Digitizing your family history : easy methods for preserving your heirloom documents, photos, home movies and more in a digital format

by Rhonda R. McClure

Preserve Your Family's Precious Heirlooms!Your interest may be in the past, but permanently preserving your family's history relies on today's technology. If you have limited knowledge of computer equipment or feel uncomfortable using it, "Digitizing Your Family History" will teach you easy methods for choosing and using scanners, copiers, digital cameras, and software to keep and share your work with others.

Use your computer for more than a filing system! With "Digitizing Your Family History" you'll learn to: Use your scanner to create duplicates of old photos, tintypes, fragile papers, slides, and negatives.Choose a digital camera that's right for genealogy projects and use each feature like a pro.Master the software fundamentals needed to manipulate the quality and composition of photos, preserve your audio- and videotapes through your computer, safely store your files, and share them electronically with others.Use your personal digital assistant (PDA) to take your lineage, photos, and even family movies with you wherever you go.Today's technology makes researching and preserving your genealogy easier and more fun than ever before. Using your computer and its peripherals may have been daunting - until now! Renowned genealogist and computer expert Rhonda R. McClure takes the mystery out of the many ways you can use your computer to record, preserve, and share your family's legacies with "Digitizing Your Family History."

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

Published August 19, 2004

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Desperately needs updating. The technology presented in the book is laughably old. This may have been good for the inexperienced back when it was published, but it is almost unusable now.

[mbm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too basic. It assumes you know nothing about scanners, cameras or the digital world. Lots of "filler" text. It is difficult to read as the author does not get to the point. Too much time is spent on the simplest things while ignoring the point of the text. A book like this should go right to the 'how to' without having to jump hoops through the history of things. That was not why I bought book. As far as I'm concerned -- it missed the point as the best part of this book is the title.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book must have been marvelous in its time of 2004. It's full of great tips, but they're all very outdated now. For example, using tape backups for your computer and zip drives! She also waxes on poetic about PDAs.

So while the data is ancient, the author provides a solid introduction to the concepts of digitization and WHY you'd want to digitize your family history.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was packed with good information for a technology beginner like me. I learned a lot about scanners and other methods for digitizing photos and documents. Some of the information was dated such as on PDA's but the way you can use them in the book is easily adjusted to our Ipods, etc.

[Phil James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat dated, now (2014.) General reference to gen. s/w, lots of info. on PDAs, which could probably be translated to smartphones, etc.?