Recording Your Family History: A Guide to Preserving Oral History With Videotape, Audiotape, Suggested Topics and Questions, Interview Techniques [Hardcover]

William Fletcher (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

YA A brief introduction to the use of videotape and audio tape in recording oral history is followed by 12 chapters of possible topics and extensive questions for interviewing relatives and friends. Basically a workbook growing out of an earlier version, Talking Your Roots (Fletcher, 1983; o.p.), this will be useful for young adults seeking a common ground with the older generation to create a relaxed and informal yet meaningful interview.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 313 pages
• Publisher: Dodd Mead; 1st edition (March 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0396088864
• ISBN-13: 978-0396088868
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,192,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, August 4, 2004

By 

K. Vasan (NZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Recording Your Family History (Paperback)

If you would like to record a family member's story or interview someone, this books goes through the stages of a life logically and provides the questions to each stage. eg childhood, youth etc. I use the questions as a base and change them to my needs. It has provided excellent starting point. It even has a special section for different ethnicty/religion ie Jewish section, African American questions. Fanatastic book!!!!

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource-Brainstorming Tool, December 23, 2009

By 

Kokomo reader "book lover" (The Villages, FL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Recording Your Family History (Paperback)

While this book is dated 1987, and references to technology are a bit out of date, this book is a gem. I use it as a motivator to encourage me in the process of doing interviews, and preserving family history. He calls it a "Life History Interview" and gives you more examples of questions than you would ever want to use. But his questions to use, and his approach to the process, sensitivity to the narrator's aversion to the technology, are right on. This book will spark your own insights and get you moving to preserve your own histories. The title of an earlier edition was "Talking Your Roots".

5.0 out of 5 stars More questions that you'll have time to ask., August 22, 2009

By 

Cal Gar "Beresan to Siberia" (Orange County, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Recording Your Family History (Paperback)

The book is getting a little dated as time passes, but it still has more sample questions to help you get you family members talking than you will ever use. It's great because it has samples for different periods in ones life and it has questions for different periods in history.