This past weekend was Mother’s Day. I had a lovely day with my oldest son and husband. We had lunch and went to see The Hunger Games which I enjoyed. My favorite thing to do is watch movies so if you’re wanting to do something special for me, take me to a movie, pretty much any movie, and I will be happy.

Lots of my friends were posting messages on Facebook and Twitter about Mother’s Day. Some were photos and little tributes to their own mothers while some were photos of them spending time with their children and celebrating themselves. It was particularly nice to witness the acknowledgement and tribute to mothers. A holiday such as this provides a platform, one day a year, where we take the time to recognize someone that means something to us. In this case, our moms.

My siblings and I bought my mom several new outfits and while I wasn’t there to share the day with her, my sister said she was thrilled to get some new clothes. My sister had lunch with her and watched as she got compliments from others about her new outfits. I spoke with my mom later on in the day and asked her how her Mother’s Day had been. She said it was really terrific. I commented to her that she seemed really happy and she said, “you know, I am very happy.” I asked her why she thought she was so happy and she said, “I think I have finally come to terms with being old.” My mom is not really known for her introspective insights but hearing her say this meant so much to me. It is probably the highest compliment that we, her children, could hear from her. Since moving into assisted living almost a full year ago, I have seen her relax, open up to making some new friends and trust that she is, and will be, taken care of. And my own life has relaxed as well. I’m not constantly worrying about them and on alert. Problems have gotten smaller again.

I am so grateful that I am able to celebrate my mom for yet another Mother’s Day and hope we’ll have many more happy ones ahead.

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.

I view myself as a video biographer. My job is to tell a visual story. My client is usually the subject, the children of the subject(s), or someone who has hired me to tribute the subject. There is a story there, and my first job is to figure out what it is, and then tell it using video, music, photographs and voiceover,  so that the viewing audience can understand it. The work I do is pretty specific in that my ultimate goal is to create knowledge, understanding and honor inside of a video biography created for future generations.

Does this include the dirt? Maybe. Sometimes people have to come to terms with dark and troubling things that have happened in their lives and feel free to talk about it. With other people, the wounds may still be too fresh and painful to discuss, and for some, they just want to spare their family the pain of hearing about these incidents.

A few years ago we worked with a holocaust survivor whose children had never directly heard her accounting of her story. Even though she was a guest lecturer in schools and organizations, she preferred to spare her children directly hearing the story. When we recorded her, her son-in-law sat in the room. He said this was the first time he had ever heard her speak about her experiences. She was ready for her family to hear it from her and she had long-ago come to terms with what happened and what it meant in the big picture. It clearly altered her life and forged her identity for the rest of her life.

Most recently, I was talking with one of my technicians who is working on an oral history of his own grandmother. Apparently, he knows that she didn’t care for one of her children’s spouses. He was asking me for some guidance on how to get that story out of her. What I suggested was he ask her if she was comfortable talking about her relationships with her children’s spouses. If she was, then that was someplace he could go. But it was also important to recognize that if she wasn’t comfortable discussing it, for whatever reason, that was her choice and one that needed to be respected.

My feeling is that ultimately, it doesn’t really minimize the rest of the story. We biographers are not investigative reporters. We realize that our goal isn’t to expose the truth, but to get the story and the details that are important to pass on. Does it ultimately matter if a parent didn’t approve of her child’s wife? Probably not, and forcing someone to explore something like that may only open old wounds and cause further hurt.

When we create a video biography, I have key family members preview an assembly of initial video choices. This is their opportunity to review what will be included and make decisions about what to leave out, or what may not have been covered. Recently a client asked me to remove some comments his father said about two of his siblings. They were innocent comments but were just subjective enough that my client knew his siblings would be hurt by them. Did it alter the story? Not in my opinion. I just heard from the family this week. They all gathered over Easter weekend to watch the video and everyone loved it and was so happy with the results. That is what I want for my clients. Am I sugar-coating their story? I don’t think so. It’s their story, and they get to tell it how they want it.

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.

Ryan Brenizer

It’s human nature to want to memorialize someone who has recently died. We want people to know who they were by allowing friends and family to come together and provide thoughts, insights and memories of the departed. Online, this is big business. This is because it can be shared all over the world and provides a platform that everyone can access, at any time.Here is my list of some of the top online memorial websites and obituary tribute websites. They are not ranked in any order of popularity or quality.

Forever Missed.com
“What are online memorial websites for loved ones?
 ForeverMissed.com memorial websites allow families and friends to celebrate the life of a lost loved one by writing life biography, sharing stories, leaving tributes, compiling photo, audio and video albums in their memory. Memorial sites are truly collaborative. Everyone can share in treasured memories wherever they are in the world. Once the memorial site for your loved one is setup – invite their dear friends and family to share fondest memories together.”

Their basic service is free, and setup takes only a few minutes. There are no ads, ForeverMissed is funded solely by donations and optional upgrade memberships.

Basic service provides:
• Personalized online obituary URL for your family memorial
• Choose among dozens of attractive themes
• Pay tribute to your loved ones by telling their stories
• Visitors can light candles and leave condolences
• Add music to play in the background
• Invite friends and family to build a memorial together
• Build a photo album
• Allow visitors to contact you, or stay private

Legacy.com  There are two areas to legacy.com.

Memorial Sites:
“Honoring and celebrating the lives of individuals who shared a common bond, Memorial Sites feature obituaries and Guest Books from the Legacy.com network of newspaper and funeral home affiliates.” These are shared memorials. Some of the links include memorials for the 9/11 Victims, all branches of the military, famous people. There are guestbooks to sign.

Create a Living Legacy
“Remember a loved one and inspire others to do the same with an online memorial. Create a lasting tribute that celebrates your loved one’s life, helping you share messages of support and remembrance while connecting friends and family.” “With a Legacy.com Memorial Website you will celebrate and honor the legacy of your loved one’s life and inspire family and friends to do the same. Share messages of support and remembrance while connecting with each other. Through shared personal tales and reflections, this lasting online memorial continues the life story of your loved one.”
(Free 14 day trial, has a limited time offer of 25% off a year’s membership. Shows discounted price for the year to be $36.75.

Tributes.com Offers lasting tributes for the departed, human as well as pets.
For humans, the user searches “over 90 million obituaries and death notices” to find the deceased, then build a tribute for them.  Receive unlimited obit text to document your loved one’s life story, family connections and priceless moments. There is a charge to upload a photograph. There are no comment or interaction options. You can setup anniversary email reminders.

For pets, $25 gets an “Eternal Tribute” that offers unlimited photos and an integrated video and slide show with background music. A simple one photo tribute is $10.

Online Memorials
Includes memorials for humans and for pets (free for pet memorials).
“Here you can create free online memorials to reminisce, remember and pay tribute to those special persons who have enriched your life, family and friends. Imorial is a place for families to come together and a stark reminder to not waste a single day, a reminder that every day together is precious, and beautiful. We hope our website and system will help assuage your grief and bring a positive perspective to your memories and appreciation of everything around you.”
“We have many members now and many Imorials. Young and old alike, all races, and all places around the world. Whether we like it or not we all have a tenuous grip on life and occasionally we need to be reminded of how much we have to live for. That is the purpose of Imorial.”
Free memorial pages have advertisement. Upgrade to premium membership – gracefully known as “Sponsored” to have those ads removed. Both offer a very nice number of features. Both the free and Sponsored accounts allow for comments posting, leaving memories, even translation is included.

Remembered.com
“Remembered.com is a social network where you create and maintain a place to share memories of your loved ones. The memorial websites builds a community of family and friends that keeps your cherished memories alive. We offer many features designed to reflect your loved one’s life and personality while keeping control of privacy, religion, and security.”

Connect and share through email or Facebook.
Free 30 day trial but no free memorials offered:

Commemrative Memorial is $9.95
Legacy Memorial is $19.95

Both types offer sharing, allowing friends and visitors to leave comments and memories.

 iLasting.com
“Create a simple memorial website for a loved one who has passed away.”
Use iLasting to:
• Build a simple memorial website
• Invite family & friends to view the memorial
• Share photos and videos
• Preserve stories that otherwise might be lost
Nicely put at the end of the founder’s statement:
“This site is not about death; it’s about celebrating life. We’ve focused our efforts on creating a site which allows you to go beyond a standard obituary or simple death notice. We’ve made it easy-to-use and complete with meaningful features for you to create a memorial website you and your family and friends will cherish for many years to come.
They offer a free basic plan, plus two paid plans:

Premium Plan – a one time payment of $99/permanent
Plus Plan – $49/year – 1-year plan

Other online memorial sites include:

Virtual Memorials 
Last Memories.com
Memory-of.com 
Valley of Life

Facebook offers the ability to memorialize someone by ‘freezing’ their account. Once frozen, the account cannot be unfrozen. Only confirmed friends can see their profile or leave posts on their page. Because of the inability to find someone without already being a friend of theirs, I don’t recommend Facebook for memorials.

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.

Who are we? Besides living organisms, we are a story, the details (sub-stories) are connected to other people’s stories and they are part of community stories, family stories, national stories…. you get where I’m going here.

I have always seen life from the perspective that there are the facts of what happened, and what we make those facts mean. The sum of those two things are our stories. They make up who we are, how we see the world, how others come to know us, and what we think of as important in the world.

Our storytelling takes many forms. Art, in all it’s varied forms, is storytelling. History is one big story although often the facts and what they mean can get mixed up as mere mortals try to interpret what actually happened.

While there are exceptions to the rule, most people love to tell their stories. Particularly when they know they have an active and listening audience. I have had so much fun with friends where, in talking, we find out that we have stories in common. Often it can turn into a story escalation, “Oh yeah? Well wait till you hear this one!”

Tuesday March 20th, is World Storytelling Day. According to Wikipedia, it “is a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling. It is celebrated every year on the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere, the first day of autumn equinox in the southern. On World Storytelling Day, as many people as possible tell and listen to stories in as many languages and at as many places as possible, during the same day and night. Participants tell each other about their events in order to share stories and inspiration, to learn from each other and create international contacts.”

Each year, events that take place around the globe are linked by a common theme. This year’s theme is “trees”. Previous themes have been birds, the moon, dreams, neighbors, etc. What are the stories you have about trees?

In Houston, we recently suffered a horrible drought that saw Houston lose several million trees. It was a sad experience for me, particularly flying into Houston and seeing huge brown patches all over our city. Organizations such as Trees for Houston and Memorial Park Conservancy started adoption programs so you could sponsor the watering of trees. Many landmark trees, with stories of their own, didn’t make it through this drought.

Do you have a favorite tree in your life or an experience that centers around a tree or trees? Share your story on Facebook, WorldStorytellingDay.org, your blog and at events around the world. Some events are listed at Free Webs as well.

Sunday I was at my client’s Super Bowl party, filming family and friends enjoying the day together. I had a small crew although with myself, a cameraman, an audio technician and a grip, it’s difficult to not stand out like a sore thumb. We had my client and his wife with fixed microphones and filmed many of their interactions with other guests. It was fun, a kind of “a day in the life of” format.

I ran into a friend of mine who was a guest at the party. He was a bit baffled by our presence. He said, “why is he doing this?” I explained that he wanted to create a record of his family’s life for a year. He thought about it for a minute and said, “who is it for?” Now this friend of mine has known me for several years and I know he knows what I do in my work so it surprised me that he hadn’t really connected the dots. I told him that his friend (my client) was creating a record of his life and who he was at this given year in time. That this piece, and the interactions with friends and family we were there to capture, would explain to future generations of his family who he was, how he behaved and what he was interested in. A video “time capsule”. That rather than anecdotal stories passed down, great-grandchildren would actually experience some major family events, hearing his voice, seeing him laugh and showing how the family interacts. This is very different than parking a camera in front of someone and saying, “ok, tell me about your life.”

At one point, I had my cleint sitting with his two brothers and reminiscing about childhood events such as when their father died. A funny memory came up, a time the older brother held the younger brother upside down over a toilet. The youngest said that to this day, the other guys who were there still profusely apologize to him when they run into him. There was a lot of really great moments captured during this filming and everyone had fun knowing they were creating this video moment.

I’m still not sure my friend truly grasped what was going on. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him further, but saw that he was wrestling with some of the usual conversations that pop up and that if I’d spent a bit more time talking with him, he would probably come to see the value in what his friend was doing.

It’s not unusual to think about how much it’s going to cost, how much time it’s going to take, and often, the question of who would want us to do this comes up. Some people are concerned with feeling egotistical in doing a video about themselves. I try to explain that this really isn’t about you, it’s about an investment in the future. What would you give to have a recording of your relatives who are no longer with you?

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.

One of my blog readers recently wrote asking me about the best way to share photos with family members who are far away. She was interested in having family members help her identify people in her photos but was hesitant to put the photos in the mail, fearing they may not be returned. This is a pretty important thing to be fearful of and many of my clients have reported losing photos to well-meaning family members. My grandmother was notorious in our family for coming over while we were out of the house and “liberating” select family photos.

Photo sharing on the internet has become big business. From social media sites such as Facebook to dedicated photo sharing sites with various levels of membership, there are options for everyone.

I’ve created a list of the Top Five most popular photo sharing websites that are currently out there. These websites are not geared toward the professional photographer.

# 1 Flickr - Probably the most popular and highest rated site is Flickr. You can upload your photos, then share them through Facebook, Twitter, email blogs and other social media sharing sites.You can create a Flickr site with your Facebook or your Google+ accounts and they have app for pretty much every mobile phone and device. Two levels of service:

FREE: 2 videos and 300MB worth of photos each calendar month.
300 MB monthly photo upload limit (15MB per photo)
2 video uploads each month (90 seconds max, 150MB per video)
Photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images
Post any of your photos in up to 10 group pools
Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)
Privacy – Registered users agree to Yahoo! Terms of Service and Yahoo! Community Guidelines. Yahoo! Takes privacy very seriously.
You can specify whether or not you want your photos to be accessible to the public, accessible to a select few, or private (only you can access them with your Yahoo! ID and password).

PRO: $24.95 a year. Pro gives the following service

Unlimited photo uploads (20MB per photo)
Unlimited video uploads (90 seconds max, 500MB per video)
The ability to show HD Video
Unlimited storage
Unlimited bandwidth
Archiving of high-resolution original images
The ability to replace a photo
Post any of your photos or videos in up to 60 group pools
Ad-free browsing and sharing
View count and referrer statistics

# 2  Photobucket - Upload photos, graphics, and video to share by email or link them to social media websites. They have an editor which allows you to make rudimentary slideshows of your photographs to share with friends. Mobile phone apps are available.

FREE

Unlimited* storage for photos.
Up to 500 videos permitted with up to 10 minutes in length per video. Maximum display size of photos is 2048×1536 pixels each.
Maximum file size permitted is 5MB per photo and 500MB per video.

PRO Account: Monthly – US $2.99, Yearly – US $24.95, Biyearly - US $39.95

Your account not only includes unlimited storage* but also unmetered bandwidth (Photobucket reserves the right to disable direct linking on accounts that use excessive bandwidth or otherwise abuse the system).
Your original size images are stored (up to 20 MB) and you can have web-size images of up to 2 MB or 4000 x 3000 pixels per image. See Set your upload options for details.
There is no advertising in your account or your shared content from your account, although you may still see advertising for sponsored features,  in public search media, and in group albums (group albums receive free account benefits). Photobucket Logos do not count as advertising.
You can upload SWFs (10 MB or less.)
You can upload and download images via FTP.
Your account and your links to third-party websites remain active for the duration of your Pro subscription.
You have access to premium email tech support.

# 3  Picasa - A fast growing photo sharing community with the advent of Google+ User signs up for Picasa and then downloads and installs a photosharing application (Microsoft Windows XP/ Vista/7). User selects photos then uploads them to Google+. Any friends not a part of Google+ can receive email to view the album(s) in Google+ without having to join. Application also will index all images on your computer. Will not accept animated gif images, but will take almost all others, both image and video file types.

Account is free. However there is a storage limit of 1GB. If the user needs more storage it is available from 20 GB for $5/yr up to 16 TB  for $4096.00/year. User will be able to do a variety of things including:

Resize photos
Make a collage
Use Movie Maker to combine photos and sound to upload to YouTube.
Upload to Blogger
Print Photos
Add tags
Map photos (“Use the Maps tab in Picasa to embed latitude and longitude information into the EXIF data of your photo file. This geographic data accompanies your photo when you upload it to Picasa Web Albums.”)
Sync to Web: Edits to photos are synced online and are reflected immediately in your web albums
Add captions to photos
Backup your collection (to alternate drive or burn to disk).

User must have a google.com account and a google profile to use Picasa. Privacy policy is strong however:
“When you use Picasa Web Albums, Google’s servers automatically record certain information about your use. Similar to other web services, Google records information such as account activity (including storage usage and number of log-ins), data displayed or clicked on (including UI links); and other log information (including browser type, IP-address, date and time of access, cookie ID, and referrer URL).”

# 4 Photoshop.com “Photoshop.com is the online complement to Adobe’s family of Photoshop software. Use Photoshop.com to edit, organize, store, and share your photos online. They offer an express version of their market leading software that allows you to editing your photos using limited features. Photoshop.com also offers editing software for the IOS and Android tablets.”
Sign up for a free account and get 2GB of free storage

Online tools to edit, create, and share
A personal gallery and profile page
Slideshow templates and creations
Video storage and streaming
Very quick and extremely easy to sign-up for an account, I got one in less than two minutes.
Upgrade to increase the amount of storage is offered. Storage, also called account upgrades called “Plus Memberships” and start at $49.95 (20GB of storage) and go up to $529.99 per year (500GB of storage). These are annual rates.
An amazing abundance of tips, tutorials and how-tos are offered at Photoshop.com.
Standard privacy policy however, they do record IP addresses and track users once logged into the user’s account, they may automatically check to determine if you are using the latest products as well and suggest upgrades or a more current version.

# 5 Dropshots - “What makes DropShots unlike ANY other service in existence?
It’s made for everyone – DropShots was designed to be simple and easy to use suitable for any level of computer user (even grandma!) – NOT the feature overload and complexity of other services designed for the technically inclined. It’s all about interaction – DropShots is a destination for families to connect and converse about the joys of life captured on photos and videos – NOT just a place facilitating the one-way event of sending or posting pictures for others to view. At DropShots we are thrilled to be your trusted resource for connecting with those you care about and sharing your important memories and life experiences.”

FREE Basic Account:
Up to 500 photos
Up to 20 videos
2-minute video limit
Password protection
No ads

Premium accounts are available at $4.95/mo:
Unlimited photos
Unlimited videos
Unlimited bandwidth use
Unlimited storage
10-minute videos
Larger and Higher quality photos and videos
Downloadable Media Archive
Password protection
No ads
Premium Customer Support
Fast, easy to use
See your entire library on one page, navigate everything from one page
Super-fast image loading.
Navigate everything from one page.
Auto-organization by date taken.
Drag-n-drop into albums in a snap.
Safe & Private, a secure, password protected archive for your photos and videos
Completely private – no public galleries. Uploaded photos and videos do not go into public galleries, pages are not indexed are not available to search.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.