Soon Thanksgiving will be here, and then the Holidays. Of course, your best time to interview relatives may be when you go on a visit to them and life isn't overly busy. Still, I find that visiting people during the holidays is a good time to talk about Old Days.
Some people respond to formal interviews better than others.
To do a FORMAL INTERVIEW you:
1) Contact the person and tell them that you want to interview them about the family history or focus on a specific aspect of family history. Although this can be on the phone, in person is best. Other people in this person's life need to give you both time and space and not interrupt.
2) Set up a time to focus on just that in advance that's good for both people, and be there.
3) Be prepared with a list of questions (at least to get you started) and a recording device.
(Whatever works for you. Some people are still using cassette machines. Some people are settling up more than one machine at a time "just in case" one of them fails." Recording is sometimes a more natural process as taking notes can also be distracting or stop the process. You want to make eye contact, be comfortable, and listen too!)
The recording device sometimes intimidates people. It may make the interview feel too important or heavy. You should tell them you intend to use one before hand, but it may help to put it out of the sight line. Test your recorder to be sure it will pick up a voice from a few feet away. Preserving the voice of a relative as they tell their story or give information can be very valuable, if you can keep doing technology updates with original recordings. Our voices tell so much about us!
4) Set up water or tea or other beverages before you begin. Avoid breaking the interview with eating food or other activities. Get into the flow.
5) If, however, it's going to be a long interview or a series of interviews, try to do the interview first before taking a meal or long break or wait until after the meal. You and your interviewee will probably respond best to knowing how it's going to go.
To do an INFORMAL INTERVIEW you:
1) Show up and seize the moment. (It's good to have that recording equipment close.)
2) Let the other person pick the topic or gently guide them to what you want to know.
3) Lends itself more than a formal interview to including more than one person.
