Anne Gulland, Publicity Officer for the Oral History Society, writes:

Spoken testimonies can add immensely to your family history research, providing information that you are unlikely to get in any other way. They can give you a better sense of the lives, personalities and values of relatives, both dead and alive, and give you a human perspective on the past.

The Oral History Society is running a one-day introductory course on oral history for family historians. The course will cover basic aspects of oral history such as interview techniques; equipment; using your material and how to preserve it. The course will also look at the ethics of interviews – a particularly tricky area when interviewing family members.

The course is run by two experienced oral historians – Mary Stewart of the British Library and Cynthia Brown from Leicester University – who are both keen family history researchers. For more information can be found on the Oral History Society training pages.