HomeMy WebLinkAboutEastgate Interview StructureInterview Structure
1. Formative years (youth):
a. Birth, family, and home circumstances
b. Geographical setting -where the family lived
c. Preschool activities
d. Religion as a factor in the family
e. Education (locations, teachers, academic progress, outside activities,
school friends)
f Community life (local customs, special interests, entertainment, local
economy, populations)
g. General experiences (travel, family, friends, early work experiences,
family and community health, seasonal experiences, local humor,
personal /community catastrophes)
2. Mature years (adulthood):
a. Completion of formal education
b. Military service (where stationed, duties, basic training, travel,
overall attitude toward military duty)
c. Job /career development (how selected, changes and transfers,
problems and achievements, professional organization memberships,
relationships to general economy, descriptions of actual work done)
d. Family development at adult level
1. Selection of spouse and marriage
2. Children
3. Family finances (sources of support and how income was
spent)
4. Housing development (renting, owning, building homes)
5. Relocating the family (moving to new towns or farms, effects
on the family)
6. The family in the neighborhood
7. Roles of adults in the family
8. Leisure time activities (travel, entertainment, hobbies, sports)
e. Religion, social groups, and civic activity
1. Church/synagogue activity
2. Membership in local organizations (clubs, fraternal bodies,
societies)
3. Civic work (PTA, volunteer work, political interests, service
in elected positions)
• Get a release in writing.
Legal Considerations
• Oral history agreements should be signed by both the respondent and the
interviewer. The interviewer, despite the fact that he /she is either an employee
or a volunteer for the local history group, must sign an agreement.
• When should the agreements (contracts) be signed? The approach is to ask for
the respondent's signature immediately following the oral history session.
• Each respondent should feel free and be encouraged to ask questions about the
legal forms. The oral historian should avoid alarming the respondent with
statements about "the law," "red tape," "our legal obligations," and the like.
The best approach is understanding and patience, and perhaps a reassuring
comment that all of the people participating in the project are being asked to
sign short statements giving their approval for the local library or group to
place the tape in its oral history collection.
• No interviewer should deliberately lead an interviewee into making libelous or
slanderous statements about other persons.
• If the interviewee asks if he /she should insert a derogatory remark about
another person, the best advice is, "Don't tell me what others should not ever
hear or read." Both interview collaborators should strive to create a historical
document that can be used in the larger study of local history.