This was a great class at RootsTech 2013 about using technology to help organize all your family history stuff. Valerie Elkins has some really good ideas to not only help you get organized but to stay organized.
Ok, so I don’t know what I’m doing wrong but this video show the whole second day of RootsTech. The class I want to share starts at 6 hours and 30 minutes.
Here is a link for Valerie’s Class.
If anybody knows how to fix this problem please let me know.
I found this information in the FamilySearch User Newsletter for June 2013, but it is also on their blog in this post by Matt Wright. He has some great ideas for family reunions using modern technology to its best advantage.
When my ancestors took this family reunion photo in 1932, they didn’t have our generation in mind as much as they did what was for lunch, where little Melvin had disappeared to, and what time they might need to leave to get home. But, I’m so glad they took the time—this snapshot has turned into a valuable piece of my family story.
When you get together for your yearly family reunion this summer, what will you do to make sure future generations have access to important family memories? FamilySearch Photos and Stories provides tools to help you capture, preserve, and share your family memories for today and generations to come.
Read on for some general reunion photo ideas as well as tips for using Photos and Stories to add some flair to your reunion. If you haven’t had a chance to use Photos and Stories, you should try it out. We recently added an automated search that will find photos of your ancestors [VIDEO]. Simply click the blue button on the Photos page to log in and see what photos others have added.
General Ideas
There are certain photo-related activities that could or should happen at any family gathering. Here are some ideas.
- Take a group photo—Kind of a no-brainer, but so important to capture the people at the event for future generations.
- Photo slideshow—Set up a laptop or television with a looping slideshow of favorite family photos, from as many people as you can get to contribute. Make sure the photos are uploaded to FamilySearch.org so that family members can see the photos when they get home.
- Photo name tags—get head shots from each attendee (or from the ancestor they descend from for larger events) and place the photos on name tags with their name to make sure everyone remembers names!
Photos and Stories
Many family reunions or get-togethers are held in buildings or other locations with Wi-Fi. Some family members can bring an Internet Hot Spot. Whatever the case may be, if you have it available, take advantage of the access to make some serious progress in documenting your family story on FamilySearch.
- Photo and story presentation—Show the photos that have been uploaded, tagged, and linked to the Family Tree on FamilySearch.org. For larger groups you could arrange for a projector. For smaller groups a laptop screen would work just fine. Any photos linked to ancestors within 4 generations will show up. Visit the FamilySearch Photos page and click on the blue button to give it a try.
- Identify photos—Work with individuals or groups to identify the people in photos that have already been uploaded. My family reunion picture above is a great example—I don’t know everyone in the photo, but working together we can likely fill in many of the blanks.
- Give time to explore—Have a few laptops available for family members to explore the Family Tree fan chart, photos, and stories at their own pace. They can add stories to photos and may even help tag previously unknown people in photos they see.
- Take time to record—A hand held digital audio recorder or video recorder can capture individuals telling stories and sharing memories that can be preserved and cherished by those to come.
Gather and Digitize
Even if you don’t have access to the Internet you can still grow your family’s Photos and Story collection and experience the magic of ancestral photos.
- Assign a Photo Chairperson—As part of your reunion planning, assign someone to manage the gathering and display of family photos. This person can organize an effort to have family members bring photographs to the reunion to be digitized or copied so you can upload them to FamilySearch.
- Set up a scanning station—This is easily done with a laptop and portable scanner. Once scanned, you have a copy to upload to FamilySearch. This can get people motivated and trained to add more photos when they return home. Get the word out as far ahead of the event as possible and provide reminders so that people remember to bring their photos.
- Show a family presentation—This can happen quite naturally during an already scheduled family meeting. Even without Internet, you can present a slide show with screen captures of what family information is already available on FamilySearch.
- Set up a photo identification table—Print out photos of unidentified people on inexpensive paper print and have a table full of family photos for older relatives to annotate who is in each photo. Transfer the information to FamilySearch to be preserved.
- Reunion web page—Create a family reunion page in FamilySearch Photos and Stories and share it through email or social media.
However you approach photo sharing at your reunion you’ll be glad you did. The photos and stories of our ancestors can help create a connection that bridges generations.
Thanks Matt for this inspiring ideas. Are you having a family reunion this year?
With today’s busy lifestyles it can be tough to add one more thing to your plate. Are you worried that doing a story project will just make your life more hectic than it is now? I believe that there are times and season in your life. Depending on the stage of life we are in effects that kinds of stresses and strains we have to deal with. The key is to pick a story project that works for your present schedule. A retired person can choose a much more time-consuming project that a single mom who is working and going back to school. Look at things you spend time in already and with some creative thinking you can come up with a meaningful story project that fits.
So the type of story project is very important. A project could be as simple as an oral story that you tell to your kids as bedtime stories. It may even be something that you could work on just by thinking about it as you commute or have downtime waiting in line or for an appointment.
The scope of your story project is also very important. If you have very little discretionary time make sure you keep each story project very small. Break a potential larger project into smaller pieces. Lets take the oral story telling idea mentioned above. A larger project might be to record a series of stories and add photos or illustrations and even music to make a life story. This larger project can be simplified into each individual story and perfecting the story telling style over the months and years of telling. Then down the road the stories could be recorded. And as schedules permit each audio could be combined with photos or illustration. Eventually when all the stories are done, they could be gathered into one cohesive collection. What a priceless treasure that would be with stories that your children grew up hearing at bedtime. What a legacy a long-term story project like that could be for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And all of it started by just decided to develop some oral stories from your personal life or the life of your family.
That is just one example. There are endless possibilities depending on you, your own life circumstances and your talents, interests and abilities. Over the next few days let your subconscious mind work on finding a good solution for you. Share your ideas here and you might just be the inspiration that someone else is looking for.
The thought of trying to put together a family history is daunting and few of us will ever carry out that task. But there are better ways to share your family’s history and that is through stories. Few other than genealogist will sit down and read facts about an ancestor but every one loves a good story. It is the stories that connect us to other members of our family. It is the stories that make them real. It is the stories that give us insights that have a positive impact on our own lives and the lives of our families.
So I’m here to help you tell your own family tales in engaging ways that everyone will enjoy. You can do it in small projects that won’t take hundreds of hours and years to complete. Projects that won’t make you feel overwhelmed and want to give up. If that sounds like what you want then you are in the right place. I’ll help you every step of the way. Here is an overview of the DOABLE approach:
Step One: Decide
First you need to decided that now is the time to commit to doing a story project. If you have done that then it is time to decide on a specific story project. There are so many options that it is easy to get overwhelmed. But don’t worry I’ll help you to narrow it down.
Step Two: Organize
Now that you’ve picked a focus for your story project it is time to gather what you already have that might help you to complete this project. Find any photos, documents, letters, etc. that you or your family already have.
Step Three: Analyze
Once you have your resources gather you can really take a close look at what you have. Is it enough to complete your project or do you need to gather more from other sources? In this step you plan your project, breaking it down into small steps with deadlines for each step.
Step Four: Build
This is an exciting step, to actually start building your project, to follow your plan. Keep moving forward and make adjustments to your plan as needed.
Step Five: Link
Now for the rewarding part, share your project with your family and anyone else who might enjoy hearing your story. Be creative in the ways you share it. This is an opportunity to strengthen those family connection and even make new links to extended family.
Step Six: Evaluate
Once your story project is complete it is good to look at how things went. What turned out well, what not so good. What would you do differently next time. Armed with this knowledge you are ready to go back to step one and pick a new family story project.
Are you still with me? Then it is time to get started with step one!
I came across this new (at least to me) way to visualize complex family trees. It looks very interesting. I’d love to put my puppies pedigrees in here to better see their relationships. All of them have at least one common ancestor in less than five generations. I’ve always wanted a way to visualize their relationships better. I think this might do it. I’m going to have to try this out soon.
Do you have any experience with Geneaquilts? Do you have any complex relationships in your family tree?
Here is a few links with more information:
Wow! What a conference. This morning’s keynote speaker was David Pogue. He was awesome. They don’t have the videos up yet for today but I’m sure they will be up soon. He was great! My classes today were:
I think my favorite class today was the one YouTube. But all of them had some great information. Digital Storytelling was my least favorite. It was about using Power Point to make a video and I learned some stuff because I’ve never used Power Point. Overall I liked my three hands on classes the least. I think because everyone moves at such a different pace on the computers and so the class has to move at the pace of the slowest person. It felt like I was exposed to the least amount of info in my hands on classes.
Overall it was a great conference and I’m looking forward attending RootsTech next year, on February 6 through the 8th. I can’t wait to start digesting this stuff and applying the things I learned.
Lots more great stuff at RootsTech today. You can catch the presentations on the main stage at RootsTech.org. I must make time to at least see the beginning of the keynote speakers this morning. We got there late and missed the first part. The classes I took today were:
I learned good stuff from all of them but I think my favorites today were the social media classes. I’ve not joined any of the social media things yet but I can’t put it off too much longer and I learned more about Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+ today which well help me make more informed decisions about where to put my energy when I’m ready to make the plunge. It is tough to choose classes. There are so many great options. Just one more day of RootsTech.
Open day of RootsTech is over! At least for me. There was an evening activity at The Leonardo followed by a concert by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir about the music of Irving Berlin. But I didn’t buy a ticket to The Leonardo and I was too tired to wait around for the concert but I sure it was wonderful.
After the keynote speakers I went to the welcome for the Story@Home part of the conference. I went to the first Story@Home conference last year so I’m excited that they are now part of RootsTech. There seems to be a lot more emphasis on the story telling aspect of family history which I love. I wanted to go to “The Future of Genealogy” panel but since it was being streamed I decided I could always watch it later.
All of the presentations that were streamed live today are not available to watch on RootsTech.org. I’m looking forward to watching all the videos over the next few weeks. After lunch I went to three more classes.
The last class was my favorite of the day. Implementing what I learned there should help make this blogger better. I’m exhausted now and looking forward to good night sleep and all the learning opportunities that tomorrow will bring.
If you can jump over to RootsTech.org and pick one of the videos from today to watch. If you like a good storyteller, I’d try “Tell it Again” by Kim Weitkamp. She is very entertaining as well as informative.
I’m so excited for tomorrow (except having to get up way earlier than I normally do). For the most part I think I’m ready. I’ve made arrangements for a puppy sitter for Dune. She is not ready to be at work all day with Bill and way to young to handle an event like RootsTech. Zodiac will go with me. It will be a great socializing opportunity for him. I’ve gone through the classes and narrowed down my options. Some sessions it wasn’t hard to pick a couple but other hours I had trouble and only got down to seven options. I’m signed up for one hands-on workshop each day so that will be cool. I’ve got clothes picked out to wear so that is covered. I still need to coordinate with my friend, who is going to RootsTech too. Her very dear aunt died on Sunday afternoon and the funeral is today. So her life is in an upheaval. But we will get that worked out. I wish I could figure out how to pick up my registration materials tonight instead of in the morning. But I can’t justify the time it would take to make the trip downtown just for that. I should probably download the RootsTech mobile app to my phone. I’m still new to the smart phone thing and it would be good for me to learn a new way to use my phone. I don’t have a data plan on it so depending on how well the WiFi functions might decide how useful it is.
In a perfect world I’ll get posts written every night about RootsTech. But I might just be way too tired to get anything posted. So don’t hold your breath. I know I’m going to learn lots of great things in the next three days. I’ll try to pass on as much as I can here.
One of the keynote speakers at RootsTech is Jyl Pattee of Mom it Forward. She put together a book called “Family History – 40 Ideas for Capturing your Family’s Story”. You can download the eBook for free on her website. It has lots of great ideas. I can’t wait to try some of them. Jyl says that “preserving your family’s life story doesn’t have to be a daunting or overwhelming task. The project can be as easy as capturing simple yet meaningful moments every day.” And I agree!
telling family tales 