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Stefani Twyford's Blog (127)

Russia, In Color, 100 Years Ago

This website link from Boston.com was recommended on a listserve that I subscribe to and I wanted to share it with my readers. I can’t believe how haunted I am by these photos. Armenian woman in costume



They were taken between 1909 and 1912 by a photographer, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, who was commissioned by Czar Nicholas II to…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on September 30, 2010 at 9:46pm — 1 Comment

Starting the School Year With a Personal History Project

When my own children were young, my father suggested taking a photograph of them every month, in the same location and pose. These photographs, he explained, could later be assembled into a type of time-line of their growth and development. While I did take many photos of both of my sons, I never did manage to do that specific project, although it still think it’s a terrific idea and would have been a wonderful thing to have now.…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on August 24, 2010 at 10:05am — No Comments

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 that I noticed have cause me to look at my field and how much I take for granted about what I do in the context of our American culture.…



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Added by Stefani Twyford on July 27, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments

My Grandmother’s Recipe For Franz Josef Cookies – The Secret Is Revealed!

My grandmother almost carried the recipe for her famous cookies to her grave. She was a marvelous cook and had several recipes that were family favorites. She loved getting the praise and glory for producing these specialties for us and could never be coaxed to share the recipes.Finally, at some point in her 80s (she passed away in 1997 at the age of 93) she beautifully typed up the recipe and gave a copy to me and a copy to my sister. I’m not…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on July 22, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments

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 forget all the finer details of where each photo was taken. As I go through notes and photos I’ll be adding some thoughts to this “China Diary” over the next couple of months. …

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Added by Stefani Twyford on July 14, 2010 at 12:34pm — No Comments

Dick Eastman Reviews Maureen Taylor’s New Book “The Last Muster”

My friend Maureen Taylor, aka www.maureentaylor.com The Photo Detective, just published her newest book, “The Last Muster.”



“A remarkable work of documentary history, The Last Muster is a collection of rare nineteenth-century photographic images—primarily daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and carte des visite paper photographs—of the…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on July 12, 2010 at 11:30am — No Comments

Old Letters and New History

For a good part of my life, I had a tin cracker box filled with old letters. Most of these were letters sent to me by old boyfriends, away at college or otherwise separated from me and declaring their affections. There were also some letters from friends off on a big adventure somewhere and I found them so well written, the details of their experiences so juicy that I chose to save them. There were a few letters from one of my parents who…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on June 21, 2010 at 6:00pm — No Comments

Memorial Tribute for Dan Duncan

A few weeks ago one of my clients, Dan Duncan, a well known businessman and philanthropist, passed away. His passing was unexpected and we were just days away from shooting new footage for a another tribute video on the Duncans. Both Dan and his wife Jan were chosen as the 2010 Tapestry Award recipients by Interfaith Ministries, a local non-profit whose mission is for all faiths to work together to create a more compassionate society.…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on May 5, 2010 at 10:00am — No Comments

Multimedia Storytelling Reaches Technological Heights with Brian Storm

At the end of March I attended an all-day workshop on Multimedia Storytelling led by Brian Storm of MediaStorm, an award-winning company based in New York and focused on creating cinematic narratives for distribution across a variety of platforms.



The workshop was put on by FotoFest, a Houston based arts organization, as part of their 2010 Biennial.

FotoFest’s purpose “is to promote…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on April 27, 2010 at 11:57am — No Comments

Creating a Beautiful Family Tree

Aside from creating a family history so that future generations of your family will know who you are, one of the nicer gifts you can give

your family is a graphical representation of your family tree.



I recently learned about Arbor Arts, an online company that provides beautiful family trees

at a reasonable price. They have 16 tree templates to choose from that

are about…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on April 20, 2010 at 2:24pm — No Comments

Who Do You Know You Are? Exploring Your Family & Personal History

America is riveted right now by NBC’s hit show “Who Do You Think You Are?” which, in partnership with Ancestry.com, shares the genealogical history of well known entertainment personalities Spike Lee, Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon, Lisa Kudrow (who is also the Executive Producer), Sarah Jessica Parker & husband Matthew Broderick as well as Emmitt Smith. It airs on Fridays at 8/7 PM. You can find more information about the show including the schedule and full episodes at…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on March 13, 2010 at 11:09am — No Comments

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 in age from late 50s to some in there 90s who came to explore aging “as a spiritual journey”. To “grow mentally, socially, and creatively.” With… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on March 8, 2010 at 7:06pm — No Comments

Personal History Projects with Memory Loss Patients

I have been working on preparing a presentation I am giving on March 2 at the Abundant Living Conference at Camp Allen. The conference spans 3 days and is billed as “Explore aging as a spiritual journey-grow mentally, socially and creatively. Come, relax, enjoy… celebrate the years!” The setting is a beautiful one, deep in the Piney Woods. I have never been to Camp Allen. In fact, it’s been many years since I’ve been to any ‘camp’ at all so I’m looking…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on February 22, 2010 at 6:02pm — 2 Comments

Using The Internet to Research Your Family History

I am constantly amazed by the Internet. It’s not like it’s something new but I regularly find myself wowed when I’m able to find something so easily, when only a few years ago it may have required days of research and possibly a cross-continent trip.

Yesterday I was at the home of a client that we are helping with a large photo archiving project. On the dining room table, where all the boxes and piles of photos and documents are waiting to be… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on February 10, 2010 at 11:30am — No Comments

What Kind of Person Has a Video Biography Made?

In talking about my business to families and individuals, I often come across the perception that you have to be “almost famous” to have a video made about you or your family. People will say, “well there’s nothing really that interesting about us. We’re just a regular family doing regular things. Nothing like the people you see on TV.” The perception being that your life has to have been distinguished by something remarkable and media-worthy in order to justify the production of a biography.… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on January 27, 2010 at 12:50pm — No Comments

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 and may wonder what can be done with them.



Some of you might be wondering, “scrapbook?? I thought you did video?” While our primary service is biographical and tribute videos, our core value proposition is helping you preserve your… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on January 20, 2010 at 3:54pm — No Comments

PBS “Faces of America” To Ask “Where Do You Come From?”

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., noted scholar and biographer has a new, four-part PBS documentary to air February 10 – March 3 from 8-9 PM on your local PBS Channel.



Focusing on 12 known US personalities such as Mario Batali, Dr. Oz, Meryl Streep, Yo-Yo Ma and other well known names, the documentary uses genetic genealogy to track the ancestral make up of each person. For the first time ever, the actual DNA genome sequencing was filmed and will be shown on television.…

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Added by Stefani Twyford on January 11, 2010 at 3:29pm — No Comments

Holiday Ideas for Creating Family History Projects

This is the time of year when we gather with our families and close friends and community to celebrate the holidays. It’s a special time of year often accompanied by many traditions, some of them passed down many generations, some of them new as we blend families or add new family members who may have come from other cultures. The cool thing about traditionshttp://boomaration.ning.com/profiles/blog/new# is that we’re the ones that get to pick how we’re going to celebrate; what foods we’ll eat,… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on December 22, 2009 at 2:15pm — No Comments

The Value of Visual Storytelling Through Video Biographies

Last week the American Chronicle published a beautiful article about what it is we do here at Legacy Multimedia.



While it’s always great to get PR, I particularly like this article because I felt that writer Pam Vetter asked the right questions and framed all the responses into a context that really gets to the essence of what it is that we do.



Because the process of creating a video… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on December 8, 2009 at 12:37pm — No Comments

December 2, 2009 - American Chronicle

Legacy Multimedia: Visual Storyteller Stefani Twyford Reaches Far Beyond Celebrity Life Stories. Featured article in the American Chronicle - December 2, 2009

Added by Stefani Twyford on December 2, 2009 at 7:55pm — No Comments

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