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Imagine sitting on your grandfather’s knee while listening to him tell you a story about his childhood. This is an example of oral history. Oral history is the transmission of historical information that is passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. Because oral history is only recorded by the spoken word, people can easily modify details of the story without knowing it. Consequently, it is a good idea to record stories in a journal, a scrapbook, a video, or another type of medium. Although anyone can sit down with a notebook, tape recorder, or video camera to record stories, Capturing the Past offers important steps on how to plan, prepare, conduct, and preserve a more open and thorough interview for recording oral histories.


Capturing the Past will take you through the four main steps of oral history interviewing:

Step 1: Planning the interview
Step 2: Preparing for the interview
Step 3: Conducting the interview
Step 4: Preserving the interview

This instructional guide reviews the key points in this four step process and includes sample interview questions and an equipment checklist.

*To learn more about family history research, visit the Ancestors website.