March 7th, 2025, 2:46pm MST
Near the start of the Covid-19 pandemic five years ago, Rachel Trotter visited with her parents on Sunday, where the children asked questions and recorded their answers.
“How did you know that my father passed away eight months after the pandemic?” Trotter said in class at Rotstech 2025. “I lost my father, but we recorded him.”
While preparing to teach a March 6 class called “The Beauty of Oral History,” she listened to those recordings along with her 13-year-old daughter.
Trotter said: I had forgotten how his voice sounded. ” And she began to cry, “Thank you for doing that for me.” And sometimes we do things in that moment, and we don’t know how they will affect people later. ”
In her class, Trotter, the author and senior editor of evalogue.life, who teaches individuals how to save personal stories, invited listeners to document the oral history of their loved ones. She suggested the best questions to ask, how to conduct interviews, and how to cherish audio for years to come.
Draw life stories through audio
“Who can you hear?” she asked Trotter, pointing out that she could think of a few things, including her paternal grandparents. She then added, “Whose voice do you want to save now?”
Audio can be captured for the elderly and young people. “They are greatly influenced in a positive way through the process of reporting their own life stories, their oral history, and have the therapeutic value of life reviews.”
It’s an easy process, she said. Some reasons for capturing a person’s oral history include their ability to document important life events, draw pictures of someone’s life, and document family history.
Trotter also invited participants to record their oral history. “How many times do we think?” No one cares about me. Does no one want to hear me? I promise you that it is not true. ”
Oral history interviews will be conducted
“The best interviews start with really good questions,” she said.
Recording oral history allows you to ask open-ended questions, such as the hometown of the interviewees, the historical events they experienced, when they started something, and how they overcome something difficult.
Interviewers can also divide questions and interviews into categories using topics such as childhood, adult life, family life, military service, relationships, and retirement.
Trotter also suggested that they have a small story before the recording begins. Rather than asking questions that would return the conversation to the interviewer, we looked into whether there were any off-limit questions or topics that the topic didn’t develop.
Involving young people in these oral history interviews could be “magic,” Trotter said. “They think of questions that we don’t always ask. Adults like to talk to children because they make us feel comfortable. It’s great to get them involved and get caught up in the spirit of family history and all of the family history.”
Overall, individuals enjoy asking questions and are flexible if the interviews are moving in a direction they didn’t expect.
“I’ll leave the recordings until you’re done forever, because when you leave the door or wind up, some of the best things come out at the end of the interview.”
After the interview
What can you do with audio after an oral history interview?
“If the interview itself is everything you’ve ever done, then you did something really important, so that’s fine,” Trotter said. “But there are other things you can do.” For example, the interviewees are:
Download transcripts of interviews from programs such as Zoom, Happy Scribe, and Otter AI and print or share them digitally. Create a book to record interviews and photos by sharing audio with friends and family through email, social media, and family reunions.
15 questions to ask
Participants in the Trotter class received a printout of 15 questions asked in oral history interviews.
Tell us about your hometown. What was your family’s food tradition? Tell us about your grandparents. Who influenced you the most? What is your occupation? Why was the happiest time in your life? How did you meet? What is your passion and favourite hobby? How do you want to remember? Do you have any regrets? What is the perfect day for you? Do you believe in prayer? Why or why? What was your most spiritual experience? What do you value most?
“Are we doing everything we can to maintain our oral history?” Trotter asked. “We have all these resources at our fingertips. Are we doing enough?”
