From: Robbinsfamilysouthjersey@yahoogroups.com on behalf of turkeypt2 [july37@cox.net] Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2007 9:12 PM To: Robbinsfamilysouthjersey@yahoogroups.com Subject: [Robbinsfamilysouthjersey] Oral History as a Genealogical Tool John German & I had some off forum conversation on oral family history. This is a subject that may be of interest to the group. ----- Original Message ----- From: "John German" > To: >>>I (and I'd bet others) wish you would please tell more about your oral sources and how this tradition (and other traditions mentioned in "Exile") were passed to or collected by you. I'm imagining that your effort in this regard is a good genealogical detective story that ought to be a part of the Daniel Robins family history. Sara wrote: John G, Re: Oral Sources & tradition. In contrast to a majority of the other 1-Daniel lines the early generations of the 5-Richard family didn't migrate from NJ. This makes them unique in the sense that not only did their documented history remain in tact for over 300 yrs but also their oral history or as much as oral history can remain consistent from generation to generation. The 5-Richard line stayed within 30 miles of the land settled by 5- Richard in 1700. The location is approximately 75 miles from Crosswicks. Richard's line didn't have any more than 2 sons in the first three generations & it wasn't until the fourth generation that there were 4 Robbins sons. These sons continued to live on the Robbins land & all were able to prosper from the land & sea. I was born near the place first settled by 5-Richard & grew up on the land of my Robbins forefathers. Our line had quite a few intermarriages, three of my grandparents were 1-Daniel descendants & family history was always a frequent topic of conversation. I followed in this tradition by collecting information passed down from various family members both written & oral. The importance of family history & our heritage was instilled in me at an early age. However, no experienced family historian would accept all oral history passed along as being entirely accurate. If they did it would be very unrealistic. There are many oral history stories found in most families & some are known to be completely without merit. Not all researchers agree but it's my opinion that this part of genealogical history does have merit & can be used as a valuable research tool. However, it should be examined from the viewpoint that ongoing research needs to follow to find evidence that supports or doesn't support it & hopefully leads to an accurate conclusion. Sara John German wrote: You are most fortunate to have had access to your seniors and I agree those sources were very likely reliable. And that's why I suggest those discussions and who said what and on what occasion would be good additions to the Daniel Robins history - giving them credit for their contributions. To find good oral history/genealogy amongst Southerners 30 years ago was rare. The War Between the States decimated the population leaving an under representation of older people to pass on the old traditions and there was that accursed tobacco that kept killing them young for four more generations (my sons are the seventh generation to not know their paternal grandfather). Even so, however, there were elderly people 30 years ago who remembered the Civil War generation (their own grandparents) and you might get a good story or two about the Yankees did this or the guerillas did that, but it seemed as if history started and ended with that conflagration. And to ask about earlier traditions or names and kinship often brought a stern "don't know". Families divided by that war still deny people of the same name and county are related (even though standard genealogical and modern DNA study shows otherwise). And a dirty little secret among many Southern families is high illegitimacy (I suspect some social historian could glean a lot of embarrassing material just by looking at war widows with children under 3 years old in the 1870 census); so many folk were brought up "you don't talk about family". The excerpt below is from a rare narrative that I wish was closer related to the Robbins I am researching, but it is a branch that moved from NC to Indiana. (The author was a ggg-grson of Richard Robins of NC although I doubt he knew it). He recites an old tradition that rouses my skepticism but here it is for you to enjoy anyway: [source: "The History of the Robbins Family as I, D.R. Robbins, Remembers It" written in 1922 by David Ransom Robbins and published in the now defunct ROBBINS JOURNAL commencing vol. I, April 1990 and concluding vol. III, July 1991. The excerpt is from the concluding issue, p. 5.] "When grandfather came to live with us in October 1865 he told me that the old [hand] saw had been in the Robbins family one hundred and ninety-six years then (196) and had been handed down from father to son to then, and when I was about fifty years old father gave me the old saw, and I have it yet, AD 1922. So the saw came into the Robbins family in AD 1661, making it two hundred and fifty eight (258) years that it has been owned by a Robbins." [1661? 1664? 1669? The math just doesn't work.] The ancestry of the author is: Richard Robins of NC Jacob Robbins James Robbins Ransom Robbins Jacob G. Robbins David Ransom Robbins b. 1853 From: Robbinsfamilysouthjersey@yahoogroups.com on behalf of turkeypt2 [july37@cox.net] Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2007 9:21 PM To: Robbinsfamilysouthjersey@yahoogroups.com Subject: [Robbinsfamilysouthjersey] Article by Elizabeth Marple Bentley, Baylor University THE WHY OF ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS Elizabeth M. Bentley For me genealogical research is only a reference point for the oral family history interviews which I do. Oral history interviewing is deeply rewarding and satisfying in many ways. I particularly like these comments by Donald L. Ritchie, Associate Historian, United States Senate Office, and former president of the Oral History Association: "Oral history may well be the twentieth century's substitute for the written memoir. In exchange for the immediacy of diaries or correspondence, the retrospective interview offers a dialog between the participant and the informed interviewer. Having prepared sufficient preliminary research, interviewers can direct the discussion into areas long since "forgotten," or no longer considered of consequence. . . . The quality of the interview, its candidness and its depth, generally will depend as much on the interviewer as the interviewee, and the confidence and rapport between the two adds a special dimension to the spoken memoir." [Footnote one] "Interviewers represent a variety of disciplines and work either as part of a collective effort or individually. Regardless of their different interests or variety of their subjects, all interviewers share a common imperative: to collect memories while they are still available. Most oral historians feel an additional responsibility to make their interviews accessible for use beyond their own research needs." [Footnote two] Here is another favorite quote, this one from William Fletcher who has written several very helpful books for non-professionals doing oral history interviews (he calls them Life History Interviewing: "If you look beneath it, our interest in "roots" and in Life History Interviewing represents an intuitive response to a deeply felt need for a sense of personal and family continuity. We live in a hectic, rapidly changing, highly mobile world, where family have become physically and emotionally disconnected. Millions of people yearn to reconnect in some way with the continuity of their family's experience. This feeling of continuity was once taken for granted when three or four generations of a family lived close together, interacted, and passed on their traditions, values, stories, patterns of belief and feeling, and historical experiences to each successive generation. Now much of it has been lost." [Footnote three] Fletcher also says: (Life History Interviewing is) . . . . a tool to help all generations talk to one another. . . . an excuse to begin talking about some important things with older relatives, and perhaps to get to know them better. . . . Perhaps one person in ten thousand will ever actually write an autobiography, but virtually everyone can talk one, in his or her own words, to a sympathetic and interested listener." [Footnote four] I think for myself that one of the nicest aspects of interviews with older members of a family is its effect upon other members of the family and the result which may come from the oral history interview process itself. Sometimes children are too close to their parents to appreciate aspects of their parents' lives. Interviewing can be a healing and a cleansing for family relationships. The interviews (and the oftentimes related task of going through old photos, letters and other memorabilia of a lifetime) can help the interviewee to bring a sense of closure and a new appreciation for various parts of their lives. A bonus for me is the enlarged understanding and respect which I gain for the lives of each of my interviewees, the decision points in their lives, and their choice of life style. From: Robbinsfamilysouthjersey@yahoogroups.com on behalf of Lynn McFadden [clcn3930@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2007 10:55 PM To: Robbinsfamilysouthjersey@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Robbinsfamilysouthjersey] Article by Elizabeth Marple Bentley, Baylor University Sara, Thank you for sharing this most interesting account of Daniel's arrival in the America, his marriage to Hope Potter and their life together. What a wonderful history of the Robinson/Robins/Robbins family from old to new world! Lynn in Texas Robbins of Luzerne County, PA