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Stefani Twyford's Blog (127)

Time to Write That Holiday Letter

The annual tradition of the holiday letter is a great way to keep in touch with our far-flung loved ones; an opportunity to update friends and family on career changes, family news and other achievements of the past year. Often it’s the only communication we have with some of our friends. Traditionally, these letters have earned the reputation as a vehicle for self-aggrandizement. Bragging about the clever things our kids have done or a laundry list of vacations and fabulous social occasions… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on November 30, 2009 at 11:51am — No Comments

Days With My Father by Philip Toledano

My son recently sent me a link to a beautiful website called “Days With My Father.” It is a beautiful and sentimental photo gallery done by a professional photographer with his writings about dealing with the final stages of his father’s Alzheimers Disease.

As someone whose work it is to preserve memories, I found this a beautiful and touching memorial. I sent it out to several of my friends who sent me back emails thanking me for sharing the link and how much they really appreciated… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on November 30, 2009 at 11:39am — No Comments

Lily Koppel’s “The Red Leather Diary”

If you follow me on any of the social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, then you know a couple of weeks ago I spent the week in Valley Forge Pennsylvania at the Association of Personal Historians annual conference. It was an amazing five days (plus I tacked on another two to do some urban touring around Philadelphia), and I met some remarkable people and learned a lot. My last blog post was a general recap of the week there and some of the highlights but I would have to say that I… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on November 17, 2009 at 4:56pm — No Comments

Entire U.S. Census goes Interactive with Footnote

October 29th, 2009 | Written by Tyler

Today Footnote.com announced it will digitize and create a searchable database for all publicly available U.S. Federal Censuses, ranging from the first U.S. Census taken in 1790 to the most current public census from 1930. Through its partnership with the National Archives, Footnote.com will add more than 9.5 million images featuring over half a billion names to its extensive online record collection.

With over 60 million historical… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on November 9, 2009 at 10:06am — 2 Comments

Video Biography Project In Mississippi

From February 2, 2009

This past weekend Isabelle and I flew to Northern Mississippi to work with a new client on creating a tribute video biography. It was a really fun, albeit short trip but we managed to cram a lot into two days.

We flew a commercial airline from Houston to Jackson Mississippi on Saturday where our client picked us up in his private plane and flew us another half hour to a smaller airport in the Northern part of the state. Isabelle was a bit nervous… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on November 9, 2009 at 8:40am — No Comments

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 the Philadelphia area, I was particularly excited to be spending time at Valley Forge, the historic site of the American Revolution and birthplace of everything we now take for granted as being intrinsically American. I was not… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on November 4, 2009 at 12:57pm — No Comments

Home videos donated to film project

From the www.miamiherald.com:

Isabel Ramos-Quinones' father shot home movies of family parties -- childhood memories that are now beginning to decay.

But she found out a way to preserve the old film, now tucked away in her closet.

An added bonus: She will be helping document history.

Miami Dade College's Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives compiles donated films for its collection. It… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on November 2, 2009 at 10:24am — No Comments

Memory and Craft

I was recently watching “Craft in America“, PBS’s excellent series covering the major influences that play a part in each artist’s craft. The particularly episode I watched was episode V – Process, that looked at how an artist achieves the skill to become proficient. It profiled several artists about how they have learned their techniques. Artist Tom Joyce, was talking about how he has learned technique from a very old blacksmith. They showed them together, this very old man sitting in a chair… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on October 13, 2009 at 10:41am — No Comments

Sorting and Storing Digital Photos

In previous posts I have talked about sorting and archiving old photos and how important it is to do that. But, I have actually been been daunted by the task of organizing my own digital images. Right now they sit on my hard drive, backed up daily to a second hard drive and dumped into individual folders which are labeled by the date and perhaps the event. Re: Thanksgiving 2007.

While I have really expensive editing and organizing software, it has sometimes taken me awhile to find a… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on October 11, 2009 at 1:08pm — No Comments

Family History Month has begun!

Today officially marks the first day of “Family History Month.” In 2003 the United States Senate officially recognized October as National Family History Month, a time “to encourage family history research, education, and the sharing of knowledge.”

President George W. Bush, in signing a Proclamation in support of Family History Month in 2003, said, “Lessons in family lineage are often lessons in courage, endurance, and love. While tracing our roots can be challenging, the rewards can… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on October 2, 2009 at 8:00am — No Comments

The Houston Oral History Project, Houston, Texas

Yesterday Mayor Bill White and Dr. Rhea Brown Lawson, director of the Houston Public Library, launched the Houston Oral History Project (HOHP), a web-based archive that celebrates the many voices of Houston’s past.

Last summer Mayor White commissioned 100 initial interviews through the Houston Public Library. Well known civic, political and business leaders as well as witnesses to the historical events that shaped Houston were invited to visit libraries throughout the city to record… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on September 30, 2009 at 1:20pm — No Comments

Create Your Own Family Bible

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 preserved. Families want this service because it provides a backup should anything happen to the original as well as a architected filing storage system that makes it simple to find any photo within minutes. If you have a large family, there is no need to argue over who… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on September 26, 2009 at 2:56pm — No Comments

Little Green Blog - TreeRing

Preserving memories "Green" - a look at Tree Ring, creators of yearbooks for the internet generation.

Little green Blog - TreeRing Preserving memories of childhood and our future earth

Added by Stefani Twyford on September 23, 2009 at 10:30am — No Comments

The Objects and Memory Project

From The Objects and Memory Project web site:

"The documentary film and educational initiative Objects and Memory is about how we respond to history while it is happening and how we tell our stories through the otherwise ordinary things in our homes and museums that are associated with people, places, and events.

The film was the PBS national prime time special in commemoration of the seventh anniversary… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on September 12, 2009 at 4:30pm — No Comments

October is Family History Month

In 2003 the United States Senate officially recognized October as National Family History Month, a time "to encourage family history research, education, and the sharing of knowledge."

President George W. Bush, in signing a Proclamation in support of Family History Month in 2003, said, "Lessons in family lineage are often lessons in courage, endurance, and love. While tracing our roots can be challenging, the rewards can be great - affirming our pride in our history and keeping us… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on September 11, 2009 at 2:10pm — No Comments

This has definitely been our year to brag

Two weeks ago we took yet another award, this one an ISES Crystal Icon Award for Best Videography. ISES is the International Society for Special Events and the Icon awards are recognized for top achievement within the special events industry.

It's such an honor to win all these awards and we really appreciate the opportunity to have our work judged by our peers. It's satisfying and gives us acknowledgment that indeed we are producing some great stuff over here. But truly, our biggest… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on September 11, 2009 at 2:10pm — No Comments

Transferring 8mm & 16mm film to DVD

We get a lot old format film transferred to DVD work and I wanted to take the time to discuss this and our perspective on it.

Lots of you have boxes of old film laying around in the closets. Some of you have projectors but most of you don’t and therefore haven’t viewed the film in many years. Some of you may be reconciling the estate of a parent and didn’t realize how much footage they actually had.

Regardless of the circumstances and whether you have the projector or not,… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on September 5, 2009 at 1:00pm — No Comments

Dakota Memories Oral History Project

The Dakota Memories Oral History Project’s (DMOHP) mission is to preserve

the history and heritage of the second- and third-generation Germans from

Russia. Since the project’s 2005 inception, organizers have focused on

childhood memories and family relationships. In short, we chronicle what it

was like growing up German-Russian on the Northern Plains.

Dakota Memories Oral History… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on September 2, 2009 at 8:50am — No Comments

376th HEAVY BOMBARDMENT ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Date: 2009-11-28
Description: 376th HEAVY BOMBARDMENT ORAL HISTORY PROJECT now web
streamed on the internet! Ball State University Libraries
Archives and Special Collections is now home to an excellent
online oral history resource. In 2007, more than forty veterans
were interviewed at a reunion of the 376th Heavy Bombardment

376th HEAVY BOMBARDMENT ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Added by Stefani Twyford on September 2, 2009 at 8:30am — No Comments

The Human Family Tree – National Geographic Channel – Tues. Sept 1

I’ve got my DVR cued for tomorrow night’s airing of The National Geographic Channel’s ground-breaking show “The Human Family Tree.” I missed the original showing on Friday and am thrilled it will be repeated on Tuesday night. The episode takes a neighborhood in Queens, N.Y. and through DNA sampling of a couple hundred of the residents of this neighborhood, traces everyone’s origin… Continue

Added by Stefani Twyford on August 31, 2009 at 10:47am — No Comments