The Assyrian Oral History collection chronicles the stories of members of an Assyrian enclave in Turlock, California. The majority of stories were recorded in the early 1980s with interviewees recounting family histories extending back to the early part of the 20th century. According to Dr. Arianne Ishaya, preliminary research on this project began in the 1970s while she was working on her Ph.D. dissertation at UCLA. From 1981-1982, Dr. Ishaya conducted 108 interviews with members of the enclave on their family histories.

42 Cassettes Tapes consist of 52 family histories, 6 interviews with Assyrian-American political leaders, 6 interviews with non-Assyrian university professors, city political leaders, or businesspeople, for a total of 64 interviews on 42 tapes and one flash drive. Also included are text transcriptions of the interviews.

Collection is open for research.