Getting started with oral history

The Oral History Society offers practical advice about how to record stories about the past.

The first step is to have a focus, such as Memories from Starcross. This gives us a broad scope; without cutting out memories of those who live here now, but have important personal memories about other places.

We can have sub-themes; such as The Royal Western Counties Hospital, Farming Tales, or At Work. Oral history adds to documented history, "All memories are a mixture of facts and opinions, and both are important. The way in which people make sense of their lives is valuable historical evidence in itself. "