Oral History for Genealogy: June 2026

Mint Hill Historical Society

Welcome to the resource page for our Mint Hill Historical Society workshop on "Oral History for Genealogy," led by Charlotte teacher, Wes Fryer. Please use and share these resources! This is part of the "Genealogy for Everyone" workshop presented by Laurel Page Brown of the Clear Creek Militia, NSDAR. (13 June, 20 June, and 27 June 2026)

Workshop Goals

Inspire you to record your own family oral history.
Practice developing OPEN interview questions. (as opposed to simple / closed questions)
Practice interviewing another workshop participant with your smartphone.
Highlight ways to save / archive and share oral history audio and video recordings. (Next steps)

last updated 29 June 2026

Part 1: Introductions and Inspirations

Wes Fryer & family in Dec 2021

"Hiking with our Dogs" (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

About Your Instructor

Wes Fryer teaches middle school STEM and media literacy courses at Providence Day School in Charlotte, and is starting his 31st year in education in fall 2026. He and his wife, Shelly, are "empty nesters" and proud parents of three young adults and two golden retrievers.

While living and working in Oklahoma for 16 years, Wes co-founded the statewide oral history project, "Celebrate Oklahoma Voices" and Storychasers, now a personal passion project.

Wes loves to cook and share recipes. His backyard BBQ speciality is "Texas style brisket!" He is both an author and avid YouTube creator. Wes also loves preserving family history with media, including family oral history.

Learn more about Wes on his bio page. More ways to learn and connect with Wes are available on wesfryer.com/after, including subscribing to his Substack newsletter, "Media Literacy with Wes."

Fryer Family History

I have started a family geneology and history website on history.wesfryer.com as a Google Site.

The Oral History page includes some of the family oral history interviews I've recorded and collected to date.

A Christmas Audio Letter from 1972

26 minutes

"1972 Analog Reel-to-Reel Audio Letter Tape" (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

Description

This is a 26 minute audio letter and recording, created by Tom Fryer’s mother, Lydia “Tiddle” Fryer of Powell, Wyoming, on December 25 and 26 of 1972. This audio was originally recorded on an analog “reel to reel” audio tape and converted to digital audio by “Create a Vdeo” of Mint Hill, North Carolina, in June 2024.

Additional people / voices included on this 21 minute recording include Marge Wilder, Dick Wilder, Rick Wilder, Wardi (Wilder) Reber, Rikki Wilder Pomajzl, Tom Wilder, Jeane Wilder, and Mari, sister of Tiddle Fryer.

Additional photos of and media related to Tiddle Fryer are also available.

"Tom Fryer and Marge Wilder (June 2024)" (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer

More Examples of Audio-only Digital Storytelling

An "audio story" is a recorded audio interview, which may or may not be accompanied by a photo / image. Audio stories can be edited or unedited, and may be normalized.

The FREE StoryCorps app lets you plan your interview, record it, and share/upload to the Internet!

More Examples of audio interviews / podcasts are available on:

Our Fryer Family Oral History page (on our family learning blog)
Our Fryer - Henley - Ward - Lovell Family History Oral History page
Wes' project, "Testimonies and Tales: audio interviews about Christian faith and mission work"
Wes' podcasts: The EdTech Situation Room - Wes and Shelly Share - Moving at the Speed of Creativity Podcast

Also check out:

The "Audio Interviews" page of Wes' website, "Show with Media: What do you want to CREATE Today?"
The "Audio Interviews" chapter of Wes' forthcoming book, "Pocket Share Jesus: Be a Digital Witness for Jesus Christ."

Part 2: Developing Questions

The biggest mistake new interviewers make is asking CLOSED questions, ones that can be answered with a single word like "yes," "no," or a date. Closed questions stop a conversation. OPEN questions invite a story.

If you start with a "closed" question, be sure to ask good follow up questions!

Closed question examples (avoid these):

Did you like school?
Were you happy growing up?
What year did you get married?

Open question examples (aim for these):

Tell me about a teacher who changed how you saw yourself.
What's a memory from your childhood home that still makes you smile?
Walk me through the day you met [someone important to them].

Practice exercise (10 min):

Working alone or with a partner, take three closed questions and rewrite each one as an open question. Use sentence starters like "Tell me about...", "Describe a time when...", "What was it like when...", or "Walk me through..."

For more inspiration, browse the StoryCorps "Great Questions List," which offers open-ended prompts organized by relationship and topic.

The Great Questions List from StoryCorps

Question banks are INCLUDED in the FREE StoryCorps app.

Part 3: Practice Interviews

Recording Tools: Your Smartphone is Your Recorder (10 min)

You don't need special equipment. Free smartphone apps for audio recording include:

Voice Memos (built-in on iPhone)
Voice Record Pro (free)
The StoryCorps app (free, available for iPhone and Android)

Why smartphone recording works well:

FREE: no additional cost if you already have a phone.
Best recorder is the one you HAVE: it's always with you.
Faster sharing: easy to send digitally right after recording.
Editing options: many apps include built-in trimming and editing tools.

The StoryCorps app specifically lets you:

Build your planned questions right within the app.
Record up to 45 minutes of audio per episode.
Share directly (for free) to the StoryCorps website.
Choose to make your interview public, unlisted, or private.

Paired Interview Practice (45 min)

This is the heart of today's workshop. You'll get hands-on practice both asking and answering open-ended questions, using your own smartphone to record.

Steps:

Pair up with another participant (5 min).
Each person picks 3 to 5 open questions, either from your own practice exercise above or from the StoryCorps Great Questions List.
Person A interviews Person B for about 15 minutes, recording with a smartphone app (StoryCorps app or Voice Memos both work well).
Switch: Person B interviews Person A for about 15 minutes.
Save your recording. If using the StoryCorps app, you'll have the option to publish or keep it private.

Tips while interviewing:

Let silence sit. Don't rush to fill a pause; people often add more after a moment of quiet.
Follow up on something specific your partner just said, rather than moving straight to your next planned question.
Hold the phone steady and close enough to pick up clear audio.

Part 4: Next Steps

Saving, Archiving & Sharing Your Recordings

Once you've recorded an interview, here's how to make sure it's preserved and shareable.

The basic workflow:

Decide: share a "no edit" recording, or edit it first.
If editing, open the file in audio editing software, make your changes, and save a final version.
Choose a web host to upload your final recording.

Hosting options:

StoryCorps app/website: free, but recordings must be under 45 minutes each. (Examples by Wes Fryer)
YouTube: free, but audio must first be converted into a video file (even a single still photo works as the visual).
Internet Archive: free hosting for audio and other media, after you sign up for a free account. See their tutorial, "Uploading: A Basic Guide." - also examples uploaded by Wes Fryer

Why redundancy matters:

Oral history recordings are precious. Don't rely on just one host. As an example, Wes's January 2016 interview with his mother is hosted in four different places: StoryCorps.me, the Internet Archive, Amazon S3, and YouTube. Of those, only Amazon S3 costs money; the other three should remain free and accessible as long as those services stay in operation. Posting your recording in two or three free locations is a simple insurance policy against losing it.

Improving Audio Quality

If you record in a quiet space without lots of background noise, that's great!

Often, however, voice levels are different and audio can be "cleaned up" to make it easier to understand and listen to.

Auphonic is one tool, although it's not free. The blog post, "Better Video Audio with Auphonic" shares how.

Descript.com has a feature to make audio sound "audio sound."

Some apps (like Adobe Premiere for iOS) include "enhance audio" buttons.

Transcription tools, if you want a written version too:

Descript.com
If uploaded to YouTube: youtube-transcript.io or YoutubeTranscript.com
Google Eloquent (free, MacOS and iOS)

More Resources

Audacity is free, open source software for MacOS / Apple and WindowsOS computers. Use Audacity to EDIT your audio recordings before publishing / sharing.

This 28 minute tutorial (from 2021) shows how to edit an audio file (a multi-part podcast in this case) with Audacity software.

More resources are available on the "Audio Interviews" page of ShowWithMedia.com (maintained by Wes)