Digital Family History -Telling Your Life Story on CD, Website or Ebook

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Digital Family History – Telling Your Life Story on CD, Website or Ebook

Online or Hard Drive – Preserve Your Story in a Digital Format

We’ve already discussed the many ways of telling your life story. I’ll admit there is a certain pleasure and comfort that comes from reading a book. There is the feel of the pages, the convenience of taking it with you. Still, today’s technology is affording us some wonderful alternatives.

The computer age has been here long enough now that many take a PC for granted. It’s surprising sometimes to recognize that twenty years ago this was an unusual or luxury item and just over ten years ago the Internet was a vast unknown.

Today there are desktop computers, laptops/notebooks, PDA’s (personal digital assistants), wireless and broadband online connections, mobile phones ad nauseum. It’s a high-tech world and we might as well get used to it.

Even if you are "old school" there are some real advantages to putting your life story into a form that is readily available on a computer and/or online.

It certainly makes it easier to edit. The files are stored there and you won’t lose them as easily as discarded pieces of paper or worn and crumpled notebooks. (Do make backups!).

Having your story or your family history on a web site is pretty cool. Because you can combine text with some nice visual design (colors, layout, pictures and even audio!) the story of your life can come alive in ways that are limited by just print.

What's the Deal with E-Books?

I really like the advantage of e-books. What’s that, you ask? An electronic book is a way to put the words into print in a digital format. The files are stored in code, like PDF files (what you see so commonly and read through the free Adobe Acrobat Reader - if you don't already have it on your computer get it now as a free download

E-books still have a long way to go to approach the popularity of printed books (and in my opinion will never replace them), but they are rapidly gaining acceptance. The cost is much less than traditional printing, certainly for the writer/publisher, and often for the consumer. Putting your life story into an e-book format can have some real advantages.

***Note: If you want a better idea of what an e-book is like you can find many free ones throughout the World Wide Web. Of course, I’ve mentioned how great the Memorygrabber e-book is as a life story/family history tool. You can purchase it and download it right away here. The value is many times the price.

You can also take the Memorygrabber e-book for a test drive. Download a free trial sample here.

The Family History Jumpstart e-book is a great way to get started in preserving family history, and there is even a way to brand the book to your site to promote traffic for your online efforts!

You can download a free copy from us here!

CD-ROM or DVD

A great way to preserve your family history/life story is to a CD-ROM or DVD, complete with audio and video. We touched on this in the Oral History and Video Biography pages.

Telling Stories is both an affordable and highly creative software package that puts you in the driver's seat to easily create a multimedia biography. Create a terrific slide show that incorporates writing, images, music, voiceovers, and even video. The software is designed with helpful visual wizards and the ability to build upon some basic default options with your own customization.
| read a review I wrote here |

You can also learn more about preserving personal history to CD-rom and DVD at Chapters (Biofiles) . They give you a good understanding of the advantages of this interactive and multimedia presentation.

Put Your Story or Family History Online

Web sites are a great way to share family stories and history. It can be one person as the "webmaster" or get several involved. It really isn’t as hard or intimidating to create a web site as you might think. Especially when you have those who specifically cater to this service.

A couple of options are MyFamily.com and FamilyHistoryProject.com. Explore and you’ll get an idea of what I mean.

My favorite online family history site is Family Learn - Heart to Heart. This site allows family members to all participate in building a family tree, storing personal history stories, uploading photos, images and much more. You don't have to be a genealogist to use and love it. It's a learning experience as you use it and I recommend checking it out.

Your Life is Your Story has partnered with Family Learn and you can create a beautiful book of memories for a fraction of the typical cost.

The MemoryPress Book system allows you to create your book online, invite others to contribute, put in unlimited photos and other documents, review, edit and edit some more. Then when you are ready the printing and binding process is a few simple clicks of a mouse and you get a treasured finish product.

MemoryPress Books are a great way to share your life story. More info here.

Find what works best for you. Maybe it is using one of these services. Perhaps you will simply find some web space and build a site from scratch. Be sure to come back here often as we offer additional help.

***Tip***

You can build great web sites for your biography, life story, family history or for any purpose (especially one that brings lots of great traffic to your site) by using Site Build It! - see more.

It's what I use for this site and if you are serious about establishing a real Internet presence and/or online business go here to find out more.

Online Tribute Sites

The growing trend of tribute online sites for those who have passed on is another option. These memorials in cyberspace are the focus of Legacy.com and Livingtribute.com.

Memories Are Forever is a site that provides lots of ideas and assistance for preserving your memories of loved ones who have died. The site is rich in content and community driven with a forum where you can ask questions and learn from others. There are also links to a variety of grief support sites and organizations. There's a lot of sensitivity to the emotions and issues people go through when dealing with the death of a loved one. There's no cost to use the site's resources. Memories Are Forever is a former Highlight Site and you can see the up close information here.

I’m also willing to give you some personal direction and answer your questions. Feel free to drop me an : email.