Personal History

“I wish I had met you…”

For the past few weeks I have been involved in a back and forth phone tag with a potential client. Each time he’s called me, I returned the call, and each time I called, he was busy and told me he would get back to me. A couple weeks ago he asked me t...

Read more ● Monday, January 26th, 2015
“The Great Beauty” And The Small Moments In Our Own Lives

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of watching La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty), an epic Italian film in the style of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, but with more cinematic greatness achieved by the advances in technology since the 1960s as well as a m...

Read more ● Tuesday, January 14th, 2014
“There Is No Present Like The Time”

Flickr photo:Robbert van der Steeg I was at a Bat Mitzvah this past Saturday and the presiding rabbi gave a sermon on the gift of time. He had seen an ad for a famous jewelry company that depicted a graduate in cap and gown, with a new watch on her arm. The ...

Read more ● Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
2009 Association of Personal Historians Conference in Valley Forge

If you follow me on any of the social media platforms such as Twitter (@stefanitwyford) or Facebook, you’ll know that I spent the previous week at the 2009 Association of Personal Historians Conference in Valley Forge Pennsylvania. Having never been to...

Read more ● Monday, November 2nd, 2009
2013 Resolution – Time to Get That Personal History Done!

Flickr photo:ßialoipokku 2013 marks the 10 year anniversary of Legacy Multimedia. It will be later this fall and I will commemorate the decade in a fitting manner…. later. Right now, with the new year, and this huge blank slate of time before me, I want...

Read more ● Friday, January 4th, 2013
50 Most Popular Genealogy Websites for 2009

ProGenealogists. a consortium of professional genealogists who specialize in genealogical, forensic, and family history research, just published their annula list of the 50 most popular genealogy websites for 2009 on their website. Genealogy is the #1 hobby i...

Read more ● Friday, May 29th, 2009
A Triple Header Video Interview

Over the holiday week between Christmas and New Year, my family spent a week skiing in Utah. We stayed at the home of some good friends who live outside of Salt Lake City and another family from California was there as well. We have known the parents of thes...

Read more ● Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
Abundant Living Conference, March 2, Camp Allen Texas

This past week I was a presenter at the Abundant Living Conference held at Camp Allen Conference & Retreat Center, a beautiful site located in the Piney Woods about an hour north of Houston. This three-day conference gathered some 200 people that ranged i...

Read more ● Monday, March 8th, 2010
Anatomy of an Archival Scrapbook Project

We are in the process of wrapping up a large scrapbook project for a client that has been such a delight to work on that I wanted to share the project and the process we’ve gone through as I believe many of my readers may have similar such scrapbooks a...

Read more ● Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Archival Photo and Slide Scanning Services

Flickr photo: catcetera In January of 2008, Money Magazine wrote an article comparing 6 of the most popular scanning services. They sent 40 prints to the six different companies and rated them on cost, turnaround time and scan quality. The top rated company ...

Read more ● Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Calling All Texas Filmmakers – 2011 “Where I’m From” Film Contest

This is the second year that Texas Monthly has hosted a short film contest during the annual Austin Film Festival. The contest provides a platform for Texans to share their Texas pride by making a film 10 minutes or less about Texas, your experiences in Texa...

Read more ● Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
Childhood Holiday Memories

Flickr photo:SkillsUSA Massachusetts When I worked on my own autobiography several years ago, I used this technique which I sort of invented ( I say that because I’ve never heard of anyone else using it either in my background as a social worker or spe...

Read more ● Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
China Diary: Adoption, Genealogy Charts and Family History

I was recently in China for 10 days, visiting the main cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. What I found most interesting is how different the context of their beliefs and practices are to my own. Because I am a video biographer, some of the things tha...

Read more ● Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
China Diary: Looking At Ancestors

I recently got back from a 10 day trip to China where I visited the main cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. I had a really great time although I haven’t finished organizing and tagging all my photos and hope to get that done soon before I forge...

Read more ● Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research in Houston Texas

Yesterday I was visiting with Susan Kaufman, the Manager at the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research in Houston. I have been meaning to get down to the Clayton Library and talk with Susan for some time and we finally made it happen yesterday. If ...

Read more ● Tuesday, August 11th, 2009
Concepting and Scriptwriting Tips for Family Video Productions

Flickr photo: Meg Part 2 of a series about capturing the joy of family events on video Last week I introduced this series about creating videos to capture the joy of family events and special occasions like weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and holiday get...

Read more ● Wednesday, March 11th, 2009
Create Your Own Family Bible

Flickr photo: Wonderlane We often do large photo archiving projects for families that involve scanning and creating digital records of photos albums, boxes of loose photos, newspaper articles, certificates and other family mementos that a family wants preser...

Read more ● Thursday, January 8th, 2009
Creating a Storyboard for Multimedia Projects

Flickr photo: Sthomas01 A storyboard is an essential tool for laying out a video or film project to communicate the look of a piece, to show how a story or plot unfolds and to organize the sequence of scenes before any time or money has been spent on studio ...

Read more ● Friday, September 5th, 2008
Creating an Oral History to Capture and Preserve Unique Life Stories

Flickr photo: c-weiss First of all, what is oral history? Put simply it is a collection of testimonies by living persons to record their unique life stories. They are not based on gossip, hearsay or rumors. Instead, oral histories are chronicles of direct ob...

Read more ● Monday, September 24th, 2012
Creating an Oral History to Preserve Unique Life Stories

Flickr photo: c-weiss First of all, what is oral history? Put simply it is a collection of testimonies by living persons to record their unique life stories. They are not based on gossip, hearsay or rumors. Instead, oral histories are chronicles of direct ob...

Read more ● Monday, December 3rd, 2007