Childhood Memory; Is it dependable or accurate over time?

[NeverAnEagle]

Absolutely no memories are accurate. Eye witness testimonies are often wrong and disproved by DNA or other evidence.

 

I am an amateur Historian and one of the first thing you learn is that all those oral histories collected from "old timers" are bunk. They will claim to remember anything but, when you get back to good source documentation you often find that the "old-timers" have sent you off on a wild goose chase.

 

I was working on a project for the local historical society when some idiot decided he was going to one up the historical societies publication by doing the research himself and publishing it in bits and pieces in the community newspaper. He interviewed people who claimed their grandparents had told them the story of how a local highway man became notorious for murdering miners and steeling their gold. The newspaper published the information before we had a chance to based on these interviews and oral histories.

 

I got the names, then looked up birth records of those claiming to remember the Henry Plummer gang. The oldest was born in 1903; Henry Plummer, the highway in question, was hung in 1861.

 

Bottom line the people claiming to remember the rain of terror never did the math because the oldest wasn't born until nearly 40 years after the man in question had died. It was pointed out that the persons in question had contributed an oral history to the Historical Society in 1986, before they died. We found the oral histories and attached notes that read, "NOT ACCURATE." The newspaper refused to run a retraction of the story and now the community thinks they know the history of the area, when they really haven't got a clue, all because they relied on some old-coots memory.

It doesn't matter whether the memory is an exaggeration or a lie--

Memories are inaccurate and you need accuracy when trying to record history.