RootsWorks
Digital Video Intro
by Beau Sharbrough

I went to a small high school near Houston. It was so small that we were barely able to field a football team. Football is a religion in Texas, and any able-bodied boy was expected to go out for the team. They were so hard up that they even let me play some, but that's not the point. The point is that I grew up in a close-knit community where everybody knew everybody else and their families, and the place is long gone. Now it's inside the city limits of Houston, and the street signs are in Chinese.

I stayed away from my high school reunions for many years, because I wasn't old enough to want to see those people again. But after 30 years, I felt like they had suffered enough and agreed to appear. Those weren't the exact words used in the discussions, mind you, but I felt like it was a good time to reconnect. That reunion was several years ago, and it was a terrific experience, reconnecting with people that I had been with through as many as nine years of school. But that's not the point, either.

We invited our teachers and coaches to the reunion. Some of them are still alive, and all of us had stories to share with them. One of the teachers who appeared was the head football coach in the old days. Over the next few months of emails and follow-ups, we learned that he still had some old game films from our sophomore year, which was our finest season. We made it to the regional finals in the only playoff action our school had back in that era.

Now I'm ready to get to the point. I wanted to get my hands on that film and make a DVD of it. I also wanted to put some clips on the class reunion website, so that other people could enjoy them. That decision was the first step in an adventure that hasn't ended yet. Here is my story.

Every Search Starts with a Google
First, I had to get the film. One of our classmates was the "faculty contact," and she called Coach and asked him for the film. It was in storage someplace, and there was a brief delay while he dug it up. Then there was another phase of the project where the two of them worked out a time to get together, so they could deliver the film. That doesn't always happen on the first try. They lived over 100 miles apart. Eventually, she met with him, got the film and sent the two reels to me in Utah.

Meanwhile, I was looking for a vendor to transfer the film. As it turns out, there are two basic approaches to this transfer. There is equipment that scans each frame of the film. That process is slow and more expensive than the method used by the vendor I chose. My guy puts the film into a projector, shines it on the whitest sheet in the house, and films it with a digital camcorder. After that, the camcorder data is "downloaded" to a computer, and a DVD is burned. I didn't much care which method was used, I was more interested in the price and the quality.

I shouldn't have worried about the quality. Those films turned out to be pretty grainy, and the night games were pretty dark, too.

I searched for "convert 16mm dvd." I could have said, "convert 16mm to dvd" but Google would toss out the common word "to" and I would have typed three characters that didn't help me. Google would have had to waste 63 characters of bandwidth in order to add the following phrase to my search result:

"to" is a very common word and was not included in your search.

I'm a conservationist at heart, and I hate to see those little letters' short lives wasted in something that makes so little difference in the grand scheme of things. So I left out the "to."

According to Google, I got 64,900 results. I am taking their word for it. I only looked at about 50. Then I realized that a lot of these services were for sale in faraway parts of the country, and I wanted to find someone local. Maybe you would have approached it differently. These days, where the vendor is doesn't matter as much as it did in the old days.

I found a place here in town where I could get the two reels transferred to a DVD for about $50. I paid $10 each for a couple of extra DVD's. I didn't want any music, or chapter titles, or labels, but those services are generally included in the transfer service. Prices vary from 10 cents per foot of film up to almost 30 cents, depending on the process used.

And Then What Happened, Grandpa?
I put the DVD into the player and watched it on my TV. I saw people that I hadn't seen since high school. Players, cheerleaders, coaches, and others were on the sidelines. Two of the people that I saw running with the ball have passed away since high school. Seeing David Henderson carry the ball, with several defenders hanging on and trying to bring him down, and watching him fight for each step, carrying the pile with him . . . well, it helped me remember him the way I wanted to.

We gave one DVD to Coach when we returned the film, and used the other as a master copy to distribute copies to classmates who wanted them. We put some clips on the website and everyone enjoyed the memories.

What's Digital Video Have to Do With Genealogy?
I must have 20 Hi8 videotapes of my children growing up. My folks have old super8 movies of my grandparents, and my brothers and sister. All of that film is degrading--chemically and magnetically--with each passing year. I want to stop the process, by digitizing all of my family's video as soon as I can.

But it doesn't stop there. After I convert it, I want to organize it. I don't want to have to look for a particular birthday, holiday, or vacation. I want to be able to find clips for each child, each year, and watch them grow up again. I want to leave it for somebody who might come along later and care about it as much as I do.

These special family history records need preservation. RootsWorks is on it. Expect to see more on this topic soon.

More Information
If you want to discuss digital video issues, please drop by the RootsWorks Forums at www.rootsworks.com/forums. Registration is free, and I'd be interested to know what you think.

Beau Sharbrough is a product manager at MyFamily.com. His articles contain his own views and opinions and do not reflect any corporate policy or statement by the company. He lives in Provo, UT, where spring is coming again. The RootsWorks series of articles focuses on genealogical applications for generic technologies. Please note that he 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: NERGC in Maine, 31 Mar).

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Announcement
Boston College Makes "Missing Friends" Database Available Online

Boston College has posted a database of advertisements for Irish immigrants that were published in the Boston Pilot from October 1831 through October 1921. The advertisements were paid for by persons looking for family and friends who had lost contact, and contain important genealogical details. The website, Information Wanted: A Database of Advertisements for Irish Immigrants Published in the Boston Pilot, can be found at http://infowanted.bc.edu./.

More information can be found in an article from the "Boston Globe" at "The Irish Immigrant Past Gets Tie To Today" (Boston Globe).

Ancestry Quick Tip
Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree

It's time for this week's Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree! Thanks to everyone who has sent in a Quick Tip. Please keep them coming so that we can keep this tradition going. You can send your tips 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.

Have a great day!
Juliana

Swedish Voters of Chicago, 1888
Referring to today's tip about the Chicago Voters, you might want to know that Nils William Olsson, F.A.S.G., of Winter Park, FL, in 2000 published a book "Swedish Voters of Chicago 1888" in which he had identified several hundreds of them in other sources like the "Chicago City Directory" or the records of the Swedish American churches of the area. In this way he helped their descendants to find out more about their immigrating ancestor. Chicago in 1900 had more Swedes than Gothenburg, the second-largest city in Sweden.

Elisabeth Thorsell
www.etgenealogy.se
Swedish Genealogist, Writer, and Editor, "Swedish American Genealogist"

Watch for Abbreviations
In the 9 March 2005 edition of Ancestry Daily News Michael wrote a column titled "More 1880 Search Options."

He gave several examples of abbreviations for states to consider. Many of us tend to use current postal service abbreviations as our base when thinking of these abbreviations. I am very confused by the currently accepted abbreviations. I never know whether AL refers to Alaska or Alabama. And is MI for Michigan or Mississippi? Is MO for Missouri or Montana? Does MISS stand for Missouri or for Mississippi? For this reason I always spell the state out completely. Plus some people do not go by the usual abbreviations.

Also, the differences between the typed or printed word, and handwriting needs to be carefully considered. When handwritten, the abbreviations for Utah and Vermont (UT and VT) can easily be confused. I have had mail delayed several days because it was sent to the other state, in spite of the zip code!

In addition, we need to think like the census taker at the time.

Here is an actual example, one of many for this state. Look at image 5 of 31 for the 1850 census for Cheshire, Berkshire County, Massachusetts and the Russell B. Wolcott family. This family was indexed with the children being born in Mississippi (MS apparently being the current abbreviation for that state). I simply cannot see a family in Massachusetts going to Mississippi every two or three years for the birth of a child. Since the entire page is for Massachusetts residents, it seems logical to me to assume that the MS abbreviation on this page actually refers to Massachusetts (not to Mississippi). Massachusetts is a long word to write and I can see why the census taker used MS instead.

Ruth Ann Baker

Allow for the Unexpected
I was looking for and found the family name of HURN in the 1871 & 1891 Census returns for Norfolk in England, but couldn't understand why I couldn't find them for 1881. I knew there were variations of the spelling, like HURNE, HEARN, & HEARNE, but without the help of a complete stranger I would never have thought to look for AURN. This unlikely to be a typographical error, so I can only presume someone had difficulty in deciphering the Census taker's handwriting.

Thanks again stranger!
Jan Ross

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Clipping of the Day
What Pneumonia Is.
From the New York Times (New York, N.Y.), 22 March 1885, page 1

Doctors seem to know very little about pneumonia, except that it is generally fatal. Several prominent New-York physicians have lately come to the conclusion that the skating rinks are to blame for the spread of the dread disease. While we are not prepared to dispute that point, we do know that Duffy's Pure Malt Whisky, which can be obtained at any druggist's or grocers for $1 a bottle, guarantees perfect restoration. This whisky is absolutely pure, invigorating alike to both young and old.--Adv.

Subscribers with access to the Historical Newspapers Collection can view this clipping.

Subscribe to the Historical Newspapers Collection at Ancestry.com.

Fast Fact
Past Issues of Genealogical Computing Online

Did you know you can access past issues of "Genealogical Computing" online at www.ancestry.com/learn/library/article.aspx?article=gencomp? (Click on the "Archive" link next to the date to browse other issues.)

Product Spotlight
Genealogical Computing and Italian Genealogical Records

		Genealogical Computing, One-Year Subscription Normally, a one-year subscription retails for $24.95, but today you can subscribe to it in The Shops@Ancestry.com for $19.95.
		Italian Genealogical Records, by Trafford Cole Normally this book retails for $34.95, but today you can buy it in The Shops@Ancestry.com for $27.95.

Thought for Today
Benjamin Franklin

"The doors of wisdom are never shut."