Video Genealogy

Show Your Family History

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3 Words to Know When You Inherit the Box of Old Stuff From Grandma: Lessons From the Archive Pros

Box of old photos
Photo credit: Margaret Eves

Do you have a few (or many) boxes of:

old family photographs,

old home movie film,

family videos,

documents,

family heirlooms,

some or all of the above?

If your answer is yes, then you are a family archivist. Keep reading and you’ll learn how your family archive is a living bridge from your ancestors to the next generation.

I recently attended the Georgia Archives Institute. Although I was learning about what professional archivists do, I learned some tips anyone can use easily. Everyday folks who have boxes of old family photos and inherited papers can apply techniques professional archivists use for preserving and protecting collections in institutional archives. What you have is a “collection” or several collections, just like the big repositories. You have a family archive.

Preserve, Assess, Access.

Three words archivists use a lot are: preserve, assess, and access.  I’ll explain what they mean for you, the everyday family archivist.

Preserve

Translation: Treat Old Photos Like Family (at least the family that you like).

Would you make family members live in a wet basement, an ovenlike attic, or an unheated garage? No! So don’t treat your precious family records like smelly gym shoes or garden tools. An easy first easy step to take is just to move the stuff. Get the boxes out of the attic, basement, garage, or heaven-forbid, the backyard garden shed. Find a corner of a room or an interior closet in a climate controlled part of your house.

archival boxes
Photo credit: Margaret Eves

I won’t get into using archival storage containers in this post, but the sooner you get photos and papers out of regular cardboard boxes, the better. Here are links to an archival photo storage kit and archival document storage cases from my favorite archival supplier.

Assess

Translation: Look through what is in the boxes. Make quick notes.

If there are moldy or bug infested items, DO separate them from the main part of your collection. You may have to discard some items if there is considerable damage. If it’s a one-of-a-kind photo of an ancestor, photograph it with what you have – a smartphone or digital camera. The important thing is to prevent the icky mold from spreading to other items in your family archive. And you should get the moldy, buggy stuff out of your house.

Before you start “reorganizing,” STOP! Provenance is good! Provenance means the relationship of the record (the photo or document) to the person who created them. By keeping the items together as you found them, you may discover the context in which they were created.  Context helps tell the story. The sedimentary layers of photos may indicate time periods in your family history.

As you glance through the boxes, you don’t have to make a list every individual photo or paper, at least not right now. Just get an idea of what the photographs and documents are about in general, and make notes.

Example:

  • Photographs of Edna Rutledge as a college student (about 1920)
  • Edna Rutledge school records (about 1915-1920)
  • Edna Rutledge Jones and Herman Jones early marriage photos (about 1925)

Access

Translation: Describe and share what’s in the family archive so people know what’s there. The first step in providing access to an item making people aware that it exists.

You know that quick list you created? Make a digital copy and share it with cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, kids, and grandkids. Scan a photo or take a photo with your smartphone to give them a taste of what’s in the boxes, or rather, collection. See, we’re thinking like archivists now!

Do you know a story behind one of the photographs? Tell it. Or maybe there’s a “mystery” person in a photo.  Ask family members if they know who it might be. Or better yet, if you know who the person is in a photograph, (such as Grandma Edna as a child), ask the family to guess who it is and offer a prize!

Mary Elizabeth Davis as a chile
From the Mary Elizabeth Davis Davis collection

One thing an archivist does is write a short biographical note about the “creator” of a collection. If it was stuff your Grandma Edna tucked away into a shoebox, then your grandma, Edna Rutledge Jones, is the creator. And the stuff in the shoebox is the Edna Rutledge Jones collection. Keep the biographical note brief. Use birth and date dates if you know them, and a brief overview of what you know. You can add to it later. You can include the biographical note when you share the pictures or have it handy when your relatives start asking about Grandma Edna’s childhood photograph.

BONUS TIP: 
Caring for your family archive is like the old adage of eating an elephant. You do it one bite at a time. Or one box at a time. Just start. One box today. Another box tomorrow.

Archives are not places for old, dusty records to be hidden away. You and other members of your family are keeping the memories of your ancestors alive by preserving and sharing the stories embedded in your family’s photographs and papers. Your family archive can be the living bridge between past and future generations of your family.

One way to share your archival treasures is with a short video. I’ll take you step-by-step through the process in the Ancestors Alive on Video course. I invite you to learn more by clicking here or on the image of the bridge below. Span the generations with an Ancestor Story Video.

Central of Georgia Railroad Viaduct
Image credit: Margaret Eves

 

Thanks to Kathleen D. Roe, an instructor at the Georgia Archives Institute and author of Arranging and Describing Archives and Manuscripts. Also, thanks to Christine Wiseman and Tina Seetoo for teaching the preservation portion of the GAI. They all helped me to better understand and apply the concepts of assessment, access, content, context, and preservation in archives.

 

 

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Want more people to look at your genealogy blog?

If you write a family history blog and want more people to read it, here’s a way to attract more readers and, potentially, discover more cousins.

I’m going to say one word, but you have to promise to keep reading.

Promise?

Here’s the word: VIDEO

I know. You think video is hard and techy and time-consuming. But I’ve found a way to create an instant video from a blog post. And it’s free. Below is an example video and under it the secret to turning a blog post into a video.

 

Here’s a video about my grandma I made from a blog post on my personal family history blog called Family Album Journey.

 

 

(See a behind the scenes demo of how I made the video by going to vidgen.me/L5demob to sign up.)

 

 

How did I make the video? I used a free online app called Lumen5.

Here’s a link to the original blog post so you can see what I started with.

All you do is enter the web address for your blog post into Lumen5 and then you choose the phrases you want to tell the story. Lumen5 adds royalty free photos and lets you choose music from its royalty-free library. 

Of course, I like to use my old family photographs to go with my video story. Lumen5 lets you easily upload your digitized family history photographs and drag them in to replace Lumen5’s images. It’s really fun and rewarding to see the video come together quickly. I found the video making process helps me to tighten up my writing and make my story more engaging.

Now, you may notice, Lumen5 promotes its app to marketers. You may not be marketing a business, but you ARE trying to get your family to be more aware of their family history because you understand the benefits of knowing about your ancestors.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably noticed people like to watch video online. A video is a great way to get the attention of younger family members, which is important because we want them to know about the family stories. A short video can pull the next generation and even some older folks onto your blog. You can have the video on your text blog post so once a viewer sees the video they read the story, too.

You can also use Lumen5 to create videos from “scratch” if you want to bypass writing a blog post!

I encourage you to go ahead and pick a blog post to feed into Lumen5. Just play with it! You can try it at Lumen5.com.

Better yet, watch the live demo showing how I made the video about my grandma, Betty. Sign up for Using Lumen5 For Family History and Genealogy Videos to attend and get access to the recorded demo. Click the button to sign up.

 

Want help coming up with some stories for a video?

I invite you to get my free Ancestor Story Brainstorm Tools. The printable sheets help you springboard ideas from photos and heirlooms and get the ideas into a story. Get your family excited about their family history. Tell us where we can send your tools below.

 

 

 

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Organizing Your Ancestor Story Video

What if you could see your video before you made it?

Wouldn’t it be great if the process of making a video story helped you with future genealogy discoveries?

I asked for help from the VideoGenealogy community with choosing the topic for our next webinar. A majority of folks wanted help with organizing their Ancestor Story Video. Another request was for help when creating the source and credit information.

So, I offered a live webinar showing easy tips for organizing your photos and story so editing the video is much easier. Also, I shared a helpful way to approach the dreaded “source citation” so instead of dread you’ll want to dive in and feel buoyed by the “CitationSaver.”

It’s not too late! You can see a replay of the webinar by registering below. You’ll learn 3 great tips to help you get your Ancestor Story Video going and get a free “Lifesaving” tool.

Register for the webinar here to reserve your space and to get the webinar replay.

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3 Ways To Choose An Ancestor Story

I got the comment from a client the other day “I have so many good ancestor stories, I have trouble picking one to tell.”

I can relate!

When it comes to picking out an ancestor story for your first video, it’s best to go for the low-hanging fruit on your family tree.

Here are three ways to decide on a story for your first video:

Way One

Go with the photos. You may have lots of photos “showing” a story or specific time from an ancestor’s life, or perhaps even a scrapbook. Digitize the photos and tell the story behind the pictures. It’s ok to use your smartphone if you don’t have a scanner.

 

Way Two

Got an ancestor who shared the same interests as with a grandchild? Maybe a great-uncle who was an athlete, like your niece or nephew? Or show your teenager a story of their teenaged ancestor. Today’s eighteen-year-old may be amazed at what their great-grandparent was doing at eighteen – working in a factory, moving to a new country, or helping in a war effort. Is there a memento or object from an ancestor’s childhood, like a stuffed animal, toy, or book? Photograph or record video of the object and use it as a touch point for the story.

 

W. Hunter Davis

Way Three

Listen for the ancestor who calls out to you. Discovering their story gave you chills going up and down your spine. You find that person so intriguing, you keep digging and digging to find out more about their life. 

That’s how I felt with my great-great-grandfather, William Hunter Davis. His photograph haunted me with his piercing gaze. I researched his Civil War experience and was amazed at what I found. So I made my first Ancestor Story Video about him. Here’s a link to that video, W. Hunter Davis: A Civil War Journey.

Even if you feel you have more research to do, by sharing what you know now, the process of telling the story sometimes helps you discover more clues. Plus, there’s the chance a cousin could see your video and share more brick-wall-busting information with you!

A great way to discover more images from your ancestor’s world is to explore digital images in online archives. My free eBook No Pictures? No Problem shows you websites rich with historical photographs, video, and other visuals to help you illustrate your ancestor’s story. I invite you to download No Pictures? No Problem for free and start your family history treasure hunt!

Image Credits

depositphotos.com

DKrue. Old Photos. Pixabay.com.

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. “Girls’ Basket Ball at the University of Illinois” New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed September 30, 2016. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-bbdd-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Hope, “successor to M.H. Kimball, 477 Broadway, New York.” William Hunter Davis. circa 1865. Personal collection of Margaret Eves. Marietta, Georgia.


AFFILIATE COMPENSATION DISCLOSURE From time to time, we promote, endorse, or suggest products or services of others. In most cases, we will be compensated, either as an affiliate with a commission based on sales, or with a free product to review or use. Our recommendations are always based on (i) our personal belief in the high quality and value of the product or service, and (ii) our review of the product or service, or a prior relationship or positive experience with the sponsoring person or organization. One of our participating merchants is the Amazon Services LLC affiliate program. It is important to note that prices change quickly on Amazon, so you will need to confirm that the price we share in the post is the price you pay prior to finalizing your purchase.

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Are you wasting your time doing genealogy?

 

Researching your genealogy is important. But are you doing all that research for nothing?

What if your family threw away the things connecting them to their family history?

It could happen. Someday, each of us will pass on. We won’t be here to explain our research files. If there IS a relative who wants to preserve the documents and photographs, do your next of kin know who they are and what they should get? Is it spelled out?

Even if the next generation holds onto your research, will they understand your notes and scribbles? Even worse, what if they don’t know where your files are on your computer?

What can you do to ensure your family will be able to preserve their ancestral legacy?

I’m asking myself these questions, too. Luckily, I’ve found some answers. I want to recommend a helpful book by Marian Burk Wood called Planning a Future for Your Family’s Past: How to organize your genealogy materials, make decisions about your collection, and pass what you know to future generations. You can get the print book or eBook here.

Wood’s “P.A.S.S.” method shows you how to take bite-sized actions towards getting your collection of photographs and research organized. Most importantly Planning a Future For Your Family’s Past gives you templates for including genealogy and family history materials in your will.

What I really like about the book is it includes suggestions for approaching family members NOW, so we leave our precious photographs, heirlooms, and historical research to those who WANT to preserve them. The book covers options for donating collections to archives, libraries, or museums and how to do so appropriately.

I see doing genealogy research or creating ancestor story videos or writing a family history as just parts of the big picture of leaving a family legacy. If you don’t set up the mechanism to pass on your physical collection and communicate the value of the collection, your hard work could end up moldering in a basement or worse yet in the landfill.

Let’s do it together! Tell me about your first steps towards planning for your genealogy’s future. Comment below or post in the VideoGenealogy Facebook group by clicking here.

Sharing is one of the components of the P.A.S.S. method. A great way to share is with short ancestor story videos. Get your first video going with the Video Genealogy Starter Kit. Click here to get your Video Genealogy Starter Kit.

 

 

AFFILIATE COMPENSATION DISCLOSURE From time to time, we promote, endorse, or suggest products or services of others. In most cases, we will be compensated, either as an affiliate with a commission based on sales, or with a free product to review or use. Our recommendations are always based on (i) our personal belief in the high quality and value of the product or service, and (ii) our review of the product or service, or a prior relationship or positive experience with the sponsoring person or organization. One of our participating merchants is the Amazon Services LLC affiliate program. It is important to note that prices change quickly on Amazon, so you will need to confirm that the price we share in the post is the price you pay prior to finalizing your purchase.