Play a number, why don't you?
Exciting news: I actually managed to track down one of the people who's voices appear on my found recordings!
I'd googled some of the names from the records (in conjunction with the places mentioned, looking for obituaries or genealogies with matching dates) before to no avail, but after I posted that blog, I decided to give it another try. I didn't have much luck with the main characters in the recordings, probably because I didn't know their last names for sure, but on one of the recordings of small children, the mother gives the date and the full names of the kids. I found one of those names in a Classmates.com profile of someone who graduated from Battle Creek High School in the 1960s. I e-mailed her, thinking it was a total long shot. Well, she replied saying that she was, in fact, recorded as a small child, and she thinks her voice is among those on the records!
She wants to call me to discuss it further and answer my questions. I definitely want to interview her. It'll be like an episode of This American Life! But, I'm also nervous, because I'm not sure what to say or to ask, or how to delicately pry into her family's business (any suggestions?). I'm just a little unprepared because I didn't actually expect to find a real live person. I wonder if she'll want me to give her the records. I'd oblige, but I would be sad to give them up.
Do any of you have anything in particular you think I should ask her?
I'd googled some of the names from the records (in conjunction with the places mentioned, looking for obituaries or genealogies with matching dates) before to no avail, but after I posted that blog, I decided to give it another try. I didn't have much luck with the main characters in the recordings, probably because I didn't know their last names for sure, but on one of the recordings of small children, the mother gives the date and the full names of the kids. I found one of those names in a Classmates.com profile of someone who graduated from Battle Creek High School in the 1960s. I e-mailed her, thinking it was a total long shot. Well, she replied saying that she was, in fact, recorded as a small child, and she thinks her voice is among those on the records!
She wants to call me to discuss it further and answer my questions. I definitely want to interview her. It'll be like an episode of This American Life! But, I'm also nervous, because I'm not sure what to say or to ask, or how to delicately pry into her family's business (any suggestions?). I'm just a little unprepared because I didn't actually expect to find a real live person. I wonder if she'll want me to give her the records. I'd oblige, but I would be sad to give them up.
Do any of you have anything in particular you think I should ask her?