Alex Chester, Executive Director, Head of Family Office Resources Field Education   

According to professional historians, oral history helps us round out our picture of the past. It enables us to create a fuller, more accurate picture of history by using eyewitness accounts to provide different viewpoints and perspectives.

Since many or most families will not hire professional historians to document their history, family oral history often is the principal method by which the family preserves its history. Why is it important in the first place for families to capture and understand their history? First, their history may be an essential part of how they perceive their legacy. Memorializing a family’s history can be one of the most powerful and unifying experiences that a family can undertake, by establishing a mechanism not only to engage family members around their shared history, but to teach valuable lessons to subsequent generations. Families that gather to discuss personal experiences and perspectives create a family narrative, and help to drive cohesiveness, education and appreciation for shared and defining family values.

Oral history is the recording, preservation and interpretation of historical information based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker. Many families today are very concerned with exploring their shared history. They appreciate that while understanding the past is valuable for its own sake, it’s often difficult to know where we’re going without first understanding where we’ve been.

It’s relatively easy for families to get started creating oral histories. At your next family gathering, consider setting aside a couple of hours to discuss a specific topic, event or theme of particular importance to family members. When selecting a theme to discuss, follow three simple rules: It should be of significance to multiple generations; it should be something the family is comfortable sharing; and it should be something that family members want to record.

As an example, consider selecting a topic such as the creation of the family business. Start by having the founders

of the company tell a story about the sacrifices they faced, how they responded to challenges and the immense pride

and responsibility that resulted from the creation of a successful enterprise. Then ask more junior generations to share their views regarding what the family business means to them and compare their different perspectives. One of the many benefits of engaging specifically in the creation of oral history is the ability to educate family members concerning key beliefs and values shared by the family. A story concerning the creation of a closely held family business likely includes important themes, like the innovation, sacrifice and perseverance that were required as the company evolved. A story likewise can educate others on the more substantive aspects of the company, including how it is organized, the business strategy and why it is successful. If a family is seeking to educate more junior generations with an eye toward grooming them for roles within the business, this is a good way to start that process in a format that can be welcoming and energizing.

An in-person gathering will help to drive engagement, but if it’s difficult to get everyone together, consider using

FaceTime or Skype to include family members who aren’t able to participate in person. If you suspect that your

family might have some difficulty getting started, it may be helpful to have a nonfamily member facilitate the process, ideally, a professional who has led family meetings in other contexts before. Consider enlisting younger family members to capture the family meeting and to distribute a digital copy to participants after the meeting, rather than hiring a third party to fill this role. Giving younger generations a defined role helps keep them engaged and imparts a sense of responsibility, but it also leverages their often superior familiarity with current technologies.

And speaking of technology, technological advances can enhance the oral histories that families create. For example, the remarkable breakthroughs within the last several years that make DNA mapping broadly available enable families to add a powerful dimension to their oral histories by tracing the family back to its geographic and cultural origins. Electronic document storage provides us with a powerful and easily shareable way of creating a family archive consisting of treasured photographs, videos, family letters, immigration records and the like. Recognizing that in a time of blistering technological change, the nature of storage media changes quickly, some families designate one family member to be “family archivist,” with the responsibility to ensure that stored media is kept current and transferred from time to time to newer media, so that it continues to be accessible. Those old home movies obviously won’t play on the latest video recorders, and unless we are continually updating the storage format, the electronic media we create today may be of no value down the road.

Gathering together as a family to discuss history and experiences has several benefits, including helping to create

a shared family legacy and educating younger generations. Recent innovations provide the opportunity to connect

traditional forms of communication with newer technologies, to establish a type of togetherness and continuity that

was unavailable to previous generations. Stories have an immense power to carry our values, teach us and engage

our emotions. Share oral history with other family members and you may be

surprised by how powerful it can be.