All Blog Posts Tagged 'Family' (161)

A couple of months ago, a good friend of mine’s brother passed away unexpectedly. He was in his late 30s and while he did have some medical issues, there was nothing that would have predicted a young and untimely death. Naturally his family was devastated.

A memorial was held and as is typically done, a photo slideshow was hastily put together and shown, along with poems, readings and other memorial elements our culture historically does when memorializing someone.

Not long…

What would it look like if you had a computer with every single memory stored on it forever? You would be able to access every webpage you’ve ever looked at, every email you’ve read, every photo you’ve taken or been in, videos of your public speeches, records of conversations. Everything that you felt was important or not important stored away for you to review or others to find out about you.

Back in the late 1990′s Gordon Bell decided, like many of us, to start scanning and…

I published a new article and video on GenealogyTools.com about the new, merge duplicate facts feature in Family Tree Maker 2012. Here's the link:

 
Click here to learn everything you need to know about merging duplicate facts in FTM 2012

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…

“What’s the real story?” “How do you get the skeletons out of the closet?” “I want to know all the dirt.” I’ve had several discussions over the past few weeks on this topic and I think this is something important to weigh in on.

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,…

Dan Curtis, my friend and fellow Personal Historian in Victoria, BC, recently penned this excellent blog posting on determining the costs of a personal history. This article tackles head-on, the perceived discrepancies of pricing when shopping for a historian. From the buyer’s point of view, it can often be difficult shopping for this service as in their mind, they’re just looking for a tribute, and may not appreciate the vast range of options available today. Dan has attempted to provide…

Since October is Family History Month, I was already thinking about this subject for a new blog article when a Canadian writer and film producer named Robb Lucy asked that I make a contribution to his new book. Scheduled for publication in the Spring of 2009, it is tentatively titled “Legacies aren’t for dead people – It’s about creating and really enjoying yours… now!”

Robb wanted to get additional perspectives on this specialized form of storytelling from other professional…

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…

Virtual Ephemera.

Although the two words may seem dissimilar – if not contradictory – they share a common bond that I would like to explore for a moment.

Wiktionary.com defines virtual as; "In effect or essence, if not in fact or reality; imitated, simulated". Click here for a link to the full definition.

Wikipedia.org defines ephemera as; "Ephemera are transitory written and printed matter not…

Part 3 of a series about capturing the joy of family events on video

Last week we covered the first of four phases used in creating multimedia productions to capture the joy of family events – concepting / scriptwriting. This week, I we will talk about phase two – pre-production and planning.

As Hal Landen puts it in his book…

My latest blog entry on Wordpress.

I have been working on what I refer to as a long-format video biography. My client has hired me for a year to develop a personal history as well as to film significant events during the year. We’ve been doing this since November 2011 and so far we’ve shot four different events. A couple of the events, we’ve turned into short individual videos to send out to people who attended while other footage is waiting to fit into its bigger scope.

Sunday I was at my client’s Super Bowl party,…

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-togethers. Now let’s delve a bit deep into the process by discussing the first of four main phases used in multimedia productions – concepting / script writing.

First, try to develop a concept that really captures the spirit…

Part 1 – Overview (This will be part 1 of a 5 part series)

Okay, admit it. What do you normally think when someone announces, “It’s time to show Home Movies”? You mentally roll your eyes while giving them a blank stare or at best, a forced smile don’t you? That’s because most home movies are dreadfully boring affairs with no audience appeal outside the immediate family. The joy of these events is often lost in the transition from live experiences to the screen. Well, it doesn’t have…

http://www.lwharrell.com/Genealogy/TNG/index.php

Recently I was one of three guest speakers on tonight’s GeneaBloggers Radio – Episode 45

The title of the show is “Capturing Family Memories – All Year Round.” 

You can go to my blog to listen to a clip from the show:

http://legacymultimedia.com/about/press/

Scroll down to Televsion and Radio, it is the first…

My father, Martin Elkort, is a collected and noteworthy photographer. His body of work, shot during a period of enormous possibility in our country, evokes feelings of both excitement and nostalgia in those that view and collect his photographs. Since my dad has become collectible, I’ve been to many of his shows and talked to gallery owners and collectors about his work and their own collections. The question always comes up whether I…

We often hear clients complain they can’t remove their photos from those old inexpensive magnetic photo albums. Those are the ones with the pre-glued pages that you just stick the photos in and slide the plastic sleeve over the outside. While those may seem fast and easy, over many years the glue will have degraded and fused the back of the photo to the photo album page itself. Trying to remove it guarantees ripping your photo.

Several years ago there was a product on the market,…

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 speaking with other personal historians). What I would do is to find an old picture of me from a time period that my memories were vague. I would look at the photo and start placing concrete things into my memory.

For instance, there is a photo of me taken on a piano bench…

A small collection of images of Memorial Headstones and Markers taken at the above cemetery’s are available to download  at Ancestry Central  (www.ancestrycentral.co.uk – go to find a grave – Select Cemetery/name etc) or select…