Once upon a time, a book like The Oral History Workshop wouldn t have been necessary. Once upon a time, when most people lived in small, tight-knit communities, with or within a stone s throw of their families. When stories, lore and family history were essential parts of everyday life. When people spun yarns around the dinner table. When neighbors watched out for and knew everything there was to know about one another. Nowadays, people move around for work, for better climates, for real estate deals, for fresh opportunities. Odds are pretty good that you don t know much about where your neighbors come from and maybe you don t know much about where you come from either. In this modern mobile context, it makes sense that genealogy is such a popular pursuit. People are starved for information about their roots; they pay to have their DNA decoded and spend time worrying about their "identities."But there is a more direct way, a way to mine the rich sources of information all around us just ask.Everyone has a story to tell. And every individual is a piece of a greater puzzle a family, a community, the wider world. This book will enable you to explore those puzzle pieces, and perhaps to come a step closer to fitting them into place.Of course, we re talking about people here, not puzzles. About sitting down with a loved one and asking the questions you ve always wanted to ask and a great many you haven t thought of before. About capturing stories you've heard time and time again or stumbling into stories you've never been told. The listening process may bring you closer to those you care about, and will doubtless provide answers to questions you've had for years: "My father sold insurance for a living, but he always hinted that he'd wanted to be a doctor. He never explained why he abandoned his dream." "Elizabeth loves to tell stories about the wild times she spent traveling with her great aunt, but I ve never known why she wasn t closer to her parents." "I'd love to hear our eighty-five-year-old neighbor talk about what life was like in the 1930s."Genealogy and Your InterviewA passion for many, genealogy is the study of familial and ancestral history. Even if it s not a particular interest of yours, you re probably familiar with the basic concept of a family tree. At its core, the quest for lineage answers the question all humans (especially four-year-olds) have been asking since time immemorial: "Where did I come from?"For many budding genealogists, the Internet has provided a veritable trove of answers. A simple search of family names can open a portal that leads from link to link to link where all kinds of information might be revealed, from records of citizenship, marriage, and employment to the names of the ports at which your ancestors disembarked. At the end, satisfied searchers may leap up from their computers in the throes of spirited "Aha!" moments "I found us on the Mayflower!" "Our name is in the history books!" or simply, "I Excerpted from Tell Me Your Story: How to Collect and Preserve the Life Stories of Your Family and Friends by Cynthia Hart, Lisa Samson All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.