My Top Five Photo Sharing Websites

Posted on January 27th, 2012

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Posted in Media Archiving, Photos & Snapshots

I Am Grateful For Holiday Traditions

Posted on December 22nd, 2011

I started out this week on a note of frustration. There was one week to go until Christmas and my office was filled with boxes of cards, boxes of client gifts, and lots of nothing seeming to get done. I was remembering last year, in early January, how I thought to myself that before I knew it, the holiday season and end of the year would be right around the corner. And here I was, sitting at that very corner, feeling overwhelm and experiencing a lot of “Bah Humbug.” “Why do we put ourselves through this every year?” became the refrain of the unwelcome chorus in my head.

So, as I do with most things, I made a big list and then started prioritizing the items. Long story short, I made my way through all the communications and even managed to order some personal New Year’s cards which I hope to get mailed out next week. I put on some holiday music to help me whistle while I worked. And now, the amazing thing, is that a lot of the list is done, and I am now feeling pretty good about this ritual of sending cards and notes out at this time of year.

Our lives are happening at jet speed these days. We rely on social media to keep up with what many of our friends and family members are up to. The typical greeting, when we actually talk to someone, is to exchange hellos and then share how busy we are. That seems to be the new small talk. But to me, sitting down at the kitchen table with a pile of hand-addressed holiday cards and a cup of hot tea is a sheer delight. I was relishing the fact that all my friends personally sign their cards as well as jot down a short personal note to my family and me. Some include a letter outlining their adventures this past year, often with a few photos scattered in. And I enjoy it all, particularly the hand written note, in ink, that was written personally to me. It’s a gift of tradition that hasn’t been replaced by email, texting, or tweeting.

Thank goodness for these customs, no matter how time consuming, that seem to live on from generation to generation. I was talking with a client yesterday who told me that she recently had lunch with the new wife of her nephew in order to explain to her “how” Christmas is done in their family. It’s a huge event and they have so many traditions that this new wife needed a debriefing before approaching the holiday season! She said, “my mother really drives this and after she passes away it may change, but I hope that the rest of us continue to keep up these traditions.”

In thinking about that, I realize that traditions; birthdays, anniversary celebrations, holiday traditions and other family and cultural celebrations, give a sense of order and meaning in our lives. It allows us to connect and celebrate with our families and communities, to be part of a greater cultural and historical trend. And this indeed is something to be grateful for this time of year.

Happy Holidays my friends!

Stefani Twyford is a personal historian and video biographer sharing life stories, connecting generations and preserving legacies. To learn more, visit her web site, find her on Twitter as @stefanitwyford, visit the Legacy Multimedia Facebook Fan Page, or send her an e-mail.

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Posted in Preserving Memories

Friday Dec. 2, 2011 – Tonight’s Guest on GeneaBloggers Talk Radio

Posted on December 2nd, 2011

I will be one of three guest speakers on tonight’s GeneaBloggers Radio – Episode 45

The title of the show is “Capturing Family Memories – All Year Round” and you can login online here to listen:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geneabloggers/2011/12/03/capturing-family-memories-all-year-round

Showtime for tonight, Friday, December 2, 2011
9pm-10:30pm Eastern US
8-9:30pm Central US
7-8:30pm Mountain US
6-7:30pm Pacific US
2am London UK
1pm Saturday Sydney AUS

Here’s some further information about the show and the speakers as well as links to information about this show.

Don’t forget that there is a chat room where all the “cool kids” hang out on Friday night! Sign in to BlogTalkRadio with your Facebook account or set up a free BlogTalkRadio account to join in the fun.

Stefani Twyford is a personal historian and video biographer sharing life stories, connecting generations and preserving legacies. To learn more, visit her web site, find her on Twitter as @stefanitwyford, visit the Legacy Multimedia Facebook Fan Page, or send her an e-mail.

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Posted in Family Memories, Geneaology

Getting That Personal History Captured – NOW

Posted on November 2nd, 2011

I have a new client that I just started working with. One of my customs is to request an invitation to dinner with the family before I start work. This gives me an excellent opportunity to study the social dynamics of each family. I get the opportunity to see them interact with each other in a relaxed atmosphere. I also request to be seated next to the subject(s) so I can see how easy they are to engage in conversation, what their memory is like and other communication traits. This helps me get a read on what they are going to be like working with, provides me the opportunity to develop relatedness so that when I show up for the job, we are already old friends, and gives me a preview of any potential issues that may require attention to during the project development stage. These would be issues like hearing, eyesight, memory, shyness, deference to another family member and other traits that would affect the interview. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to connect socially and has made a huge difference going into each project.

The family I am working with has hired me to create a personal history of their 96 year old mother. She asked me if I’d done any work with someone her age. I had to admit honestly that she was the oldest person I have had the pleasure to work with. But what really startled me about the evening was what an amazing memory this woman has. Her recall of all the events in her life is so detailed that she is able to describe what she was wearing, what the weather was like and who else was there at the time. Not only is her memory sharp as a tack, but she’s put together archival albums of photos and other memorabilia that are in as good condition as they would have been the day she received them. She had her mother’s bridal bouquet, pressed and dried and slipped into a clear page envelope. Her father’s pay stubs from the 1920s, ration cards from WWII…. all with little hand-typed captions under each item describing it’s provenance. I am astonished at the scope and detail of these books, and there are 6, each about 10 inches thick. I was mentally rubbing my hands together with glee, thinking of all the multimedia fun I am going to be able to have with this project!

After our wonderful dinner meeting, I spoke with her son. He is quite eager to get this as comprehensive as possible and feels that at this point, we only have one shot to get it all and that he wants to develop a scope that captures each book and as many events as possible. After discussing several project scenarios, we agreed that while it could take months just to create the scope and project outline, the risks of working with a woman who is 96 are high. I’ve certainly learned the hard way that while we’re turning away to focus on other things, mortality has a way of making itself known with a bang. We have to be very aware of this and try to jump into a large project as quickly as we can. So we’re focusing on the capture phase, without really worrying about what the final project length and presentation will be. It’s important to get this woman on film now, before that opportunity slips away.

You might enjoy reading a similar post where I’ve thought about the issue of time, “There’s No Present Like The Time.”

Stefani Twyford is a personal historian and video biographer sharing life stories, connecting generations and preserving legacies. To learn more, visit her web site, find her on Twitter as @stefanitwyford, visit the Legacy Multimedia Facebook Fan Page, or send her an e-mail.

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Posted in Personal History, Preserving Memories, Video Tributes

The Daughters of the American Revolution

Posted on October 6th, 2011

Yesterday I gave a presentation to one of the local chapters of the DAR, or Daughters of the American Revolution for short. If you’re not familiar with the DAR, there are chapters all over the country (as well as other countries) of women who can trace their direct lineage to someone who served in the Continental Army or gave material aid to the cause of freedom in the American Revolution. This organization is committed to preserving patriotism, preserving American history, and securing the future of American education.

There were about 35 women at the meeting, in a back room of a local barbecue spot. They’ve outgrown the venue so yesterday was their last meeting there. Next month they will be moving somewhere larger and by all accounts, much more in line with a meeting hall. This is a small chapter mind you, but there were women of all ages and I was so impressed with their enthusiasm and commitment to exploring and preserving the past. It’s amazing to think that all over the US, women like this are meeting in homes, restaurants and hotel meeting rooms to recognize each other and further the organization’s goals.

The photo above is Debbie Carlson, the chapter president. You will notice the amazing collection of flair on her sash. Debbie’s been involved in DAR for 12 years and as you can tell, has been extremely active as both an attendee at events and as a leader. She definitely had the most flair on of anyone at the meeting.

I gave a presentation that lasted about 45 minutes on the importance of taking time to capture the stories in one’s family and preserve the photos and memorabilia that has been passed down from previous generations. We’re all caretakers of ‘stuff’ and these women in particular know the meaning of inheritance. Many of them told stories of spending years researching their lineage before applying and being accepted as a member of DAR. One woman there was a direct descendant of Daniel Boone, a talking point that most of the other women were clearly jealous of. Once you become a member, you can automatically involve your heirs into the organization without them having to go through the process of research and application. In fact, there is even a sister organization called CAR, Children of the American Revolution which was chartered by Congress in 1895. It’s the nation’s oldest and largest patriotic youth organization for people under the age of 22.

Part of the meeting allowed for members to share historical perspectives and one woman stood up and read something she had written that compared many of the social and political events we are involved in now to other events in our nation’s past. It was comforting to hear this and I left realizing that we are a strong nation, despite what others would have us believe, and that our heritage is one of resiliency and adaptation, and our experiences can only make us stronger.

If you are defended from someone involved in securing our United States’ independence, you may want to look into the DAR.

Stefani Twyford is a personal historian and video biographer sharing life stories, connecting generations and preserving legacies. To learn more, visit her web site, find her on Twitter as @stefanitwyford, visit the Legacy Multimedia Facebook Fan Page, or send her an e-mail.

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Posted in Geneaology, Preserving Memories

Eulogy – A Way To Remember and Celebrate Someone

Posted on September 14th, 2011

Flickr photo: Ben Ward In Hove

Because I am in the business of helping people create Legacy video biographies and tribute videos, people often want to share eulogies they have written for others. Yesterday a friend of mine sent me one that she had written for her mother, who passed away earlier this year. It was a three page Word document that had me in tears. Not because of any sadness for this woman’s passing but for the joy of having a daughter who knew her so well that she could so beautifully capture the essence of who she was in the world.

A eulogy is an important part of our social custom of acknowledging and memorializing the recently deceased. Most are recited as part of the funeral service and usually by a relative or close family friend. They provide a time to express love, share anecdotes and provide a portrait of who that person was in the world, particularly to the person who writes them. My friend’s eulogy to her mother told of how she touched not only her daughter, community and family, but shared how she grew up, met her husband, her work career and her hobbies. I never met my friend’s mother, but I certainly got a profound sense of who she was after reading this. Another friend of mine’s father recently passed, and he too shared the eulogy he wrote with me. It gave me a glimpse of a warm funny man who adored his family. I have read many eulogies over the past few years and while they are all essentially similar in how they acknowledge, each provides a glimpse into the life of someone that is now gone. I still cherish the eulogy that my father wrote on the passing of his mother, and find myself reading it from time to time, as it helps me reconnect with many memories of my grandmother.

My friend Pam Vetter is a Funeral Celebrant in Los Angeles. She helps people create the perfect eulogy by working with the family to design the ceremony, write the eulogy and even deliver it if need be. When I first met her several years ago, I had no idea that there was a profession such as this. But why wouldn’t there be? A funeral is a significant occasion and often one’s last association with that person’s life.

I guess that brings up the question of what we would want people to say about us and do we want to have a hand in crafting a message to share with others after we’re gone. I’ve heard some interesting stories about that as well. There are online services such as The Great Goodbye that will send emails after you’ve died. You can send on a good-bye note as well as information about your digital accounts with Legacy Locker. Will these online sites still be around when you go? Possibly not. One that was recommended earlier this year in a blog is already eliciting a 404 Page not found message.

There are some great resources online to give you assistance in writing a eulogy. Eulogy Speech, About.com’s How to Write a Eulogy, and WikiHow.

I recently watched a screening of a documentary about Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, famous for her diary documenting her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. Her father shares how surprised he was after reading the diary. He thought he knew Anne well yet the thoughts and experiences she chronicled in her diary were not the daughter he knew.

I think that ultimately the goal of doing the work that I do crafting video biographies and tributes, is the desire to make sure that people are known after they are gone. And that there is someone left who knows them so well, that they can write a eulogy that shares that person in a way that moves and inspires others.

Stefani Twyford is a personal historian and video biographer sharing life stories, connecting generations and preserving legacies. To learn more, visit her web site, find her on Twitter as @stefanitwyford, visit the Legacy Multimedia Facebook Fan Page, or send her an e-mail.

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Posted in Family Memories, Preserving Memories

Follow-Up On Settling My Parents Into Assisted Living

Posted on August 16th, 2011

Lately, I keep running into people who say, “I haven’t checked into your blog this week but I’m wondering how things are going with your parents?”
These are questions that make me happy because I’m thrilled to know that people read my blog and feel the desire to catch up with what’s going on. Also, this life stage with my parents seems to resonate with so many of my friends and readers. So many people have dealt with, or are dealing with, this stage in life where you’ve finally gotten your college-age kids out the door (or maybe they are still sleeping on your couch) and now you’re dealing with the care of your parents. It has probably always occurred this way, throughout history, although this generation is new to the concept of assisted living homes and how we factor them into the equation.

I want to let you know that my parents are doing really great. (This photo was taken of them last August, before the decision was made to move to assisted living.) My mom seems very happy and content and my dad has a lighter tone on the telephone than I have heard in years. I called the other day and he said, “I can’t talk now, I have to go to boot camp!” I laughed and told him I would call him later when he wasn’t busy, which these days, is not very often. He and my mom have developed a routine of gourmet eating in the dining hall, (“We had duck! Can you imagine they served us duck?!”), listening in on lectures and classes, exercise sessions and social visits with other residents as they get to know who is who there. Last night there was a revue of several Laurel and Hardy movies. My dad wanted to get down to the dining room extra early so he could get a good seat in the theater afterwards. Laurel and Hardy have always been some of his favorite old movie stars and for a time, he was a member of the Sons of The Desert, a Shriner style organization that mimicked the fraternal lodge portrayed in the L&H movie of the same name. I’m thrilled that they have entertainment programming that gets them excited now.

So basically, the experiment has gone as planned and they are adjusting well, which is a huge relief to me and my siblings. I saw too many people in our exploration of these homes who were miserable and seemed as if they were waiting to die. I tried to explain to my parents that living in one of these places is like going on a cruise for the rest of your life, you just never leave port. Sometimes I feel as if I’ve put two small kids on a bus with a bag of quarters and said, “call me when you get there,” but we will deal with each issue as it comes up and hopefully they will have many days of smooth sailing ahead.

On a related note, one of my personal history colleagues recently posted a question about marketing to people like myself, the baby boomers whose parents are aging and they are managing this process, as I have been managing my parents process. With my own parents, I am so glad that I have hours of interviews captured of them from 3-5 years ago. Their memories are fading and sometimes bits are lost. I continue to try and get details about relatives and have been working with my dad for a couple of years now to help him write out stories of some of the more colorful and interesting events in his life. While I know that no time is better than the present and that if you haven’t done a biography with your own parents yet, any time is better than waiting until after they are gone and I am glad I captured my own parents before their memories began to slip. I have worked with a few clients where it’s almost been too late, they have lost so much memory.

I like the vision of my parents on the cruise right now, sailing through the sunset of their lives with little to worry about, still together for as long as possible, and I am thankful that they are living somewhere safe, happy and stimulated.

Stefani Twyford is a personal historian and video biographer sharing life stories, connecting generations and preserving legacies. To learn more, visit her web site, find her on Twitter as @stefanitwyford, visit the Legacy Multimedia Facebook Fan Page, or send her an e-mail.

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Posted in Personal History, Preserving Memories, Uncategorized

Sharing Photos With My Friends

Posted on August 11th, 2011

I’m often not sure what the age range of my readership is, but probably most of you are not too young to remember the old-style accordion photo wallets that people (primarily grandmothers) used to keep in their purses before the advent of digital devices that not only make phone calls, but serve as virtual luggage for all of our digital data, including photos.

A photo wallet is a sleeve of connected plastic photo cases that usually fold up in an accordion fashion upon themselves. Sometimes they slide into a leather sleeve, sometimes, as exampled by the photo I have here, they fold into a metal wallet or compact that then slips into your pocket or purse. I’m sure men didn’t carry these around so it was probably the latter. I’ve searched in vain on Google to find some additional images of these. I’m not sure why they’ve disappeared but I distinctly remember them from my youth.

My grandmother had several of these in her purse, or as she called it then, her pocketbook. When she would meet someone for the first time, she would whip one out to share photos of her grandchildren with her new friend. I wish I had some video of this because it was a movement that was almost like a ballet, it was so smooth and choreographed. Her arm would reach into her pocketbook and as the wallet cleared the edge of her purse, with her thumb, she’s flip the latch and out would flow this stream of accordion folded photos, reaching 2 to 3 feet in length when fully extended. Then the two would intently examine each photo while my grandmother gave the details of date, location and other information about the object of her affection, usually to verbal acknowledgements by her audience that yes indeed, she had beautiful grandchildren!

My youngest son Perry and his wife, just gifted me with my first grandchild, Jack. This allowed me to join a large but elite club of proud grandmas. My only responsibility in joining this club is that I am obligated to share photos and stories about my precious grandchild. My son and his wife have decided that they do not want to publicly share Jack’s life with strangers on Facebook and while I respect their choice, it puts me into the dilemma of how to share photos of my new darling with all my friends. I have an iPhone and although it doesn’t carry near the dramatic cachet of flipping out the photo accordion, it’s probably the best way to physically share numerous photos with my friends. But remembering my grandmother’s flair with the photo wallet, it had me go into my closet and pull out the two photo wallets that I have and clean them up. I am now in the process of printing out some 2×3″ photos of Jack on my inkjet printer to fill up the sleeves. Be sure to ask me to share them with you when you see me next!

Stefani Twyford is a personal historian and video biographer sharing life stories, connecting generations and preserving legacies. To learn more, visit her web site, find her on Twitter as @stefanitwyford, visit the Legacy Multimedia Facebook Fan Page, or send her an e-mail.

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Posted in Media Archiving, Photos & Snapshots

Photo & Media Archiving – Where Do You Start?

Posted on July 20th, 2011

Flickr photo: timothynice

It’s been a little over a month since my last blog post where I shared how I was heading out to Los Angeles to help my parents in their transition to an assisted living facility. I’m happy to report that they are settled in and making the adjustment to their new lifestyle. They have their moments of “how did we get here?” but for the most part, they appreciate the regular and delicious meals, the nurse who makes sure they each take their medication on time each day, the plethora of activities available and the ease of transportation provided to them. Their apartment is small but works well for this stage of their life. Getting all their stuff into this apartment? Not so easy.

I have spent the past 5 or so years doing quite a bit of family archiving. I have scanned close to 5000 photographs and created a digital archive of family photos. I have transferred hours of old 8mm movies and organized them onto DVDs that separated time periods and events into different chapters with text information about the date, location and people in each scene that was shot. (See my blog article about converting 8mm film and why I prefer to create a context when going through the process of transferring old film to digital or DVD.) I had also spent a lot of time helping my dad create digital archives for his professional photographs while organizing them for his website, http://www.martinelkort.com. I ‘thought’ that I had a handle on much of the memorabilia. Boy was I wrong!

As we began the physical process of the move, I had a moving company, Gregory Williams of Moving By Design (whom I can’t rave enough about) coordinate with me. Gregory is one of a select group of movers that specializes in moving senior citizens. Check out this website of the National Association of Senior Move Managers. Moving is hard enough at any age, but when you are moving two seniors, there is a lot more involved, and these specially trained and empathetic move managers are worth every penny for the comprehensive services they provide!

Gregory helped my parents focus on what they needed in their new place and organize what was going to go over. After all of that was moved, my siblings and I came through afterwards, sorting what was left behind for storage, donation to charity or dumpster. As an example of the kind of stuff we were dealing with; my dad had saved several issues of Life Magazine from significant events over the past 50 years. Unfortunately, instead of putting them into archival sleeves and a specialty storage box, they were stored in a cardboard box and were now yellowed and brittle from acid buildup. They had no archival value so I gave the whole box to a charity and let them figure out what to do with them. I suspect they ended up in a dumpster.

What I was not prepared for was all the boxes that Gregory moved over to their apartment. Gregory and his crew set up the apartment, hanging all their artwork on the walls, putting their clothes away in closets and dresser drawers, and basically making it look comfortable and familiar. What I did after that, was to go through all the remaining boxes to sort and put away into closets and cabinets. What I didn’t realize until this point was that my parents had saved every single report card, letter, newspaper and magazine article, greeting card and other memorabilia from not only each other and all three children, but from other family members. And, none of them were organized in any coherent way. I did get my dad to sit for several sessions and sort through some of this with a giant garbage can in the foreground. He was pretty good about letting go of old theatre Playbills and birthday cards from people he didn’t remember anymore but it was an overwhelming process given that he had just moved and was dealing with the whole existential dilemma of now living in an institutional setting.

So I went off on a shopping expedition to Target where I bought several Sterlite polypropylene (PP) containers. Mylar is probably best for long-term storage of a valuable collection but Polypropylene is strong, non-yellowing and less expensive than mylar. I began to sort through the media creating piles for photographs, communications such as letters and cards, slides, PR for magazine and newspaper clipping, press photos, etc. and then a miscellaneous box. The slides were overwhelming. Finding one big box of slides, I thought I’d just take them home with me and scan them here. But then as I dug into further boxes, the slide pile kept growing and growing, with many loose slides laying at the bottom of envelopes and other boxes. I finally put all those into one larger Sterlite and bought my dad a Pana-Vue slide viewer. My hope is that he will begin to sort through these slides, culling the best ones and throwing away duplicates and garbage shots, and provide me with a finished box one quarter of the size to scan. We’ll see how that goes .

Because I was dealing with a limited time frame, what I managed to get done was to get all of this sorted, put into the appropriate boxes, label the boxes and put them away in the closet. Now, when I return for visits, we can slowly start going through some of the boxes and further refine their storage and make additional decisions about what we’ll do with these items that will not be affected by the overwhelm and stress of the move.

I am pretty excited about knowing now exactly what exists and assured that it’s out of acid producing cardboard boxes and into something that will be more archival in the short term.

Stefani Twyford is a personal historian and video biographer sharing life stories, connecting generations and preserving legacies. To learn more, visit her web site, find her on Twitter as @stefanitwyford, visit the Legacy Multimedia Facebook Fan Page, or send her an e-mail.

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Posted in Family Memories, Media Archiving

Helping My Family – Where I Am Right Now

Posted on June 14th, 2011

I have been blogging on four years now and I often surprise myself how much I really have to say about this subject of capturing one’s story, one’s history, for posterity. It is something that I have been passionate about since I started Legacy Multimedia in 2003 after seeing just how much film and photos and other bits of our past were floating off into oblivion in garbage dumps, recycle bins, vintage shops and other places where I would continue to find entire abandoned photo albums, cast off by well meaning estate sales managers or even family members who didn’t appreciate that there may be surviving family that would want these items.

Once you create an online presence, as I have with my blog, my Facebook Fan Page and my Twitter Feed, it becomes important to continually feed it with information my followers will find useful. I tend to write about things that I think you may not know about with a goal of educating my readers and hopefully inspiring them in the process. I often mention new techniques, equipment or software that might aid you in your own pursuit of family history, biography and/or genealogy. I will point out what others are doing; fabulous websites, blogs or other writings by people on similar paths who are articulating from their passion position. Sometimes my goal is just to remind you of opportunities to focus on your family when they are gathered, such as during the Holidays or summer picnics.

And then sometimes, I just run out of things to say. Usually it’s because I am distracted by something else going on in my life. Right now I am helping my parents transition to a residence where they will have a bit more support as they continue on in their journey through their elder years. As the eldest daughter I have often stepped into the role of helping and guiding them through processes that perhaps become more difficult as we age. So it was natural that I assume this role when it became obvious that the daily routines of caring for themselves have become more work then they are able to do.

It’s a tough process, recognizing that you can or choose to no longer do some of the tasks such as shopping, cooking and cleaning, that most of us take for granted as part of our daily routine. Then making that step to a residence where those support systems are provided. There can be feelings of loss of independence, and the fears associated with checking in for what may be your last residence. Even though my family has moved many times in my life, this move is particularly trying. As my dad says, “I’ve never moved in my 80s before!” They are watching things they’ve collected being packed up; some things will move with them, some will get sold or be given away, and others will go into storage. I’m sure it’s unnerving for them both as they approach this next phase with excitement as well as reservations.

I standby, listen to their concerns, reassure them and then tomorrow, I head out to help with the physical aspects of the move. I know in my heart that rather than losing independence, they will gain more independence, as they become free of cumbersome chores and spend out their remaining years with new friends, interesting lectures and field trips, regular exercise programs and some freedom from the constant worry about each other and their own future.

I may check in during the next couple of weeks and let you know how it’s going.

Stefani Twyford is a personal historian and video biographer sharing life stories, connecting generations and preserving legacies. To learn more, visit her web site, find her on Twitter as @stefanitwyford, visit the Legacy Multimedia Facebook Fan Page, or send her an e-mail.

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Posted in Family Memories, Personal History