital Palliative Care

Pointers from a Speech Pathologist Working in Home Care Settings

The Reliability and Validity of Memories

Author’s Note: The Purple Chair

Chapter 9: THE EMOTIONAL CONTINUUM IN FAMILY ORAL HISTORIES

Emotion in This Book’s Quotes

Studies About Emotional Content in Interviews

Trauma, PTSD, and Triggering Traumatic Memory

Awareness on the Sadder Side of the Emotional Continuum

Sharing Salient Memories or Not

Collective Memory with Silence, Secrets, Resilience and Kinship

Accessing Family History Interviews, Listener Effects

On the Positive Side of the Continuum: Pride, Joy, Gratitude ,and More

Author’s Note: A Salient Memory Down the Chute

Chapter 10: THE ETHICS OF FAMILY ORAL HISTORY

Starting with Informed Consent

Ethics Considered by Interviewees

From Dialogs on Navigating the Ethics of Family Oral History

A Professor in Dialog: What is Ethics?

Ethical, Legal, or Moral?

Autonomy and Dignity

Trust and Fairness

Multicultural Considerations

Special Situations and Family Dynamics

A Practitioner in Dialog: Quandaries in Family Oral History

A Secret?

Embarrassment and Secrets?

Summary Dialog: Learning Ethics

Author’s Note: Pinocchio

PART IV: INTRODUCTION TO A FAMILY ORAL HISTORY PROCESS AND APPLICATION

A Process Outlined

Working with the Family

CHAPTER 11: PHASE ONE, GETTING STARTED AND ORGANIZED

Leadership Roles: Anchor, Team

Scope and Objectives

Consent Forms, Family Trees, Outlines and Interviews, at the Start

Author’s Note: Inside the Family Tree

CHAPTER 12: PHASE ONE, ORGANIZING TECHNOLOGY

Oral History Recording Technologies with Voices of Experts

Technology and its Back-up Systems

Audio or Video?

Another View on Video

About Training for Recording Interviews

Video Options

On-the-road Technology

Author’s Note: Zoom for the Holidays

CHAPTER 13: PHASE ONE, LEARNING ABOUT ARCHIVING

A Tour of Archives

Family Established Archives: Chinese, Chiriaco, Moulton

Western Reserve Historical Society Steeped in Context

LDS Church Archives

National Park Service Multigenerational Family Histories

Community Archives, England

Silent Military Museum Archives, California

Archiving Family History: The Basics

Starter Filing System that Becomes an Oral History Archive

NDMS, Interview Data as a Searchable Working File and Early Archive

Cost Considerations

Author’s Note: A Bridge and a Voice in the Archived Box

CHAPTER 14: PHASE TWO, INTERVIEWING

The Interview Tenets from the Writings of Oral Historians

The Interview Reconsidered

Preparing and Conducting Family History Interviews

Example: The Initial Interview

Example: The Significant Memories Interview

Example: The Series of Interviews by Time Periods and/or by Sites

Example: Specialized Interviews

Who Gets Interviewed?

Context and Fact Checking

Progress Reviews

Author’s Note, A Grandma’s Role in Interviews

CHAPTER 15: PHASE TWO, TEXTUALIZING FAMILY VOICES IN CONTEXT

About Family Oral History Transcriptions

Other Approaches to Transcribing

Editorial Intervention

Editorial Integration Beyond Words

Editorial Integration over a Generation

Author’s Note: Family Over Time and Place

CHAPTER 16: PHASES THREE, FOUR, FIVE: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER, INTEGRATING, WRITING/SCRIPTING, SHARING

The Roles of Interviews with other Sources.

Weaving Multiple Stories into a History

Integrating Visuals

Ways of Sharing Family Oral History

Closing Thoughts from Four Elders and Two Youngers

EPILOGUE: AN ETHICS DIALOGUE ACROSS THE OCEAN

An Ethics of Care

Reconciling differing narratives

The integrity of the narrative

Family secrets or new information

Where will family history interviews be shared?

Promoting the Persistence of Memory

Appendix A: Interview Recognitions, Document and Online Sources

Recorded Interviews

Non recorded Interviews, Phone Conversations, Emails, and Mail

Books and Book Chapters Consulted and/or Cited

Presentations

Articles Cited

Selected Electronic Sites from those Mentioned

Appendix B: Oral History Resources, Training Sites, and Archives Mentioned

Some Oral History Online Training and Related Topics

Some Oral History and Related Organizations on Ethics

Selected Archives from those Mentioned

TV and Online Interviews with the Author

Appendix C Exploratory Research Plans, Forms, Results

Summary of Exploratory Research Approach

Preliminary Results

Pre-Interview Checkbox Survey Form

Summary of the Checkbox Survey Results

Pre-interview Questionnaire Form

Appendix D: Example Family Tree with Family Advice

Advice on Family History

Appendix E: Table of Figures

Acknowledgements

Index TBD

About the Author