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RootsWorks
Slide
Shows for Family Reunions
by
Beau Sharbrough
A picture is worth a thousand words, but a couple
of hundred pictures can make for a priceless family
experience. The Propes Family has a reunion every June
at the Community Center in Henderson, Texas. It's a
big old room, and we set up 20 or 30 tables and have
a potluck. Some years, folks come from the Georgia
branch of the family; most years, somebody comes from
out of state. We enjoy the fellowship.
I've been printing a family tree chart for some time,
and people come and mark changes on it as the different
Propeses get married, have children, get divorced,
get married again, or just spot my mistakes. The last
few years I've been adding pictures to the chart using
Legacy. People are usually shocked to see pictures
of themselves from 30 or 40 years ago showing up on
the wall at the reunion. The kids love to see their
names and pictures on the wall; it's a good way to
teach them that they have their own place in the family.
Some years we encourage them to sign by the box with
their name on it. We lose a few pens, but it's worth
it.
We put the laptop over on a table to the side one
year. We used the Windows slide show--the one where
it goes through the photos from a given folder. That
was okay, but the year after that was the 50th reunion,
and for that occasion we decided to do something special.
We got a projector, and used the slide show from Legacy
on my laptop to project pictures on the wall most of
the afternoon. We set it up so they showed really high
on the wall, like a movie screen, bigger than life.
The pictures moved across the wall at different speeds,
and different sizes, at random. Current photos mixed
with old photos, and those mixed with really old photos
of people who had been gone for many years. They've
held that reunion in that same room for so many years
that it seemed like all of my aunts and uncles and
grandparents were looking down on us from that place
on the wall.
Lots of things have to fall into place for a good
family reunion, but I thought the slide show really
helped.
Creating Your Computer Slide Show
To make a computer slide show, you need three ingredients:
pictures, software, and presentation.
Most everybody has some pictures. Gather up photos
of living relatives and ancestors. The combination
will make both sets look better. I think that the more
you have, the better it is. If you have less than a
hundred, look for some more. Then go for two hundred.
But don't get so many that you'll never see the same
picture twice. I like to see them come back around
a few times.
For software, you have choices in two categories:
genealogy programs and slide show programs. You can
make slide shows with The Master Genealogist (TMG),
Family Tree Maker, Legacy, and probably every other
one, but you'll have to check to be sure. There is
a comparison chart on the website for TMG (www.whollygenes.com/tmg5.htm)
that shows various slide show features for different
programs. One advantage to using a genealogy program
is that the program keeps track of where the picture
files are, so that they don't have to be in a single
folder. Another advantage is that you don't have to
do any preparation, just turn it on. And finally, the
pictures match the ones in the family tree that you
printed and taped up on the wall.
Slide show programs, on the other hand, present different
features. The generic slide show that can be run from
Windows Explorer, or from the screen saver, can do
a nice job of making random dissolves between images,
and resizing them all to fill the screen. Maybe it's
just me, but photos in random order are much more interesting
than the same sequence over and over. But there's a
time when you might want exactly that.
You
might want to create a highly structured slide show.
Maybe you'll want to go up or down a family tree.
And perhaps you'd like to include some text--either
as captions or as animated "pop-up video" balloons.
Maybe you'd like for the photos to be framed in diamonds,
triangles, circles, hearts, hexagons, and to have not
only cool shapes but also interesting frames. If that's
your thing, you want to use Microsoft PowerPoint. You
can have complete control over the time a slide is
on the screen, and over slide transitions such as dissolves,
blinds, wipes, and the like.
PowerPoint
can create a slide show "photo album" for
you that includes whatever images you select. You can
show it with random transitions and specify that each
slide will be on the screen for a certain time--3 to
5 seconds works for me. You can even put music with
your presentations, and change songs on certain slides.
If you have any kind of a story-telling function at
your reunion, slides can help.
Your
Presentation might be a "kiosk" or a big deal
with a projector. The projectors are really expensive
to buy and rent, but almost everyone has access to
one anymore. Maybe you can borrow one from work--the
marketing types are usually out the door by 4:55 on
Friday and don't show up 'til about 10 on Mondays.
They'd never miss it.
Don't stop being creative just thinking of family
reunions. This is a great way to spice up a class reunion,
too. Next time you have a reunion or family gathering,
think about adding pictures to the event. It's one
of the best ways to invite your ancestors to join you.
More Information
For links and more information about slide shows, please see the RootsWorks
site at www.rootsworks.com/slideshow.
If you want to discuss your family reunion slide show challenges, please
drop by the RootsWorks Forums at www.rootsworks.com/forums.
Registration is free, and I'd be interested to know what kinds of issues
you are facing.
Beau Sharbrough is a product manager at Ancestry.com.
His articles contain his own views and opinions and
do not reflect any corporate policy or statement by
the company. The RootsWorks series of articles focuses
on genealogical applications for generic technologies.
Beau would like to hear from you. Stop by www.rootsworks.com/forums and
discuss this or any topic related to the use of technology
in family history. Tell us about your experiences.
Please note that Beau cannot assist you with your individual
computer and genealogy problems. Visit the RootsWorks
website (www.rootsworks.com)
for links to previous articles and Beau's lecture schedule
(next stop: the Utah Valley PAF Users Group in June).
Copyright 2004, MyFamily.com.
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Ancestry Quick Tip
Disposable Mirror
I have a suggestion for those taking pictures of gravestones.
On last year's cemetery trip, we took a flat, metal cookie
sheet in our luggage to use for sun-reflection at the
cemeteries. However, we found that it held us up at airport
security checks. Packing a large mirror wasn't very feasible,
either.
We've
found a better way: Now we make our own mirror, using
a piece of heavy cardboard and a large square of heavy-duty
aluminum foil (folded up). With a paper clip or tape,
the cardboard can be covered with the foil, used at
the cemetery, and even discarded before boarding the
plane to return home. It also weighs less than the
cookie sheet or mirror. [On last year's trip, we paid
a $25 fee to the airline for an overweight suitcase because
it was packed with all our genealogy stuff!]
One other quick tip: We also pack a couple of large
mailing envelopes, addressed to our home address, in
which we can mail back some of our paperwork, books,
etc., that we accumulate on the trip. This also reduces
the weight of our luggage on our return trip.
Karla
South Carolina
Thanks
to Karla for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you
would like to share with researchers, you can send
it to ADNeditor@ancestry.com.
Quick
Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter,
in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want
your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry
Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please
state so clearly in your message.
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