Hi Selma. I should have said I have "little belief in it" (oral history) rather than "little regard for it." I grew up with my grandfather, so there was a special relationship. His tall stories were part of his personality and are included in the genealogy I passed on to my children. I used oral history as a starting point, and it told me where to look--though I wasn't particularly happy with wasting a whole day finding out that his story about riding with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders was another tall one!

Rita has oral history recorded in the WPA Writer's Project about being descended from a white woman and a mixed-race slave just before the Civil War. It was true but occurred in the late 1600s.
Paul