For those genealogists who stick to dry information of names and dates, future generations will not thank-you. While genealogy is indeed about finding names and dates and places, it is also about history. More specifically your personal history. Oral history is important to the genealogist because it breaths life into the past and gives your genealogy a wider base of interest.

Long before humans had the ability of reading and writing, they had oral tradition. Humans are by nature storytellers. We only have to look at the great hunts outlined on the walls of caves to know that stories have had a place in human society before any other form of history.

The importance to you personally is a better understanding of your family history and the lives and times of your ancestors. For example; some families have different traditions, like celebrating a birthday by giving someone else a gift instead of receiving one. How is it that this tradition started in your family? This is one way of starting to look for oral history in your family, and coming to understand your own past.

Another way oral history can aid you in your search is by helping you find the names of people who are related to your lines. There might be an oral tradition or story in the family about someone who lived on the grandparent's land, or lived near (cousin's) family. By searching land records, you might find names of relatives you never knew existed.

Oral duds are about the only problem with oral history. All oral history has to be taken with a grain of salt. I have a grandfather who came to this country when he was 18 on the ship Marcom, so the legend in my family says, but after 20 years of searching, no ship named the Marcom was ever found. Not only was this oral history but Grandfather had snitched a towel with the ship name USS Marcom printed on it. I had begun to believe that the ship towel was just a miss print and it really was the USS Marconi. I later found the real story, and the ship was not the Marcom or Marconi. It was the Britannia, and it was without a doubt stocked with mis printed towels for the poor people who were being brought to the US for the purpose of working off an indenture.

Although oral history has its plus and minus side, it is still a great way to get to know your ancestors. It could help you understand why they acted the way they did, the times they lived in and the hardships they had to live through. Oral history is a wonderful way of making a connection to people you never knew. If you do nothing else I hope that you will put your Oral history down on paper and talk to everyone in the family to hear their versions. By doing this you will be preserving clues to the past for future generations and make

For more information on Oral history be sure to check out CGc's Family History links and Back to the index