welcome to the ancestral findings podcast number 46 oral histories are a crucial part
of genealogical research interviewing older relatives can reveal a wealth of previously
unknown information in this episode we'll continue our talk on oral histories and why it's important
even the federal government recognized the importance of oral histories long ago back
in the 1930s when the Civilian Conservation Corps was established to create jobs during
the Great Depression and shore up the nation's infrastructure at the same time taking oral
histories was one of many jobs performed by people in the Corps there were still people alive in the
United States then who had personally fought in or lived through the Civil War and also people
who had been born as slaves and spent the early parts of their lives being owned by other people
the US government recognized the importance of getting the stories of these people recorded
while they were still here to tell about those long ago times they were after all an important
part of American history getting the personal perspective on those times was as important as
knowing the book facts about them because of the recognition of the federal government of
the importance of oral histories we now have audio recordings and written transcriptions
of the stories of former slaves and Civil War soldiers and wives and children of soldiers these
stories give personal details about the time of slavery and the civil war that we would have lost
long ago if not for these interviews many of the stories were not recorded in any other official
documents and existed only in the memories of those who were interviewed getting those stories
brought long-lost people and events back into the public memory again and preserve them for future
generations these oral histories are invaluable historical resources today for both historians
and genealogists if you were lucky enough to have an ancestor who was interviewed you already know
much more about the actual people in your family tree then most genealogists ever will even before
official oral history started to be taken some people recognize the importance of preserving
their memories for future generations while many people in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries were raised to believe it was improper to talk about themselves as it showed unattractive
vanity others wanted people to know about them and remember them that is why diaries were so popular
in those centuries people recorded the mundane details of their lives believing that someday
someone might want to read about those things and inherently understand that these details
were important there are a few eighteenth-century Diaries by women that have been preserved though
most from that century came from men in the 19th century we begin to see much more diary keeping
by women some diaries are still in the possession of the descendants of the writers and accessible
only by their families others have been published for the whole world to benefit from if they choose
to read them these are written oral histories they came from the thoughts of the people who
wrote them so they are like thoughts being spoken aloud onto paper as with a more conventional oral
history they give details into people and events that would otherwise have been forgotten by the
world and provide valuable insight into how people lived and what some individual people were like as
human beings in the days before diaries letters were the best way of recording the details of a
person's life if both the letters a person sent and those they received in return were preserved
that painted an even more detailed picture of that person and their times some archives have letters
that were donated by local families that provide wonderful insights into what a person was like who
they knew how they lived and what was important to them these letters from families that are not
well known are like genealogical gold if you can find them there are also famous letter collections
that give great insight and detail into the lives of well-known historical figures the love letters
between Henry the eighth and Anne Boleyn for example tell us in their own words just how
Henry and Anne felt about each other before they got married during the height of Henry's passion
for an when he changed the structure of England just so he could Wed her the letters between John
and Abigail Adams began during their courtship and go through their entire married lives providing
fascinating detail into their romantic feelings for each other their partnership as spouses
as well as the historical details of the times in which they lived which included the American
Revolution and Adams presidency letters between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams reveal a lot
about who these two famous men really were as people as well as what made them friends
then enemies than friends again diaries and letters give the kinds of details that you
would ask for in an oral history interview if you are doing research into your ancestors and
come across Diaries or letters they wrote you will be thrilled and appreciate that they did
it and their works were preserved these are the next best things to being able to interview them
yourself so as you can see oral histories are crucial to good genealogy research and provide
invaluable genealogical information for you and for future generations conduct interviews with
all of your older relatives while you can and seek out interviews Diaries and letters your
ancestors wrote to get the old-fashioned version of an oral history to enrich your research these
intimate details of your ancestors lives are part of what makes real genealogy so rewarding don't
neglect them in your own research they had so much that is unavailable anywhere else you'll be glad
you took the time to do it and so will the future researchers who use your work as their reference
military records can be excellent sources for breaking down genealogy brick walls
in the next ancestral findings calm podcast I'll
show you how to find and use military records to solve genealogy mysteries
you