Collecting Oma’s Stories

STORYTELLING | by MOLLY MARTIN

IN ADDITION TO THE FEATURES EXPECTED OF GENEALOGY SOFTWARE, my  first version of Family Tree Maker had an unexpected one: A place to enter notes for each person.

Over the years I’d heard our mother tell many tales of her parents, aunts, uncles and cousins she’d grown up with in Chicago. I could recognize stories I’d heard before — Oma, as we all called her in her later years, was very consistent in her recollections. But I couldn’t have told them on my own (I hadn’t met even one of those relatives).

So one June when my husband was on an extended work trip, I made a deal with Oma: Each night, I’d call her at 7 p.m., after dinner and before any favorite TV shows. I’d give her the name of a relative, she’d say whatever came to mind, and I would strap on my telephone headset and type like crazy.

© MOLLY MARTIN

After we made it through Uncle Mike and Aunt Delia and cousin Jackie Breen and all the rest, we started in on her life: “What’s your earliest memory?” The next night: “And then what happened?” And onwards. She told about her family, friends, neighborhoods, jobs, moves, houses, children’s births, life, lives and deaths.

Before Oma died, she’d gifted us with more than 50 stories, and I’d started pairing them with old family photos. I try to give one story to my family each Christmas, printing 20-plus copies for my siblings, their children, and now their grandchildren. I put each story in 3-hole-punched plastic sleeves and presented the first (above right) in a binder along with that person’s family tree (also via Family Tree Maker).

Oma’s nine years gone now, but her stories live on, for all of us.