Where Do We Come From: Using Oral and Local History to Understand Our Communities

This presentation will focus on two local history projects that I have incorporated into my US History Survey courses. Over the last few semesters my students have participated in the “Collin Naming Project,” in conjunction with the Plano African American Museum. The Collin Naming Project’s goal is to identify as many people as we can that were enslaved in Collin County. By utilizing census data, wills, tax records and local documents we are attempting to give names to those who have been nameless. This project is challenging and often frustrating, but it has shown my students how difficult it can be to fully understand the past and sometimes just establish basic facts. Working on the “Collin Naming Project,” has not only benefited the families whose ancestors are identified, but has also shown my students the ways in which individuals can be absent in the historical narrative. I have also implemented an oral history interview in the second half of the US History Survey. Students are required to interview someone that is at least forty years older than them and who currently lives in the area. For the first time in almost two decades of teaching my students were genuinely excited to participate in a major history project. They were able to not only build stronger and better connections with their families and friends, but also gain a better appreciation of the diversity of our local communities. The vast majority of my students’ families are not from Collin County even though they live in it and they grew up there. Conducting interviews not only personalizes history, it also creates local connections to broader historical events.