Kathleen, I understand what you are saying about family history, but I broadened my comments about oral history to include the grievous misrepresentation of Native Americans in the written record. In the case of Native Americans, the oral history, where it wasn't destroyed by the disease brought by the Europeans, is the only record available. To dismiss oral history out of hand just because it is not written down in the Europeans sense, seems to me to be a travesty in the pursuit of history in such matters. Anne Anne Pemberton [log in to unmask] http://www.erols.com/apembert http://www.educationalsynthesis.org ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html