Family Oral Histories

[handywithashovel]

My research falls short when it comes to "well my mom said her grandma said-".
I love hearing that stuff, it's great! But how can I find it from more than one source, even if it's multiple family histories passing it down?
Even better, is there ever a way to prove nefarious plots, lovelorn glances, dramatic escapes?
I've got some wacky characters in my tree, and I'd like to be able to at least say "this is a common family story-"/"all of Texas has heard this one!" or "He wasn't even in the state when he claimed to-". A little fleshing out, if you will. 

[Erato]

In some cases, you might find newspaper reports which support the family lore [not that everything printed in a newspaper is necessarily true, of course]. 

[Gone]

My research falls short when it comes to "well my mom said her grandma said-".
I love hearing that stuff, it's great! But how can I find it from more than one source, even if it's multiple family histories passing it down?
Even better, is there ever a way to prove nefarious plots, lovelorn glances, dramatic escapes?
I've got some wacky characters in my tree, and I'd like to be able to at least say "this is a common family story-"/"all of Texas has heard this one!" or "He wasn't even in the state when he claimed to-". A little fleshing out, if you will. 

When I was young, my granddad told me a story, he had a sister who'd been living on the East Coast, outside of Norwich, during WW1. One evening, she'd been watching a zeppelin over the town and bombs being lobbed overboard. My reaction... Yes granddad, of course she did!
Quite a few years later, I inherited a lot of family ephemera, among the stuff was a little card with a photo of bomb damaged building, 1915 and an attached page with brief notes on it to my great grandparents from my great aunt Edith. Sure enough, she'd witnessed it.
I wish I'd asked her on the many visits to her house, and I wish I'd listened to more of granddads stories.
Griff

[Josephine]

It has worked in the opposite direction for me. I've found something re. the family tree, mentioned it to an aunt or uncle, and they've replied, oh, yes, there was a family story about... or, I remember hearing the older folks talking and saying that surname, but I never knew why. And so on.

Regards,
Josephine

[handywithashovel]

It has worked in the opposite direction for me. I've found something re. the family tree, mentioned it to an aunt or uncle, and they've replied, oh, yes, there was a family story about... or, I remember hearing the older folks talking and saying that surname, but I never knew why. And so on.

Regards,
Josephine

Oh I've definitely had that happen too! Or they say they can't remember, I present newspaper articles, a court ruling, what have you, and they shake their heads. "No, no... this can't be right... I'm sure it was a different uncle..." Ah well, makes for fun anecdotes for the descendants who will be looking us up someday ; )

[handywithashovel]

In some cases, you might find newspaper reports which support the family lore [not that everything printed in a newspaper is necessarily true, of course].

Ah, smart! Thank you for the suggestion!

[handywithashovel]

When I was young, my granddad told me a story, he had a sister who'd been living on the East Coast, outside of Norwich, during WW1. One evening, she'd been watching a zeppelin over the town and bombs being lobbed overboard. My reaction... Yes granddad, of course she did!
Quite a few years later, I inherited a lot of family ephemera, among the stuff was a little card with a photo of bomb damaged building, 1915 and an attached page with brief notes on it to my great grandparents from my great aunt Edith. Sure enough, she'd witnessed it.
I wish I'd asked her on the many visits to her house, and I wish I'd listened to more of granddads stories.
Griff
[/quote]

Wow! You just never know. It's too bad to have missed some opportunities, but it's a lovely thing that you have items now, and the story that goes with them!

[Gone]

When I was young, my granddad told me a story, he had a sister who'd been living on the East Coast, outside of Norwich, during WW1. One evening, she'd been watching a zeppelin over the town and bombs being lobbed overboard. My reaction... Yes granddad, of course she did!
Quite a few years later, I inherited a lot of family ephemera, among the stuff was a little card with a photo of bomb damaged building, 1915 and an attached page with brief notes on it to my great grandparents from my great aunt Edith. Sure enough, she'd witnessed it.
I wish I'd asked her on the many visits to her house, and I wish I'd listened to more of granddads stories.
Griff

Wow! You just never know. It's too bad to have missed some opportunities, but it's a lovely thing that you have items now, and the story that goes with them!
[/quote]
On the other hand, my gran used to tell people her brother died when he fell in the hold of a ship and broke his back.
My mum had grown up with that explanation.
When I took up family history and sent off for his death cert, he died of TB. Some things were hidden because of the stigma attached to it in those days.
My mum never believed the death cert explanation
Griff

[iluleah]

When I started researching my ancestry it was just after my dad had died and I had no one to ask about him or his FH and my mother didn't want to help me just telling me 'let sleeping dogs lie' so would not allow me to see any records she had at home...... so I was on my own, not knowing how to research.....so stories or oral history I had heard, listened to, been told when a child became very important to me and I decided to write down all the stories I remembered who told me and when,
speaking to my nana one day I asked her about  story she told me several years ago and it got her talking until we both noticed my mothers 'look' a look that said 'shut up'...and she did.
I spoke to great aunts/uncles and wrote everything down even if I heard the same story from the same person or a different person, it was amazing how they changed but also some gave me more details or a new detail I could use.
Once I learned how to research properly then it is exactly the same, you follow the real records and I did lots of research about what records were available for the years I was researching, so I then went out ( no internet then) to find each and every one of the real records available during their lifetime so I could cross reference each one......... the person my mother and  all the family wanted to hide was my great grandfather born in 1860 died in 1933 so my mother wasn't even alive to see/know him but I eventually found 'a' record for every single year he was alive  apart from one year so I knew lots about him....... 20 years after I started to research I was in contact with someone the opposite side of the world who was researching the same line and they sent me a photo of my great grandparents and most of their children ( including my grandfather aged 8 yrs old) which I had a copy made, framed it and gave it to my mother as a present..........only then did she realise I had continued to research and found out without her help.

My advice is look at the years they lived, research what records existed so civil, parish, census, tax, land, wills, newspapers and such things as trade directories, unions... (my great grandfather was a farmer so there are lots of farm records) and attempt to find each one. The oral hstory about him are all wrong, but it tells me lots about my family, that they want to hide information and in some of their case also are prepared to  lie to 'keep a secret' my nana told me his name( wrong name) , she had met/known him so knew him and lied about his name just to 'keep the family secret/shame'