Video Genealogy

Show Your Family History

  • Make An Ancestor Story
  • Ancestor Story Video Gallery
  • Blog
  • Resources
    • Share Your Genealogy Research With Video eBook
    • Additional Resources
    • Brainstorm
  • About VideoGenealogy
  • Contact

12 May 2019 By Margaret Eves Leave a Comment

Tips for Getting Mom to Share the Stories

Mothers Day is one day in May in the United States, but you can make any day special for your mom or for a mother figure in your life by helping her share memories. Kat Sturtz of RockingYourPath.com invited me on her Fast Action Fridays show to talk about ways to get the memories and stories flowing with moms or with mom figures (think aunts, older cousins, friends-of-mom or grandma).

Kat Sturtz’ Fast Action Fridays show with special guest Margaret Eves

Click the image above to see the show or click here to get to Kat’s blog and the show. In the shownotes, you’ll see links for some goodies from me and VideoGenealogy.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: family history, Genealogy, interviewing, memories, Mothers Day, preserving stories

25 January 2019 By Margaret Eves 6 Comments

3 Family History Video Hacks From Peter Jackson’s “They Shall Not Grow Old”

I sat in a darkened theater recently, seeing images and hearing sounds my grandfather may have experienced over one hundred years ago. I was watching Peter Jackson’s “They Shall Not Grow Old,” a documentary that brings to life the experience of World War I soldiers.

This is not the scratchy, jerky documentary footage you’ve probably seen before. Using digital technology and historical artifacts, Mr. Jackson painstakingly recreated the colors, voices, and sounds of a soldiers’ world, which, as Jackson says, they did not see in black and white. The movie brings to life the men and, sadly, many boys, who before seemed frozen in black and white celluloid.

The main movie was a moving, often intense, experience. I especially enjoyed Jackson’s behind-the-scenes tour, which played after the closing credits. Although Jackson used high-end computers and an army of digital filmmaking specialists, he also used some simple techniques which family historians can use to make our own videos, bringing our own ancestors to life.

Technique No. 1

Use illustrated magazines from the time period of your ancestor to add more images to your video.

Jackson used lithograph illustrations from his personal collection of The War Illustrated magazine to show battle images not available from the archival film footage.

You can use digitized versions of publications in the public domain available from online archival collections.

 

 

Example:

For my video, “The Civil War Journey of William Hunter Davis,” I used a drawing of Sherman’s march into Savannah from the Harper’s Weekly collection available in the Library of Congress’ digital collection at loc.gov.

You can get my free eBooklet on how to discover and use images from online archives like the Library of Congress by going to https://vidgen.me/tsngob.

 

Technique #2

Zoom in or crop a wide shot within video footage or a still photograph to focus on the action or specific people. Jackson took a wide shot showing a trench in an expansive battlefield and narrowed down the shot to men in the trench and did camera moves to help viewers focus on a specific action.

You can use effects in free or low-cost video editing software to move within the frame of a video or still photo to emphasize an action or create movement.

Free iMovie software calls this feature the Ken Burns effect. Many other editing platforms offer a similar effect, which is fairly easy to create. 

For digitized still photos, you can use the Snipping Tool in Windows or the screen capture feature (Shift-Command-4) on the Mac to select a specific portion of the image to show.

Example:

In my video “Davis Bookstore”, I used cropped shots of a photo I had showing my grandpa standing in his bookstore in the 1930s. I used the shots to highlight products and décor in his office supply business, including a desktop photograph of his two daughters.

Technique #3

Use excerpts from interviews to tell the story.

The only voices you hear in Jackson’s documentary are those of WWI soldiers interviewed in the 1960s for a BBC television program. For music to accompany the ending credits, New Zealander Peter Jackson recruited staff from the nearby British consulate to sing a rousing rendition of “Mademoiselle from Armentieres” in authentic English accents.

You can enlist family members, friends or neighbors to reenact voices or songs from your ancestor’s era. Record someone reading excerpts from a letter or diary, playing music, or singing a song and incorporate it into your video. Be sure the music is in the public domain.

Hint: the New York Public Library digital collection offers sheet music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

 

When interviewed about the film, Peter Jackson mentions his grandfather, a British soldier, who was the inspiration for his passion for World War I history. I know you have ancestors who can inspire you, too. I loved that in the last words of his behind-the-scenes film, Jackson encourages viewers to talk to older family members before their memories pass on with them. I encourage you to do the same. The Great War impacted our ancestors’ world of the early 20th century in many ways. Each family has a story to tell from that time.

I invite you to get more tips and techniques for using video storytelling to bring your ancestors’ world to life. Get free tools to help you jumpstart your ancestor stories at https://vidgen.me/toolspjb.

I hope you’ll have the chance to view “They Shall Not Grow Old.” I created a Google alert after I missed the December 2018 limited release of the film and luckily got a chance to see it in January.

UPDATE: As of February 17, 2019, “They Shall Not Grow Old” was still showing in movie theaters in the U.S. Check your local theaters!

To see the videos in the examples mentioned above, visit my YouTube channel and view the videos in the Ancestor Story Videos playlist. Enjoy!

Image credits:

The War Illustrated, Vol.5, No.106, August 26th, 1916 – Lombardi Historical Collection, Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9919257
Davis, Theodore R. “General Sherman’s Army Entering Savannah, Georgia. December 21, 1864.” Harper’s Weekly. 1865 Jan 14, p. 17. Library of Congress. 9 April 2015. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002724035/
Photographer unknown. Davis Book & Office Supply Company. Circa 1930. Collection of Margaret Eves.
Music Division, The New York Public Library. “We’re on our way to France” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1918. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e3-c2a1-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Filed Under: Articles

26 December 2018 By Margaret Eves Leave a Comment

Want to get your family excited about family history?

Free Webinar: Why Video For Genealogy?
Wednesday, Dec 26, 2018, 8pm – 9pm EST
Register by clicking the link: 
https://vidgen.me/gwb

Why?
To get your family excited about their family history! 

The Georgia Genealogical Society is hosting the webinar. No membership or Georgia ancestors required! Just register, attend, and learn how you can easily make ancestor video stories your family will watch. 

Filed Under: Articles

2 November 2018 By Margaret Eves Leave a Comment

Wish you could attend a top-level genealogy conference?

Trying to learn more so you can improve your family history research results? You’d love to go to a national genealogy conference and hear great speakers, but can’t fit it into your schedule or pay for travel and lodging?

Want to get the genealogy conference benefits without the high costs? Read on.

I presented a poster at the Association of Professional Genealogists Professional Management Conference (APG-PMC) in October 2018. (More on that later.) While attending the conference, I reveled in the valuable information from top-level genealogy speakers. Many of the sessions at the APG-PMC can help you whether you do genealogy as a hobby or do research for clients.

The only downside of the conference was I couldn’t attend all the classes. Luckily, my conference registration included ALL the handouts from every session.

You are lucky, too.

You can get a digital PDF download of the 2018 APG-PMC syllabus! The syllabus contains ALL the handouts from all the classes and poster sessions. You can download the PDF file onto your computer and view the documents at your convenience. You can even print out the handouts if you’d like. For less than the price of a dinner out, you can get valuable genealogy conference resources without leaving home.

The syllabus contains detailed handouts from nationally known speakers including Blaine Bettinger, Thomas MacEntee, Peggy Clemens Lauritzen, Craig Scott, Paul Milner, Paul Woodbury, and Julie Miller.

But the 2018 APG-PMC digital syllabus is only available for a limited time. I’ve put the link down below, but before you click, I want to offer you a chance to enjoy a part of the APG-PMC for FREE.

I invite you to view the online version of the poster from my “Adding Value With Video” session. You’ll see all the videos featured and be able to download a PDF version of the poster for printing if desired.

Sign-up to get access to the Adding Value With Video virtual poster presentation by clicking the button.

Enjoy your virtual mini-conference experience!

 

And remember to come back to this page to get your APG-PMC Syllabus at https://vidgen.me/APGsyl

 

 

From the Association of Professional Genealogists:

“You may purchase the digital syllabus for $30 here: https://www.apgen.org/catalog/syllabus.html. After your purchase, you will receive a link via email to a page where you can download the syllabus. The link has to be sent manually by an actual human being, so please be patient and allow up to three business days for the link to be sent.”

 

Filed Under: Articles

18 September 2018 By Margaret Eves Leave a Comment

Free Ticket for Family Tree Time Travel

Even if you don’t have old home movies of your family history, there’s a way to discover a treasure trove of film footage showing your ancestor’s world. It’s the next best thing to a time machine.

Back in the early 1990s, when I was a film and video editor, I helped a local production company catalog and create a database of the video footage they’d shot over the years so they could offer stock footage as a product.

Being pre-Internet, we couldn’t just Google everything, so I was intrigued by the idea of researching stock film footage and archival film footage for producers. As I did my research, I discovered the Prelinger Archives – known for their collection of corny educational and sponsored films – think “Dating Dos and Don’ts,” good posture, and hygiene instruction from the 1950s.

The Prelinger Archives still exist. You can see and search the films at archive.org. (See direct link below.) Rick Prelinger, the founder, offers the footage on the site for all to use for free.

Prelinger Archives Home Movie Collection web page
Prelinger Archives Home Movie Collection

Home Movies, anyone?

Want more than mid-century dating tips? The Prelinger Archive also has a home movie collection. Rick is adding to the collection continually. I did some searches by location and discovered a 1955 film of a family vacation to Washington, D.C. and St. Augustine, Florida, complete with candid shots of kids and families.

 

I browsed more and found some amazing video of a hometown parade in Skagit County, Washington State shot in the 1930s.

Accordian Band in parade
Accordian Band in parade, Skagit County Washington State

 

Horses in parade
Horses in parade, Skagit County, Washinton State

 

So think about it. You may not find a video of your relative or ancestor specifically in the Prelinger Archives, but you may find footage showing where they lived, what people wore, and events and activities from their community – the next best thing to traveling back in a time machine, without all the uncomfortable side effects!

So, set aside a few minutes to explore the Prelinger Archives. I’d love to hear about (and see) what you find. Email me or better yet, share in our VideoGenealogy Facebook Group. If you haven’t joined yet, just click “Join” button on the group page. I’ll let you in and show you the secret handshake. Lots of friendly, genealogy enthused people hang out in the group and would love to see what you discover.

How cool would it be if you found some video of your ancestor’s hometown and you included it in your own video telling their story? Getting ideas?

Click here>> to get the Ancestor Story Video Starter Kit so you can bring your ancestor to life and get your family excited about their family history.

Click the link to go to the Prelinger Archive at archive.org and here to go directly to the Prelinger Archives Home Movies collection.

Enjoy your ride back in time!

Image Sources:

Home movie: 098905: 1955 road trip to Washington, DC, Florida, and Mexico. Prelinger Archives Home Movies collection. Accessed September 18, 2018 at https://archive.org/details/098905

Home Movie: 10041: Parade near Mt, Vernon, Washington State. 1930s. Prelinger Archives Home Movies. Accessed September 18, 2018 at https://archive.org/details/prelingerhomemovies.

Filed Under: Archives, Articles

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 11
  • Next Page »

FREE Tools!

Get Started Sharing Your Family History with FREE Ancestor Story Tools

Thank you! Check your email for a message from Video Genealogy with a link to get your free tools.

Get Started Sharing Your Family History with FREE Ancestor Story Tools

Signup to get FREE Tools

Privacy Policy

Disclosures

Legal Notices

 

Copyright © 2019 · VideoGenealogy.com