Ancestry Magazine

Digital cameras, camcorders, scanners, and PDAs are just a few of the computer peripherals family historians are anxious to get their hands on.

Family historians use computers to collaborate around the world via the Internet, sharing their family history, research questions, and latest discoveries. But don’t forget the peripherals that will help turn your research into a family history project that everyone can enjoy.

Before the digital age, the word genealogy may have conjured up images of musty old books, handwritten pedigree charts, and boxes of old documents in the basement of the county courthouse. Most genealogy research was recorded by setting pen to paper. Everything was done tediously by hand or, at best, by typewriter. It wasn’t efficient, but it was the best there was at the time.

Now everything is digital, and computers are solidly entrenched in the world of genealogy. Family historians use computers to collaborate around the world via the Internet, sharing their family history, research questions, and latest discoveries. They upload family photos, genealogies, and even digital movies for their relatives to enjoy. The question now is, with so much technology available, are we taking full advantage of the amazing power of the computer to discover, preserve, and share our family heritage? For family historians eager to take the digital leap, there are a number of computer peripherals that have become popular tools.

Digital Cameras
While your family tree may hav e deep ancestral roots and lofty branches of descendants, the best place to begin making digital memories of your family history is at ground level–with you and your immediate family.

Digital cameras are all the rage these days. Many great digital cameras are on the market today, and the fierce competition is driving down prices. Not only are digital cameras affordable, but with them you can take pictures without paying to develop film. Many digital cameras even allow you to view a picture immediately after taking it, zoom in for a closer look, or view several images at a time.

The leading digital camera brands are Kodak, Olympus, Nikon, and Sony. The price is usually tied to the number of pixels in the camera’s image sensor, but other features factor into the price, such as zoom capability and optical quality. A 1-megapixel camera typically produces high-quality 5 x 7 inch prints, while a 2-megapixel camera makes great 8 x 10 inch prints. The 1-megapixel cameras start at $150, while 2-megapixel cameras cost $200 on up.

Digital cameras store photos to flash memory cards using a high-compression file format such as JPEG. To save your digital photos to your computer, just connect the camera to your computer’s USB or serial port, or insert the camera’s memory card into a card reader, depending on the make and model of your camera.

All the advantages of digital cameras apply when you’re doing your family history. You can snap a digital photo of a tombstone, an old photo, or the family homestead, and immediately see the quality of the image. If you don’t like it, you can try again until you’re satisfied.

In fact, one of the most exciting aspects of digital photography is the editing potential. You can take a digital photo of an old family photo and repair the picture yourself.

Most computer genealogy programs let you add multimedia in the form of digital images, video clips, and audio clips. You can combine these into slide shows and scrapbooks, or print digital photos on charts and forms. Get started by adding just one digital photo to your genealogy on the computer, and you will feel your database come alive as you transform it into family history.

Digital Camcorders
If you want to add even more pizzazz to your family history, try your hand at digital video. Digital video provides sharper images and brighter colors than videotapes, with footage immediately available for direct download to your computer. Although they are more expensive than digital cameras, digital camcorders are just plain fun. You can create digital movies of your family and record family history trips digitally. Or, consider arranging your family heirlooms and old photos into a display, either on the wall or on the table. Then, while filming each item, talk about the memories behind the mementos, recording a digital video of your family’s heritage.

When selecting a digital camcorder, look for these features: an LCD viewer, an optical image stabilizer, still photo capability, and special effects features such as “fade” and “wipe.” Popular brands of digital camcorders to choose from include Sony, JVC, Samsung, Canon, and Panasonic.

Digital Audio Recorders
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hear your great-grandfather reminisce about when he proposed to your great-grandmother? What did his voice sound like? Did he have an accent? Did he have a good sense of humor? Genealogy becomes family history as we learn about the lives and interests of our ancestors. One of the best ways to learn about someone is to listen to what they have to say. When you record the voices of your family members for posterity you will add tremendous value to your family history.

A new generation of audio recorders has replaced the old cassette tape records: digital audio recorders. These high-tech devices store sound directly to flash memory cards. Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony sell lightweight, compact digital audio recorders for $50 to $100. These pocket devices allow you to record between ninety minutes and six hours of voice recordings, which you can then transfer to your computer.

Use a digital audio recorder to capture an audio clip of a family activity, a piano recital, an oral history interview, or a reading from your personal history. Or, bring a pocket-size digital audio recorder to your next family reunion and record childhood stories and the struggles and successes of your parents, grandparents, and other relatives. You might also record an audio description to accompany a digital image or slide show in your family history. Use your favorite genealogy program to add audio files to your family history.

While recording the oral histories of your family members, remember to take the time to record your own stories and those of your younger relatives. Your children and grandchildren will treasure a family history that contains their own voices when they were children.

A word about preserving old audio cassette recordings: audio tapes do not age well. They may thin out from repeated play, and become brittle and easily broken. The sound quality may also degrade over time. You can preserve these old analog audio recordings by converting them from magnetic tape to a digital audio format on your computer. The easiest way to transfer audio cassettes to the computer is to plug your tape player into your computer’s sound card and convert the audio input to a digital file on your computer.

Scanners
Paper degrades. Ink fades. Old certificates, family photos, even photocopies of genealogical sources all show signs of wear and tear over time. You can scan these documents and photos into your computer using a flatbed scanner. Digital images of old photos and documents are easy to preserve, compile, repair, and share with others.

Flatbed scanners are inexpensive. Most po pular brands sell scanners for as little as $60 to $100, including Canon, Epson, Microtek, and Hewlett Packard.

Use a scanner to save old photos, creating digital images that you can save on your computer, e-mail to others, post on the Internet, or burn on CDs. You can even edit your digital photos, cropping them to a common size, repairing rips, scratches, or fold lines present in the original, or making other modifications.

With a scanner you can convert photocopies of genealogy documents into digital image files. Now you can add photos of census pages, church records, and birth certificates to your family history. Simply place these documents on the scanner and convert them to digital images, then add the resulting image files to your family history using your genealogy software.

While flatbed scanners work well for photos, film scanners are designed to convert your slides and negatives into digital images. Film scanners shine light through the film or negative to produce an image. Film or negative scanners are more expensive than flatbed scanners because they need to magnify and record the image using much higher optical resolutions. Consider buying a film scanner if you have a collection of slides you want to preserve.

Need a portable scanner or translation tool for the genealogy library? Pen-sized scanners are useful for recording and translating lines of printed text at the library. The C Pen 600C Handheld Scanner ($149.99), by C Technologies, can capture text from any printed source, storing up to 3,000 pages of printed text and files. You can download dictionaries in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish. Compatible with Windows, the scanner also interacts with PDAs made by Palm, Visor, and Sony. You can transfer information via infrared port or serial cable. It reads, saves, translates, and sends text within seconds.

CD Read/Write Drives
Many of today’s computers come equipped with CD drives th at create or burn new CDs. These CD Read/Write (CD-RW) drives create permanent copies of computer files. You can preserve and distribute your family history on CD with a CD-RW drive.

Creating a family history CD is a two-step process. First, use a genealogy program to build a set of webpages containing your family history on your computer’s hard drive. Many family history software programs have this feature. For example, Ancestry Family Tree has a “Create Web Page” feature, Generations Heritage DVD has a “Create a Family CD” feature, and Personal Ancestral File 5.1 has a “Create Web Page” feature. Each of these programs guide you through the process of creating a genealogy website on your computer. You choose the branch of your family history to include, the layout of the family history, and other design options. Once you have created this family history with one of these programs, you can view your handiwork with a web browser.

The next step in creating a family history CD is to copy the folders from your hard drive to the CD, using the software that came with your CD-RW drive. If you have folders containing multimedia files like photos, audio clips, or video clips that are part of this family history, make sure you copy them to the CD as well.

After you burn the family history to a CD and send it to your relatives, they can view it with a web browser as well. No additional genealogy software is needed to enjoy your family history.

Personal Digital Assistants
Packing for a trip to the genealogy library should not be as hard as packing for a week-long vacation, but it seems that way sometimes. Organizing and filing all the pedigree charts, family group sheets, research notes, and sources for a visit to the library takes time.

Now you can carry a digital copy of your family history in your pocket, with a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). PDAs are hand-held computers des igned for portability. Most of them will easily fit in a shirt or pants pocket. PDAs are ideal for trips to the genealogy library, visits with extended family, and family history vacations.

There are many affordable PDAs on the market, priced from $80 to $400, depending on the features you want. You have a choice between a color or monochrome display, Palm or Windows CE operating system (most PDAs and PDA software use the Palm OS), 8 MB or 16 MB of memory, and rechargeable or replaceable batteries.

Some of the best genealogy programs for PDAs are PAF for Palm, My Roots, GedStar, and GedWise. Each of these programs are written for the Palm OS and may be downloaded from the Internet. While PAF for Palm is free, the other three programs are shareware; you may download a free trial version, and then upgrade to the full version for less than $20.

Each of the genealogy applications listed above offer a variety of ways to view your family names: listed alphabetically, in families or individually, with ancestry, or with descendants. My Roots even allows you to edit your family history and enter new names.

PDAs can display photos of your ancestors as well. How about your research log or trip itinerary? You can view and update these using PDA software, too.

Fire Viewer and PocketPhoto are photo album applications for hand-held computers. You can store family photos, images of documents, and travel maps on your PDA.

There are a number of genealogy utilities written for PDAs; most are either freeware or very inexpensive shareware programs that you can download from the Internet. One such utility is BirthCalc 1.0, a birthdate calculator available for download online. Another genealogy utility for PDAs is PSoundex 2.0, a free Soundex conversion program available for download onlin e.

Load your photos and family history on your PC, then convert your photos and GEDCOM files to PDA format on the PC. Next, synchronize your PDA with your PC and you’ll have the latest snapshot of your family history to put in your pocket.

Take the Digital Leap Today
It is hard to resist the appeal of adding images, sound, and movies to your family history on the computer. Scanning in photos and documents can add value and beauty to the records you have collected. A PDA can make your family history extremely portable for research trips to the library or across the country. CD burners can make permanent copies of all of your work, making it easier for you to preserve and share your family heritage. How did we ever do family history before computers?

David Ouimette, project manager for Ancestry.com, is a genealogical researcher and lecturer with over twenty years experience in French-Canadian, New England, and Irish research.