Personal Histories

ORAL HISTORY CONSULTING

A LIFETIME LEGACY

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PERSONAL HISTORIES - THE GIFT OF A LIFETIME

Personal Histories

Services & Products

What is involved in an oral history?

Client Excerpts

Remembering the past is a gift to your family, your children, your grandchildren, and even your great-grandchildren. Your story, your memories, your family traditions, your cultural heritage, and your values are conveyed in your own words. An oral history recreates the tapestry of your life as no other historical or genealogical document can.

SERVICES & PRODUCTS

The following products are offered with your Oral History:

•   Audiotapes
•   Typed Transcript
•   Narrative Transcript
•   Bound Books
•   Life History CDs

Life history services are billed at an hourly rate as stages of the project are completed. This allows you to proceed at a pace that is comfortable to your needs. You may choose all or part of a package.

WHAT IS INVOLVED IN AN ORAL HISTORY?

How many times have you been asked what it was like when you were growing up? What were your parents like? How do you explain a lifetime commitment to a particular occupation, organization, community, or interest? Only you can answer these questions and offer your personal experiences as a living testament to your life. Your memories are a lasting treasure that can reveal the common threads of family life and experience.

After an initial consultation, the first step involves completing a biographical questionnaire. From this starting point, Dr. Gwenn Jensen, a professional oral historian, will guide you through a conversational interview or series of interviews about your life and your memories. Oral interviews can run from 2 to 10 hours and can be completed over a period of time.

The transcript of the interview becomes the foundation of the oral history. Through a partnership of editing and collaboration, your story comes to life. Photographs, important personal documents, and a personal timeline can be incorporated to illustrate your life story and produce a lasting legacy of your life. The audiotapes that accompany the text preserve the intimacy of your voice for your family.

Whether you want to create a personal biography or commission the life history of a family member, Oral History Consulting can help.

EXCERPTS FROM CLIENT MEMOIRS

"Although we were very poor we had enough to eat, but my clothes were hand-me-downs. Even so, I never felt deprived because that was the way life was at that time. All I wanted to do is make enough money, help my mother get out of there, and do better. So whatever I did, I worked to make a buck. Every Saturday night, I'd sneak into a subway train and go all the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge where they sold newspapers wholesale. There I would buy a Sunday paper for three cents, take the train back, and sell it for ten cents. We got the Sunday paper the day before. So if I bought ten papers, I'd make seventy cents."

From Dimes to Diamonds by Irving Heller

"When I was a little shaver, four or five year old, I remember I had a red coaster wagon. Mom and I had moved in with Grandma and mother's stepfather. He was an old Swiss. I remember he liked me very much and we got along just fine. Grandma did the washing for some neighbors. She had me deliver the clean clothes with my coaster wagon and paid me a nickel. I was happy coasting down the sidewalk on my little wagon. I didn't realize we were poor. … Grandma's house did not have electricity, and the only plumbing was a cold water pipe in the kitchen sink. The toilet was a little outhouse in the back yard. There was no radio or television, but we did have a telephone. The house was located in the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota, at 1809 St. Anthony Avenue. The spot where the house was located is now the Freeway 494, connecting Minneapolis and St. Paul. We used to have a coal stove; it heated the house. They set it up in the living room right with the isinglass and doors. He used to sit in front of the stove with big pieces of Swiss cheese and toast them in the stove and feed me sitting on his lap. I still love Swiss cheese."

Isinglass is a muscovite - a mica. It was once used as "glass" in window panes, stoves, and lanterns.

A Life History by Earl Ewald

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