Interviews from the early days of sound

Sources of genealogy value often lurk in unsuspected places. As researchers,  you have to be open to every resource available beyond the traditional. Sometimes, you don't know what you don't know.

One unusual source of genealogical information comes from the early days of sound cameras when interviewers searched the U.S. for the oldest living Americans at the time during the late 1920s and 1930s. Many of the people interviewed were born in the 1820s and 1830s. Hearing the voices, words and stories told by octogenarians about the long-gone world of the 19th century is like stepping into a time machine. But, as genealogists, it is possible that many of the elderly people interviewed in these films were your ancestors. You can view the interviews via youtube. The original source material is part of the "Fox Movietone News Collection"  in the University of South Carolina Digital Collections Archives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FE30a4J38Q


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