Some Basic Technology Tips for Enhancing Family History

The Wonder of Digitizing to Put Permanent Form to Artifacts Left

Behind by Our Kindred Dead

Artifacts are such things as the Written Word, Photos, and even Audio Recordings.

Preserving these opens windows into the lives and thoughts of our kindred dead, the environment in which they lived, and the types of character they developed.

Written Materials: Letters, Diaries, Journals, Recipes, Song Texts, Poetry, Scrap-Books, Obituaries, News Articles, etc.

The HinduA wonderful man is the Hindu.He does the best he kin do.He sticks to his task from first to lastAnd for pants he makes his skin do.

Recordings Made of Events in A Person’s Life Records and Magnetic Materials

Teacher in 2 Room School House

Teaching Singing to 3 Classes of 4th Graders

Putting on An Operetta for High School

17 Years with St. Johns Mandolin &Guitar Club

Photos Profiling Aspects of One’s Career

The Dragon Speech Recognition Program

Audio Materials (Nutshell Version): What they look like, How to get them digitized, Digital forms

required

• Audio recordings are often found in materials kindred dead have left behind who lived into the 20th century.

• Getting them digitized can be a problem as the playback machines are obsolete and have all but disappeared. The good news is that there are companies who specialize in preserving these machines and offer digitizing services.

What is the MP3 Format?

• The digital forms of these recordings (sound files) can vary in size depending on the sound quality desired, the larger the file, the better the quality.

• However, these sound files can be compressed into smaller files, the most popular one being the MP3 format because, though its files are small, the sound quality is still good.

• Because of this, the MP3 format is the standard for uploading sound files to FamilySearch.

Materials Used to RecordEvents in A Person’s Life -- Records and Magnetic Materials

78 RPM Records: Popular for Personal Recordings

Magnetic or “Memory” Wire Cartridge

Wire Recorder Using Magnetic Wire

Magnetic Tape – Reel to Reel

If You Have Any Of the Below, You Most Likely Must Take Them To A Professional Place.

Most Likely Audio Cassettes Like These Can Be Digitized At Home

With Proper Program and Equipment, Cassettes Can Be Connected to your Computer and the Contents Transferred

Early Cassette Players: These only had 1 microphone input and one headphone output.

Boom Box with Cassette

Mid-Range Cassette Deck

High-End Model

• If you have one of these machines you can probably connect it to your computer with a cable and transfer the contents of your tapes. What comes through the cable is called the signal.

• It is not quite that simple but the following information and tips will be helpful. First, all playback machines have input and output mechanisms. They are of various types, hence the cables are also of various types.

The Connecting cables (also called “patch cords”) have different connecting ends (called “plugs”) to fit different

inputs, or “jacks.”RCA to Mini Plugs

Mini to Mini Stereo Plugs

Examples of Mini Plugs & mini Jacks

Three Common Types of Plugs (which, of course, will fit 3 types of Jacks)

RCA and Mini Stereo

RCA and Mini Stereo

Phon(o) Plugs: Stereo & Mono

Older mid-range models of Cassette Players are stereo

and use RCA Jacks, color coded to White (left) and

Red (right).

These machines do not have a microphone input

The best connection is from a “line out” to a “line in.” On a computer these are found on the sound card.

Sound Card Inputs are color coded

Anything produced in the last few years will have a sound card that supports stereo inputs and they will be Mini Jacks.

Getting the Cassette Tape Actually Digitized

• From here there two ways to go in digitizing a cassette, one somewhat complicated and the other hardly complicated thought it will cost a little.

• The complicated way is to download a free music program to the computer, record to it, and than have it export that recording as an MP3 file.

• The less complicated way is to use an MP3 Converter deck which will cost initially $30-50, but if you have a lot of tapes it is well worth it. Today this is the one we will talk about.

MP3 Converter: Any Music File In, MP3 Out

Besides doing cassettes directly, other playback machines can be hooked to it as well.

Organizing Photos to Show a Life’s Thread

Photos portraying life events of a person enhances our view and understanding of them as individuals, what was their work, what did they make, for example, quilts, furniture, or clothes, what was their civic or social life like, family reunion activities, etc.

Thanks to scanning technology these photo can be given permanent life, no fading or cracking with age. If the originals are faded or cracked, other technology can help restore them.

The following pictures show a brief thread of the life of a teacher of English and music and her contributions to the education, civic, and social life of her community. She inherited these talents and the necessary formidable teacher-frame-of-mind from her pioneer grand and great-grandmothers. These pictures show activities which continue to have an impact on three generations of her posterity and countless former students.

Teacher in 2 Room Schoolhouse 1948-49, Grades 1-4

Teaching Singing to 3 Classes of 4th Graders

Music Teacher-Putting on A High School Operetta

St. Johns Mandolin & Guitar Club @1960