Personal history on the iPod
Do you have an iPod? Any old iPod? Did you know you can record personal history stories to it? You don't need a special digital recorder nowadays to record voices. And you can certainly throw that old cassette tape recorder in the trash. Just plug a mic into your iPod (the Griffin iTalk microphone gets good reviews) and away you go.
Let's say you are visiting Grandma. She has just put aside her own iPad to visit a while with you (although her eyes keep darting back to the device - she's anxious to take it up again). She starts reminiscing about the old days. You, of course, have your iPod in your pocket (you drove up with it playing on your car stereo). You ease it out and say, "Hey Granny, what great stories you have. Mind if I record you talking about the time you met Grampsy?"Of course she says yes.
Halfway through, Granny mentions a box of old photos she has in the dresser and asks you to fetch it down. You go through the box. Boy, Granny really had it going on back in the day. These swimsuit shots are something else.
You think to yourself: I should get copies of these photos. But you realize something: Darn. I wish I'd brought a scanner. Even my digital camera would have done the job.
Cell phones can be "Johnny on the spot"
Wait! All is not lost. Who doesn't have a cell phone these days? (You check your other pocket.) Cell phones have been able to take photos for some time now. You may have an in-built camera and not even realize it (or you may not know how to use it - yet). Some cell phones can now take pictures up to 5MB in size - and some even have an auto focus function.
Newer cell phones can even record video. Video! Google's Nexus One can record thirty minutes of biography video at full screen resolution! So can Motorola's Droid. Lot's of cell phones now do video. And once you are done, you can upload right to YouTube or send the clip along by email.
OK. You're determined not to let Granny be The Life That Got Away. You're not sure when you will be able to get back and visit. With her permission, you decide to video record her with your cell phone - you had it all along. (You decide to shoot the action over her shoulder, her gnarled hands roughly shuffling the pictures, and her mind and voice drifting down memory lane).
Then a bump. Grandma's stuck. She can't remember the unit Grampsy served in during WWII. "It doesn't matter", you say, and pat her hand a little condescendingly. She fixes you with that stern glare that used to paralyze you when you were a girl.
iPad rides to the rescue
"OK. Pass the iPad," you say. "I'll look it up." She reluctantly hands it across and in a few screen touches you are surfing the web, landing on ancestry.com, and looking at Grampsy's original registration card for the draft and his army enlistment record. That's his handwriting alright.
No one has left the living room. Or even gotten up from the sofa.
It's a great time to be alive. It's a great time to be a personal historian. It's a great time to be doing personal history in our high tech world. Embrace the technology: Family History in the Digital Age: Fine China and Lace Doilies Begone!
Postcript
Another way our hitec world is having an impact on personal history is through the emergence of social networking sites. Children lost for decades are reconnecting with birth parents and siblings on Facebook. And families are finding cousins and ancestors they never new they had on ancestry.com, to name just two examples.
Some older folks are getting into the social network game (and why not?) and keeping up with kids and grandkids who may be living in other cities, other states, and even other countries. Here is an example of a 92 year old lady who stays connected with her family on Facebook, as her personal documentary made in early 2011 shows.
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