Family History Writing Challenge

Tomorrow February 1^st is the beginning of the Family History Writing Challenge.  I have signed up and pledged to write 250 to 300 words per day.  My plan is to write about various individuals in my family tree and intersperse these sketches with articles about the places they came from and some happenings from their era. I will use these articles on my blog and will not be using the Geneabloggers memes during February.

In writing about my ancestors, I will be doing a narrative with my some of my personal observations added.  I will use footnotes to document the facts.  When I can, I will include pictures or other illustrations with the articles.

To prepare for this challenge, I have added one word to my google calendar for each day of February, This word is either a name or a topic.  This will help me to meet the challenge since I have found that without a topic before me, I just don’t write. The idea is that I will be dwelling on tomorrow’s topic as soon as I finish writing today’s blog,

I have been blogging for almost three years and will probably revisit a few of the people but will try to write about them in a different way.

My genealogy research began almost 20 years ago and researching from the point of view of my grandchildren so I am also researching my son-in-law’s ancestors. Resources I will be using include my genealogy research, family photos where available, and personal memories, again where available. 

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Tech Tuesday - Migrating Data

It has bothered me for a while that I had valuable audio information that I needed to preserve.  All of this information was currently on audio cassettes.  How many cassette players are still around?

First I downloaded Audacity and borrowed my grandson's boombox.  Since I am not a sound engineer, I wasn't sure what adjustments to make to clean up the sound.  Next I purchased a different software program but my Windows upgrade made it unusable before I got around to using it.

I spoke with band personnel in both the US Army Band and our local High School band but couldn't get any recommendations.  My dilemma increased.

This is what I wanted to preserve:  my parents recordings of family gatherings in the 1940s ( the voices of my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins.), a 2002 concert of my great-grandfathers music from Norway in honor of his 150th birthday, a letter from my mother and her sisters during their cruise in 1973, and my daughter Laura's senior concert on clarinet in 1989.

 
 Finally I went searching online for a company doing this work.  I found a company that appeared to meet my needs and checked out their reviews.  I e-mailed the company to be sure they could do what I needed.  When the answer was positive, I took a deep breath, boxed up my cassettes and sent them off!  It took longer than expected but I received my CDs back last week as promised along with the original cassettes.  I am thrilled with the results and will be making copies to share with my eight siblings and twenty one first cousins who will here their ancestors voices once again!