Sharing Oral History with the Family and Beyond

In a previous post I wrote about "Getting the Whole Family Involved" and described how my non-researcher brother converted cassette tapes to digital for the family. I'm still working on getting my brother to write a post about how he did that.

At the time of the conversion it's important to think about how you are going to share the electronic files. It's also important to convert the files to a format that is easily accessible for many people. My brother converted the family audio files to an mp3 file format.  For most people, there will be a program on their computer such as Windows Media Player or iTunes that will play these files. It should be so intuitive that folks who really don't know much about computers will only have to double click on the file and have it start playing.

I thought I would share one of the audio files here on my blog to give you a flavor of what we've done in my family (see bottom of page for link). I say we but in this case it was really just my mother.  Here you'll get to listen to my genealogist mother in action.

Before every recording she would state the date and who was present for the recording. Perhaps the only flaw is that in this case she used only first names when identifying people. In this audio clip recorded in 1989 the people identified are Uncle Turk, Aunt Louise and Helen Rose (my Mom). Uncle Turk is my great uncle, Frank Peterka from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A few generations removed from the recording, family members could have difficulty identifying the people especially with the use of the nickname. None of the people in the recording are living anymore.

My brother has titled this clip "That's How I Became a Citizen." This has nothing to do with immigration or naturalization. It's a very funny story that my uncle tells about he became a citizen of a different sort. You'll have to listen to the clip to learn what it's about.

You may want to consider sharing your family oral history beyond your extended family. The stories could be relevant to local history. You could contact the relevant local historical society and see if they would be interested in the files. Before you contact them create a one page description of who is in the audio files, when it was created and the topics that are being discussed. You will want to highlight for them the items being mentioned that are relevant to the local area and its history.

Another option is to share your files on the internet, in a blog or on a website, as I am doing in this post. If you decide to go that route be sure to gain permission from anyone in the audio (or video) if they are still living. If all the people in the recording have passed, then as a courtesy, you may want to ask their closest descendants for permission before posting online. In this case, I sent an email to the whole extended family to make sure everyone was comfortable with me sharing the file publicly.

When posting online think about the people who may be interested in hearing the recording. It could include family members, childhood friends of the people recorded, people from the neighborhood, town or city that is the backdrop of the story and anyone associated with specific places or events mentioned in the story. Be sure to keyword your post or website so those people will be able to find the file in a Google search.

In this particular audio file the backdrop of the story is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 1930s. Places mentioned are "Bohemian Hill" where the Czech community lived and the Optimus Club. The main character in the story is Frank Peterka and the supporting characters are the patrons of the Optimus Club.

Search the internet (or your own files) and see if you can come up with supporting materials about the places or events being mentioned. I was able to find two newspaper articles online about the Optimus Club.

"Suspensions Of 26 Dry Up Oases", Pittsburgh Post Gazette, January 21, 1955

"'Heat' Goes on Optimus Club in Cold", Pittsburgh Post Gazette, November 24, 1954

Here's the audio file of my Uncle Turk. Be warned it is a large 7MG file. It will be no problem for those with high speed internet access. The duration of the clip is 5 minutes.

Filename	File Type	Size
That's How I Became a Citizen	mp3	7MG
Click Here to Listen

I've Been Ignoring Some of My Ancestors

Caroline Nunge and Frank Walleck with their children

It's true. I've been ignoring some of my ancestors.  My whole maternal line, in fact. Well, that's not quite true. It's mostly my Mom's paternal line. I know it seems blasphemous. They were more recent immigrants. And, well, with having so many ancestors on my Dad's side that go back to the 1700s and even 1600s it was pretty easy to avert my eyes.

This line is a family called Walleck. Growing up I always believed they were Ellis Island immigrants. One of my ancestors who married a Walleck was an Ellis Island immigrant and that was fun to find. No, these Wallecks came from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and they arrived probably in the 1860s.  As an adult I traced as much of them online as I could through census records, city directories and what not. Early census records showed them coming from "Bohemia."

My mother always talked about this family speaking German. I grew up believing that they were of German heritage. I heard the word Czech thrown around but I thought that was mostly in reference to my uncle was definitely Czech.

Well, this past weekend I got to spend some time with the Walleck side of my family. My uncle happens to be a family historian and has put much more effort into tracing these Wallecks than I have. In addition, he grew up in Pittsburgh with these family members and was exposed to the family history.

My uncle took out a paper napkin and started drawing the old time neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. He explained all the family groups, which neighborhood they were from and what their ethnic background was. There were three surnames that he discussed - Wallecks, Roemers and Nunges. Surprisingly, my uncle explained to me that the Wallecks were Czech. They lived up on the hill with the other Czechs (don't ask me which neighborhood that was at the moment). The Roemers were German. And the Nunges (my Ellis Island immigrants) came from Alsace-Lorraine.

The ethnic groups and the neighborhoods they lived in were critical for understanding their history and where they came from. Listening to my uncle, I realized, was also pretty critical for me to understand where they came from.

If I hadn't taken the time to listen to my uncle at that moment, I may have been left with erroneous ideas about my Pittsburgh ancestors.

I think the time has come for me to stop ignoring my difficult, ethnic ancestors and start getting some of this down on paper. If I collect as much as possible now from my uncle, perhaps I will slowly be able to work through verifying the information and learning the particular local history behind Pittsburgh and Allegheny City. Maybe I'll even become brave enough to try to track them back across the sea to Europe.

Thank goodness I made this realization before it was too late. While oral history is not the whole story of any family history, the information passed down from your family members can be critical to understanding your ancestry. The stories could mean the difference between having the right information to get started versus no information at all.

If you have any older family members that you can talk to about your family history, get started now. Don't wait for when it's too late.

Ruth and Roger

This note was sent to Peggy's parents in liu of a greeting card. The signature "Ruth & Roger" shows familiarity by the fact that they didn't feel the need to include their last name. It would be not easy to determine who Ruth and Roger were but I was up for a challenge.

There was one clue that would make it a little easier. The note mentions their sons, Clark and Christopher. Clark is a fairly unusual name so I hoped that would help. Since Clark and Christopher both married the same year that Peggy was born, 1940, I was going to guess that they were between 10-20 years old and still living at home in 1930.

I first searched Ancestry.com's 1930 US Federal Census database for a man named Roger who lived in Pittsburgh with a wife named Ruth. I struck out. I opened my search up to all of Pennsylvania. I got a few hits but none of them had sons named Clark and Christopher. Clearly Roger and Ruth did not live in Pennsylvania as Peggy's parents had.

I gritted my teeth and prepared to do a broad search of the United States for all Roger and Ruth couples. The search turned up 132 couples. Not too unwieldy a number to slog through. The new preview feature on Ancestry.com records really helped with this. I could hover over each Roger and check quickly to see if they had children named Christopher and Clark without having to actually click into each record. I made my way nearly through the whole alphabet before finding the family in the 'S' section.

Roger Sergel and his wife Ruth F. Sergel lived in "Chicago City", Cook County, Illinois in 1930. Roger was 35 and born in Illinois. Ruth, an Iowa girl, was 36 years old. They had been married for 14 years by 1930. They rented a home for $90 a month on Wood lawn Avenue in Chicago and they owned a radio.

In their household were Christopher, son, age 11, born in Iowa; Clark, son, age 9, born in Minnesota; Sherman, son, age 6, born in Iowa; and Nora O'Neill, a 49 year old servant from English speaking Canada.

I was left wondering what their connection was to my Uncle Edwin "Petie" and Aunt Helen Peterson. The occupation column provided a bit of a clue. Roger Sergel was listed as a manager in a publishing house. However, it was an unexpected surprise to discover that Ruth Sergel was working too! She was a publicity writer in a publishing company. How glamorous and exciting to be a female publicity writer in 1930! Perhaps she worked for the same publishing company. It also got me thinking that perhaps she might have been one of Uncle Petie's students at Pitt.

A quick peak at the 1920 US Federal Census found Roger and Ruth in Moorhead City, Clay County, Minnesota with 1 year old son Rodger. The ‘d’ was added to the son’s name but not the father. Was that a slip by the enumerator or intentional by the parents? In 1920 Roger worked as a “Normal” teacher. Other Ancestry.com searches showed that Roger died May 3, 1963.

I decided to broaden my search to the whole web. I turned first to Wikipedia. It didn't turn up any result for Roger Sergel however I did find something on a Ruth. The entry said, "Ruth Sergel is an American director, writer, activist, and interactive technology designer in New York City." Perhaps this a descendant of the original Ruth and Roger.

As for son, Christopher, I found a tribute to him on the Dramatic Publishing website where he was noted as being a former president of the organization. His birth and death dates were given as May 7, 1918 - May 7, 1993. According to the 1930 US Federal Census, Christopher was 11 years old. This would have him born around 1919. A 1918 birth year would certainly be plausible given the margins of error and accuracy for the census. This very likely is the son of Ruth and Roger. Christopher was a playwright and adapted many famous books and programs to the stage.

I wouldn't feel quite satisfied until I checked for sons, Sherman and Clark. My search results turned up empty for Clark except for a Social Security Death Index showing him being born October 1, 1920 and having died in Illinois in November 1977. I also found a a 1955 Illinois marriage record for Clark and Virginia B. Bates on Ancestry.com. Could this have been a second marriage? The 1940 note to Aunt Helen and Uncle Petie clearly has Clark married to a girl named Meg.

Sherman, on the other hand participated in the family business, having written several plays including "Twelve Angry Women" with Reginald Rose. According to the Social Security Death Index, Sherman died on January 11, 1981. Passenger and Canadian Border Crossing entries were able to further corroborate family information and birth dates for the parents and the kids.

Suddenly this investigation into Ruth and Roger was becoming quite exciting. The Sergels were certainly a talented family and very involved with the writing community. That fit well with what I said in my first blog post that Uncle Petie was a "writer's writer" and “inspired a generation of American authors.” Looking back at the careers of Christopher and Sherman, perhaps it was the sons who were students of Uncle Petie and not Ruth.

How Uncle Petie and Aunt Helen became friends with the Sergels may never be known but now I have a better understanding of their lives and inner circle from one more of “Peggy’s Cards.”

Note: page numbers in brackets have been added to the images to help follow the flow of text.