Gathering the questions

Guernsey's history is so vast and sometimes it can feel that the recent (as in last 100 years worth of) history does dominate the narrative a bit. Especially since the occupation is still fresh enough that there are people who are still alive to tell the tale.

How do you gather information about the past, but not limit it to person recollections so that the whole of history can be encompassed. I came up with the idea of asking a simple question to people,
"What is your favourite bit about Guernsey's history"
This has extract some useful directions of enquiry that we can explore in devising the piece, but what I've noticed is people feel reticent to add something because they feel they aren't experts. They feel they don't know enough about Guernsey's history to add anything. but this precisely the point. This play should be a way of igniting curiosity about Guernsey and not intimidating them.

So the question has been adapted to help ignite their interest. Do you have any unanswered questions about Guernsey's history. Some of the questions so far have been:

• Why isn't Guernsey French?
• Why are Guernsey people referred to as Donkey's
• When was the first tomato grown in Guernsey?
• Where there really witches or were they just gossiping women gathering on the street corner.
• What is a potato peel pie?

From these we can research the truth and also extrapolate answers to some of them.