Only a vanishingly small percentage of the documents in the National Archives have been made available in digital format. As I have written about recently, access is the main issue with doing research and the documents in the National Archives, for the most part, are not easy to access. It is also true that some of these records are available to genealogists and are valuable for research, but this is only part of the challenge faced by the genealogical researcher. It is true that the National Archives has a huge collection of documents. The records most often used by genealogists are census, military, land, and immigration records. The National Archives (NARA) has a vast collection of documents created by the federal government. For example, this particular article lists the National Archives and Records Administration as the first location mentioned. A representative list is found on a Research Wiki page entitled, " United States Archives and Libraries." Archives are far different than libraries. Neither one of us have tried it out for accuracy, but it’s definitely one to watch.From time to time, I see lists of the major libraries known for their collections of genealogically related reference collections. Imagine, recording your oral history interviews and having a service that automatically transcribes the interview. Rev.com transcription for voice recorders, intrigues Valerie Brown Eichler, a friend who blogs at. In my experience, these interviews are stilted questions and answers, but rather include a lot of heart. Like many other apps, it offers prompts to facilitate interviews, but it offers the users a chance to upload their interview to the Library of Congress.
Storycorps’ app remains at the top of my list. They can respond via email or phone and those stories are kept on an ad-free private server. A subscription service, loved ones (or you) will receive weekly story prompts. (the 2015 Innovator Showdown winner) helps with the problem of getting stories from loved ones who probably would never get around to writing themselves.
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“Twile” comes from “erstwhile” and is now completely free to use. For family history buffs, their partnership with FamilySearch makes them even more attractive. Though Twile can pull family’s memories, photos and stories in the same place, it can also be used to enhance your stories. (Last year’s Innovator Showdown People’s choice winner) “makes your family history more visual and engaging” with the creation of timelines and aesthetically pleasing info-graphics. Qroma Tag won 2 nd place in the RootsTech Innovator Showdown.
It’s currently available for iOS, but will be out soon for Android. This makes finding the photos to use in stories much easier. In addition, you can use-get this-voice recognition to tag photos with names, places, and even 2000 characters to attach “the most important parts of a story” to the photo. With QromaTag, you can record the exact GPS coordinates of the place your grandparents’ home used to stand. Luckily, Tony knows more about things like EXIF, IPTC, Voice Recognition and standard outputs than the average bear. (Metadata is bits and bytes of information stored in photo files.) Tony asks, “How many times have you looked at a photo and wondered what was going on? If it was a print, you might be tempted to flip it over to see if anything was written on the back.” Sadly, those of us who’ve been obsessively scanning photos for years haven’t taken the time or had the expertise to add meta data to the photo file. QromaTag came from innovator Tony Knight’s desire to uncover the stories behind the photos his father left behind when he died. Qroma Tag and Tony Knight won the 2nd place price in the Innovator Showdown You can also upload the videos to presentation quality DVDs. Better yet, Emberall tags and categorizes the video clips, making them easy to find and share. Using the smart phone’s video, loved ones record their responses.
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When downloaded on an Android or iOS smart phone, the app guides users through creating an album and interview question prompts. Which, according to Embrell’s Karen Corbitt, is the preferred format for millennials. Innnovator Summit’s Apps for StorytellersĪlthough FamilySearch’s Steve Rockwood advised innovators to look beyond the storytelling, thankfully a couple of this year’s innovators didn’t get the memo.Įmberall helps you let loved ones tell their own stories in their own words via short video clips. In fact, Rootstech is to storytellers as Virginia is to lovers. RootsTech is a great place to discover apps for family storytellers.
This year’s Innovator Summit featured several great apps for family storytellers