---
name: genealogy-oral-history
description: "Use when genealogy-mode or the user plans or analyses family interviews, letters, photos or inherited stories. Not for the first tree interview, which genealogy-interview runs."
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: Rodrigo Braz
disable-model-invocation: true
---

# Collect Family Testimony

Read the [shared research contract](../genealogy-mode/references/shared-contract.md) and [data model](../genealogy-mode/references/data-model.md) before writing case state. Resolve sibling skills by their declared names if the host uses different folder names. This suite assumes the coordinator is installed alongside its workflow skills. Read only additional references relevant to this task. Those files point on to the coordinator's [GPS policy](../genealogy-mode/references/gps-policy.md), [easy-use rules](../genealogy-mode/references/easy-use.md), [revisions and projections](../genealogy-mode/references/revisions-and-projections.md) and [host adapter contract](../genealogy-mode/references/host-adapter.md); read them when the task touches them.

For a user starting a tree, use genealogy-interview for the conversation and checkpoint. Use this skill for deeper testimony, memory provenance and interviewing other relatives.

## Inputs

Research question; interviewee relationship and consent; existing stories/artifacts; recording and sharing preferences.

## Procedure

1. Define the interview purpose and permission to record, retain and share. Separate project research permission from permission to contact a new person or publish their testimony.
2. Prepare open, non-leading questions. Ask what the person personally saw, what they were told, by whom and approximately when. Avoid feeding preferred names or family theories.
3. For photographs and objects, capture front/back inscriptions, creator if known, custodial history, dates/places claimed and the basis for each identification. Preserve the original and attribution.
4. Record testimony faithfully with speaker, interview date, question context and time/page locator. Keep exact words separate from a summary or interpretation.
5. Distinguish firsthand memory, hearsay, inference and uncertainty. Record divergent recollections without forcing consensus or choosing the most confident speaker.
6. Convert useful leads into documentary questions and candidate origins. Ask for documents, contacts or place details only when appropriate to scope.
7. Return a cited testimony summary and corroboration plan. Preserve confidentiality and meaningful restrictions in the case record.

## Output contract

Interview guide or attributed testimony; artifact provenance; uncertainty and disagreements; corroboration questions.

Use the shared handoff envelope: case/question IDs, status, artifacts and evidence IDs, findings, uncertainties, actions actually performed, next actions and blockers. Store observations before conclusions; preserve field-level uncertainty.

## Quality gates and failure handling

Do not treat memory confidence as accuracy or shared family tradition as multiple independent sources. Do not infer sensitive parentage or motives from a story alone.

If a required capability is unavailable, record what was and was not done, use a documented available fallback, and return a specific handoff. Never simulate a successful external action or fabricate a source, citation, tool result or reviewer report.

## Tools and dependencies

Recording/transcription if available; document/image capture; case store; correspondence for authorized contact.

## Handoffs

Origin and repository discovery pursue leads; extraction structures statements; reporting applies disclosure preferences.

## Example

Two relatives repeat the same story from one grandmother. Record the common origin rather than counting two independent witnesses.