CD Welcome Page

Welcome to "The Digital Archiving of Family History."

In the last few years many people have come to us and asked why we don't write a book describing what we do, so that those with the time and the computer skills could try digitizing their own family's story. After all, almost every family has a basement or attic full of "family history" and would like to preserve it for future generations.

The more we thought about it, the more we realized that a book was not the way to present this material and that the best medium for showing someone how to make a multi-media CD was with specific examples on just such a CD. Of course, it would also contain the text of a manual so that one could easily print whatever text one wanted as a handy reference.

On this CD you will also find recommendations for low, medium and high-end equipment, depending on your needs and your budget.

Without getting too technical, we show you how to handle text, photos, audio and video materials, and give recommendations for handling old newspaper clippings, faded snapshots and the like. We have taken excerpts from three of our family histories to show you specific examples of what is being described. You will see slices of three fascinating, but very different, lives. One woman grew up climbing the Sierra and photographing nature; another climbing the Alps and later settling in the Philippines as a refugee from Nazi Germany; the third, a native San Franciscan with German roots, headed a large and successful business in the days when ladies weren't supposed to do such things.

We provide you with references in the form of URLs so that you can be kept up to date in this rapidly changing field, including some helpful interview "TIPS" from Willa Baum of the Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.

It is beyond the scope of this CD to show you how to research your genealogy, evaluate and select your materials or publish a book. However, from the three histories presented here, you can get a very good idea of what the finished product should look like and have a sound basis for the digital archiving of your family history.

We have tried hard to make this CD-ROM visually pleasing and easy to navigate.

 

Peter & Mary Farquhar

 

OUT OF PRINT

New version scheduled for mid 2005

If you need professional assistance on any special family history projects, we would be happy to consult or work with you.

 

 

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