A bouquet to you, Jan Cortez. I wonder how many others are doing the same, if not for the community, for their descendants. I am developing a personal time line and plan to do a video of me relating my life and events, I guess what they call an oral history, only with video, for my kids, grandkids and, when they come, great grandkids. I already scanned many photos from way back and gave each of the kids a CD with the photos on it. Any other ideas on what we can do as the ancients for the future generations? They will look to us because our ancestors had to work hard just to remain alive. It is only since WWII that many of the gains we have achieved have come to fruition: modern homes, good roads, fast cars, TV, cheap phone service, computers, air travel, most household electrical appliances and the list goes on. Cliff Hayes ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jan Cortez" <cristian@netonecom.net> To: <NYOTSEGO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 6:45 PM Subject: Re: [NYOTSEGO] Suggestion for a new form of tithing - genealogy wise > Well Cliff, I think its an excellent idea, as I have been doing that for > some time. Guess I thought everyone did. I've even done a history on the > township in MI, where I'm a township clerk, putting the old with the new. > This is the way it looked back then, this is what I'm seeing today, and what > is happening with the different families, businesses, government, etc. In > this history, I ask that some one will update it again in another 50 years, > just to keep current. > > Jan Cortez > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Clifford Hayes" <cliff.hayes@earthlink.net> > > > > It seems everyone is searching for this, that or the other ancestor - > asking for help and/or giving it. What are each of you doing for your > descendants when 50 or 150 years from now they are looking for you? I > suggest that we tithe and give ten percent of the time we spend searching > for our ancestors putting our lives on line and giving our descendants some > insight as to what we are doing, what problems we are facing, how we live, > etc. Sure, they can read the newspapers and magazines for the BIG picture. > We can do the same for our ancestors but does the BIG picture tell us how > great great grandma or her peers lived? > > > > It will be interesting to see what, if any, comment this suggestion > inspires. > > > > Cliff Hayes, (a leftover from WWII). > > > > ==== NYOTSEGO Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from this list in digest mode send an email with > the word, unsubscribe,in the subject field & body of the message > to the following address: NYOtsego-d-request@rootsweb.com > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > >
Videos are an excellent idea. I can't begin to tell you how many times I wish I had asked my folks about some of these family things before they passed away. We take so many things for granted. I have been going thru all my family photos and making sure they are marked on back with who they are, when taken, where, etc. I have a very large box full of antique photos and unfortunately, I haven't the faintest idea who they are. It's a shame. I'd love to see some of my great grandparents, and their siblings, etc. I have one of a 4th great grandfather and only because his portrait hangs on a courthouse wall as the first judge of that county, and I have a photo of it. Now is the time to begin work on those photos, and keepsakes, etc. and preserve them for the next generations. Jan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Clifford Hayes" <cliff.hayes@earthlink.net> I am developing a personal > time line and plan to do a video of me relating my life and events, I guess > what they call an oral history, only with video, for my kids, grandkids and, > when they come, great grandkids. I already scanned many photos from way > back and gave each of the kids a CD with the photos on it. > > Any other ideas on what we can do as the ancients for the future > generations? They will look to us because our ancestors had to work hard > just to remain alive. It is only since WWII that many of the gains we have > achieved have come to fruition: modern homes, good roads, fast cars, TV, > cheap phone service, computers, air travel, most household electrical > appliances and the list goes on. > > Cliff Hayes
In response to Cliff's otherwise excellent proposal, I fear that one big problem this kind of project faces is that of technological obsolescence, which is clearly becoming a major problem for the storage of all kinds of information -- and especially of the family history variety. Black and white pictures could, ideally, last more or less forever; most color pictures fade after a certain number of years. While movie film is no longer the dangerously degenerative nitrate variety of the early days, it too tends to deteriorate and fade. Sound recording has similar problems -- especially at the "player" end. You can't play 78 rpm records without a special turntable (unless you've saved an old one, as I have), and they require a different kind of needle or stylus (the modern 45 or 33 rpm stylus is too narrow and will rapidly destroy them). I remember when the wire recorder was all the rage (which, I guess, dates me); but aside from the fact that wire recorder players are extinct, the wire was subject to frequent and disastrous tangling, and also to being erased by nearby magnetic influences. Reel-to-reel tape has also become obsolete, tends to degenerate, and becomes more fragile with time; the same is certainly true of audio-cassette tapes. Ditto for video tape -- obsolescence (remember BETA format), fairly rapid deterioration. And you may have noticed how most of the Television tapes of the early days have disappeared or gone bad -- look at the occasional attempts to show excerpts from them for historical purposes on modern TV shows. Does anyone really think that our current equipment is going to last much longer than these other great (but now dying) information revolutions? Many "photo" prints that come from scanners and copiers are fragile -- printer ink is water soluble and washes off. Remember the story of books: books and newspapers printed (before, say, the Civil War) on rag paper last indefinitely; many books and especially newspapers, etc., printed on cheap woodpulp paper during the second half of the 19th century, are now disintegrating far faster than they can be copied or saved, even when there were multiple copies to begin with. It seems to me than anyone planning records to leave for their posterity had better think very carefully about (1) will the physical product I am producing survive? and (2) will the machinery necessary to interpret it still exist? In all too many cases, I fear, the answer to both questions is going to be no. Hugh MacDougall Official Historian Village of Cooperstown 8 Lake Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326-1016 coophist@stny.rr.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Clifford Hayes" <cliff.hayes@earthlink.net> To: <NYOTSEGO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 8:07 PM Subject: Re: [NYOTSEGO] Suggestion for a new form of tithing - genealogy wise > A bouquet to you, Jan Cortez. I wonder how many others are doing the same, > if not for the community, for their descendants. I am developing a personal > time line and plan to do a video of me relating my life and events, I guess > what they call an oral history, only with video, for my kids, grandkids and, > when they come, great grandkids. I already scanned many photos from way > back and gave each of the kids a CD with the photos on it. > > Any other ideas on what we can do as the ancients for the future > generations? They will look to us because our ancestors had to work hard > just to remain alive. It is only since WWII that many of the gains we have > achieved have come to fruition: modern homes, good roads, fast cars, TV, > cheap phone service, computers, air travel, most household electrical > appliances and the list goes on. > > Cliff Hayes > > >
Hugh has raised a valid point. HOWEVER, if we cannot rely on the continuity of what we create, whether of our own times or of those we collect from our ancestors, then we may as well just drop the whole idea of genealogy and do something else. I agree that many of what we thought were the best storage mediums have "gone the way of all flesh". I have been through tape saving, external disks, (believe it or not, paper tape data), floppies, zip disks and now I am up to CD burning. As the new and better (?) storage materials arrive, I copy the old to the new as I am confident many other researchers, professional and, like me, amateur, do. Other than books, most of the storage mediums of today were developed within the last century. The original computer was developed during WWII. Personal computers are only 25 years old. That is new in earth cycles. Frankly, we are in an age of rapid development. Realize that many researchers use computers and I believe that CDs will last for some time. They are easy to produce and easy to store. They can be replaced in a computer and, when a better storage medium comes along, they can be transferred to the new medium, just as many of the present and obsolete storage mediums of today can be, have been and will be transferred over time to more modern storage devices. The ingenuity of man will prevail! Cliff Hayes ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cooperstown Village Historian" <coophist@stny.rr.com> To: <NYOTSEGO-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 4:55 PM Subject: Re: [NYOTSEGO] Suggestion for a new form of tithing - genealogy wise > In response to Cliff's otherwise excellent proposal, I fear that one big > problem this kind of project faces is that of > technological obsolescence, which is clearly becoming a major problem for > the storage of all kinds of information -- and especially of the family > history variety. > Black and white pictures could, ideally, last more or less forever; most > color pictures fade after a certain number of years. While movie film is no > longer the dangerously degenerative nitrate variety of the early days, it > too tends to deteriorate and fade. > Sound recording has similar problems -- especially at the "player" end. > You can't play 78 rpm records without a special turntable (unless you've > saved an old one, as I have), and they require a different kind of needle or > stylus (the modern 45 or 33 rpm stylus is too narrow and will rapidly > destroy them). > I remember when the wire recorder was all the rage (which, I guess, > dates me); but aside from the fact that wire recorder players are extinct, > the wire was subject to frequent and disastrous tangling, and also to being > erased by nearby magnetic influences. Reel-to-reel tape has also become > obsolete, tends to degenerate, and becomes more fragile with time; the same > is certainly true of audio-cassette tapes. Ditto for video tape -- > obsolescence (remember BETA format), fairly rapid deterioration. And you may > have noticed how most of the Television tapes of the early days have > disappeared or gone bad -- look at the occasional attempts to show excerpts > from them for historical purposes on modern TV shows. > Does anyone really think that our current equipment is going to last > much longer than these other great (but now dying) information revolutions? > Many "photo" prints that come from scanners and copiers are fragile -- > printer ink is water soluble and washes off. > Remember the story of books: books and newspapers printed (before, say, > the Civil War) on rag paper last indefinitely; many books and especially > newspapers, etc., printed on cheap woodpulp paper during the second half of > the 19th century, are now disintegrating far faster than they can be copied > or saved, even when there were multiple copies to begin with. > > It seems to me than anyone planning records to leave for their posterity > had better think very carefully about (1) will the physical product I am > producing survive? and (2) will the machinery necessary to interpret it > still exist? In all too many cases, I fear, the answer to both questions is > going to be no. > > Hugh MacDougall > Official Historian > Village of Cooperstown > 8 Lake Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326-1016 > coophist@stny.rr.com > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Clifford Hayes" <cliff.hayes@earthlink.net> > To: <NYOTSEGO-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 8:07 PM > Subject: Re: [NYOTSEGO] Suggestion for a new form of tithing - genealogy > wise > > > > A bouquet to you, Jan Cortez. I wonder how many others are doing the > same, > > if not for the community, for their descendants. I am developing a > personal > > time line and plan to do a video of me relating my life and events, I > guess > > what they call an oral history, only with video, for my kids, grandkids > and, > > when they come, great grandkids. I already scanned many photos from way > > back and gave each of the kids a CD with the photos on it. > > > > Any other ideas on what we can do as the ancients for the future > > generations? They will look to us because our ancestors had to work hard > > just to remain alive. It is only since WWII that many of the gains we > have > > achieved have come to fruition: modern homes, good roads, fast cars, TV, > > cheap phone service, computers, air travel, most household electrical > > appliances and the list goes on. > > > > Cliff Hayes > > > > > > > > > ==== NYOTSEGO Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from this list in digest mode send an email with > the word, unsubscribe,in the subject field & body of the message > to the following address: NYOtsego-d-request@rootsweb.com > > ============================== > Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration > Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more. > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237 > >