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Oral
History Project |
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Ref: MAT2_A001 |
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06 Nov 2001 |
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Parallel Lives: Jack
and Wanda; Wanda and Jack: |
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[Subtitled: A Davis-Keefe,
Canadian-American Experience] |
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Overview
A.
Introduction to Parallel Lives:
a. Nature and Purpose of the
Interview Project:
This paper presents the results of an Oral History
project. It relied on original and secondary source material including audio
and digital video interviews and transcripts as well as published sources.
There were four Main purposes for this project
·
The interviews
were conducted to record and compare the experience of two nationals [Canadian
and American] of similar events from 1930 to 1970 with special focus on
1940-1960.
·
The interviews
would also be placed in historical context by noting other experiences reported
by the interviewees’ contemporaries in such works as David Kennedy's Freedom
from Fear, Arthur Schlesinger's A Life in the 20th Century; John
Jefferies' Wartime America and Robert S. McElvain's
The Great Depression.
·
A goal of the
project was to document the actual steps or procedures required from the
beginning of discussions with the interviews to the production of some of the
results in different media
·
A final goal was
to present the draft transcripts from the interviews in both a paper/print
format copy and provide electronic versions of the files on a CD. If possible
and practical a sample of the Audio files would also be provided on the CD. A
test of adding the material including photos to a web site would be conducted.
b. Explanation of Procedures
The
participants were requested to reminisce with the aid of artifacts from their
lives, including but not limited to their correspondence, pictures, other
memorabilia and recordings or transcripts from previous attempts to construct a
family history.
c. Increased Access - A
Potential Benefit of the project
One potential benefit of the project is increased
access for family members, researchers and possibly the general public to
interviewee's experiences.
d.
Navigating between - Interviewee's words – and
Historical Context?
This project lets Jack and Wanda speak directly to
the reader by quoting from and pointing to the original source material. At the same time there is a
need to provide some historical context to the discussion. Depending on
the audience, either of these approaches can be accommodated:
·
to go immediately to excerpts of an Interview [see Part C]; or
·
skip to Part B.2 onwards for
excerpts with some context provided by other references. A few short
excerpts are placed at the top of some sections.
e. Main
Participants & Time Period
Jack [John
Joseph] Keefe and Wanda Davis Keefe were the main people interviewed for this
Oral History Project. These illustrate that this husband and wife had parallel
lives for the period covered. For presentation purposes, the main focus is on
the years before, during and after of the Second World War. The interviewer was
their second son Adhiratha Kevin Keefe. To indicate which person was speaking
during some of the interviews, the following abbreviations were used on
transcripts and related excerpts:
JJK
= Jack [John Joseph] Keefe
WDK
= Wanda Davis Keefe
AKK
= Adhiratha Kevin Keefe
f. Compared to Contemporaries and Sources consulted
The other source
material which discusses the time period, create a sense of what was
transpiring in the wider world for Jack's and Wanda's contemporaries. Selected works highlight a portion of the
Canadian and American experience during those years. [See also Part G = Bibliographies; H = Other Keefe Family Sources or Part N = Full list of
reference sources.]
g. What was left out
A
project of this type must leave some things out. This story is mostly of the
time when the interviewer [their son] did not live with Wanda and Jack. For example in Part B, I highlight very
little about the families differences during the
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Figure 3 = 3.f Dec 1945 Jack, Wanda and Jackie Keefe 194-18 116 Ave. St Albans NY |
Figure 9 = 3.j Dec
1961 Wanda, Jack and 9
Children Jackie, Adhiratha
[Kevin], Tim., Elizabeth, Donna, George, Moira, Michael and Mark at 2064 Alan
Drive Seaford NY |
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Jack & Wanda’s Father’s on Horseback:
Figure 8= 4g 1920 [aprox] Jack Keefe on horse back, Mounted
NYPD Bay 23rd Street, |
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Figure 9 = 4h 1944 |
