How to Preserve Family History using MultimediaBy Charles Williams
The storyThe story line is essential. Nobody wants to listen to a boring story. I had some concerns that my family history wouldn't be interesting to most people. But, I surmised that the story of my family had larger implications for the issue of immigration and Czech culture so its appeal would be widespread.A variety of sources can be used to collect story information. These include family relatives, libraries, newspaper archives, preservation societies and books. I wanted to tell family history as opposed to genealogy. I wanted to tell a story, not present a family tree. The final product is an evolution of my original idea. Initially, I had planned to present genealogical information on each of my family members. In my mind, I pictured a rough tree structure with photographs and relevant birth and death information. Supposedly, someone could click on a picture of each person and get all the pertinent information. But, I had several problems with this approach. First and foremost, it's boring, especially to someone who isn't from my family. In addition, the approach is not very creative or imaginative. Finally, I had neither the pictures nor the information for all the family members. It was important to keep the scope of my story as narrow and well defined as possible. One of the most crucial mistakes that I made was to attempt to cover too much material. I benefited personally from doing the extra research, but it did consume valuable time. There were 12 children in the first generation of Dostals to arrive in America, more than enough people for the scope of my project. I attempted to produce and unbiased, objective story. But in the end, the men in the Dostal family are covered much better than the women. I attribute this to a sign of the times. The men had careers and were in the public eye much more than the women. I could find little public information such as newspaper clippings or official documents, except death certificates, that mentioned the Dostal women. I realized that gathering information on all my family members would have been a huge task. I decided to limit the scope to my direct line of descendants. The interim CD-ROM structure had four sections that included my great grandfather, my grandmother, my mother and me. I felt more comfortable with this arrangement and immediately began collecting background material on my great grandfather, Hynek Dostal. I found his life to be more interesting than the others because he had achieved some international fame, and I was curious because I knew very little about him. During the course of piecing Hynek's life together, I was forced to investigate his siblings to provide context. In addition, Hynek Dostal's international achievements forced me to learn about international events that were occurring at the time such as World War I and World War II. I read books on the creation of Czechoslovakia, the autobiography of its first president, Thomas Masaryk and the settling of Spillville, Iowa. In the end, I felt the first part was interesting enough to constitute the content portion of the CD-ROM. I contacted all the relatives I could find and conducted interviews. I was greeted with a mixture of suspicion and excitement. Many of the interviewees were in their 70s and 80s, and seemed glad that someone was so interested in their lives. I began the collection of materials in September of 1996. My first stops were in St. Louis, Missouri simply because that's where I lived. I made three trips to Iowa and one trip to Kansas City during the course of data collection. I quickly learned that there would be language interpretation problems. Many of the documents I gathered, including HLAS, were written in Czech. I did manage to have some documents interpreted, but many were not. It is helpful to carry a language translation dictionary when performing research. Many of the birth dates and death dates on the tombstones were written in Czech. It's a good idea to write down this information when visiting cemeteries as well as any other important dates. Once the dates are known, local papers can be checked to gather more information from obituaries. After all the information is gathered, a script must be written. I like to gather the information and then begin developing the script based on the information I gathered. I developed the script for this project using ClarisWorks 4.0. The initial script was approximately thirty pages long. I spent a great deal of time writing the script because first and foremost, the CD-ROM had to tell a good story. It was important to have a clear and concise story. I generally accomplished this, although the lack of available facts lead to some confusion. I'm still confused about names and dates. After the first draft of the script, I viewed the pictures I had collected for each chapter and added narration to match the photos. PhotographsAs I learned more about my family history, I longed to match faces with names. I discovered a poster that included most of the Dostal family members. I breathed a sigh of relief as I stared at the long-forgotten faces. In them, I saw a mixture of bewilderment, tenacity and contentment in their eyes.Photographs serve as a link to the past. The can tell us much about personal relationships, physical appearances and environmental conditions. Most of us document the happy moments in our lives such as birthdays, holidays and graduations. More often than not, we choose not to photograph somber events such as divorces and deaths. Nevertheless, family photographs provide a tell-tale glimpse of family values and priorities. Who is missing from a photograph may be as important as who is pictured. Many fathers are absent from early family portraits because they were relegated to the job of photographer. Recent easy-to-use cameras have reduced the complexity of photography, thereby encouraging a broader range of photographers. This, in turn, has impacted the style and content of family photographs. When performing photographic analysis in the course of conducting genealogical research, it is important to recognize the prevailing social, technological and economic conditions of a time period. Film is relatively inexpensive. I shot about 100 rolls of film for my project. Most of the film was Fuji Provia or Velvia. I also used T-max 400 for copy work. The following photographic equipment was used on my project: Canon EOS-10s, Canon 20-35mm f3.5-f4.5, Canon 35mm f2, Canon 35-135mm f4-f5.6, Canon 100-300 f4-f5.6, Canon 430EZ flash, Canon EOS-1, Promaster 4300 tripod. Unfortunately, I lost 66 rolls of film due to a mirror problem in my Canon EOS-10s. Only half of each frame was exposed on those rolls. I poured over the ruined film for hours trying to salvage bits and pieces. All the panoramic croppings were a result of this problem. Black edges also appear on some of the ruined frames. All-in-all though, I recovered fairly well considering that I lost two month's worth of shooting. The reshoot went much quicker because I knew where I was going. I don't know if the second shoot turned out better or worse, just different. Beautiful fall leaves were replaced by a beautiful blanket of snow. I tried to be as accurate as possible when shooting the story. For example, the opening scene in chapter 14 is of a car accident. The picture of the curve in the road is the actual spot where Stanley was killed in the accident. The pictures of the Iowa river in chapter 9 were taken a few hundred yards from Chelsea. It may be the exact spot where Joseph drowned. The nature scenes that are displayed when I discuss Dvorak's walks were taken along or near the Little Turkey river where Dvorak actually walked. I thought it was important to give the viewer the most realistic image possible of where these events took place. After all, Dvorak wasn't inspired by the natural areas in Missouri or California or Texas, but the ones in Spillville, Iowa. Each time I interviewed family members, I asked to view their photographs. But I had never met most of my relatives before, and they were understandably hesitant to let me take their precious photos to Columbia, Missouri, to be scanned. I was initially frustrated by this but eventually realized it would be feasible just to take copy slides on the premises. I resorted to opening the curtains and shooting the pictures on the floor by natural light. I brought high-speed film and fast lenses which came in handy. This system worked fairly well although I would recommend bringing a good copy stand with lights if possible. All the images were scanned using a Kodak negative scanner and a Hewlett-Packard flat bed scanner. Both scanners are located in the photo department at the University of Missouri. All images were scanned at 2000 dpi and reduced to 72 dpi because that is the current maximum screen resolution. Any picture I thought I might use for close-up crops, I scanned extra large. I had no scanning facilities in St. Louis, and it would have necessitated a 250 mile round trip for just one scan. Most of the vertical pictures were cropped to 460 pixels, and most of the horizontal pictures were cropped to 620 pixels. The files were saved as PICT files and JPEGed at 32 bits/maximum resolution. The images were stroked with a one pixel white line and then pasted onto a black 640 x 480 rectangle. I would estimate that 800-1000 images were used. Unfortunately, I didn't have as much time to enhance the photos as I would have liked. I also made the decision to use full-frame color photos. I thought it was important to be able to view the photos as large as possible. This decision affected my creative ability because it severely limited the transitions and tempos I could use. Zooms, fades and pans weren't really possible, or at least pretty. I had to be mindful of the data transfer rate for the Premiere movies. Currently this is 300Kbs for a 2X CD drive. I developed the CD in mind for an 8X drive like I have on my computer. Computer IssuesComputers intimidate many people who are unaccustomed to technical terminology. But people should remember that computers are only a tool in the effort to preserve family history. Preservation begins with the collection of raw data including photographs and interviews. Computers are simply used to process the data into a more entertaining form. At the very least, families should consider scanning old photographs to preserve them in a digital form. The procedure is relatively inexpensive and allows convenient storage and exact duplicates. For those who wish to use the full potential of the emerging technologies, a slow, steady pace may be the best way to learn. It is best to think of web page design or CD-ROM production as a step-by-step process. Very few people have expertise with all the programs that are used in the multimedia process.HardwareMultimedia requires a good deal of computing power. The faster the processor, the better. Color photographs and video clips need fast data transfer rates to avoid jerky motions. Random access memory (RAM) also is crucial to the performance of the Premiere movies.Most CD-ROM titles currently are being developed on Macintosh computers due to superior graphics and ease of use. Therefore, I selected a Macintosh clone computer manufactured by PowerComputing Corporation. My system was configured as follows: Powerbase 180/603e chip, 180MHz, 256KB L2 cache, 2 MB VRAM, 32 MB RAM, 1.2 GB hard drive, 8X CD-ROM drive, 3 1/2 floppy drive, 17Ó monitor, 28.8 modem, and a Zip drive. This configuration is the minimum that one should have to assemble all the project parts. If the project is designed to run on a 15" monitor, it's a good idea to buy a 17" monitor to allow room for program and design palettes. I purchased approximately 20 zip disks, which each hold 100 Mb, for backup and transportation of images to Columbia. Other transportable storage devices are available including Jaz drives which each hold 500 Mb of information. I constantly ran out of hard drive space and spent too long searching for data on disks. It's a good idea to buy writable CD-ROMs and burn zip data to them. This will free disk space on the zip disks and place all the data in one place. Hardware problems can be frustrating and can cause loss of valuable time. My motherboard had to be replaced due to a high pitched noise that prevented sound capture. It turned out to be an engineering defect with a component on the motherboard. SoftwareMany commercially available programs were used to construct the project. Most of the programs are fairly expensive, but educational discounts are available. I ran Mac OS 7.5.3. I used Adobe Photoshop 4.0, Adobe Premeire 4.2, SoundEdit 16 version 2, ClarisWorks 4.0, and Director 5.0. The photographs were enhanced in Adobe Photoshop. The sound was edited in SoundEdit 16. These elements were imported into Adobe Premeire and the movies were created. All movies use photo JPEG compression and run at 1 fps. This was necessary due to the full-frame color photos. All movies are Quicktime movies.Authoring the CDAuthoring a CD-ROM can be fairly simple for anyone who has a basic understanding of computer programming. The authoring process simply creates interactivity in the project. Interactivity includes starting movies or sound clips, turning pages, and various other action-initiated responses. The authoring process makes the project "come alive" as a complete package. It is helpful to have contact with an experienced programmer that can answer any difficult questions that may arise.I had worked with Director 4.0, and found it to be difficult. I intended to do my project in Quarkimmedia, but it wasn't cross-platform at the time and only handled 8-bit images. Therefore, I had no choice but to use Director again. As a former programmer, I will say that I believe Director is needlessly confusing. It walks the line between a programming language and a easy-to-use GUI. Simple tasks turned out to be confusing and difficult. Analogies such as cast members, puppets and sprites make matters worse. Traditional programming structures such as subroutines are not clearly defined. SoundSound is crucial to a project. Bad sound is annoying. I used a Marantz PMD222 recorder with a Shure VP63 microphone for recording sound. The PMD222 is a 4-head, mono tape recorder. It also has a phone jack input so you can record telephone interviews. The VP63 is an omni-directional microphone. I wanted an omni-directional so I could pick up some natural room sounds. The uni-directional would have seemed too ÒcleanÓ for my purposes. Most of the sound was recorded on Maxell II (type II high CrO2) tapes. All the sound was directly input from the Marantz to the computer and then edited using Macromedia SoundEdit 16 V2. I created 16 bit / 22.050 KHz files. They were not reduced to 8 bit / 11.025 KHz as we had done on the POY disk because I didn't want to lose the quality. A variety of sound types were used in this project.NarrationBy default, I was the narrator. I don't think my voice was particularly well suited for this because it is somewhat nasal, and I have a Texas drawl. Nevertheless, it wasn't practical to have anyone else do it. I didn't know if I wanted to inject a little Texas personality and character into the narrator or just be monotone and objective. I opted for the latter approach because the former was too distracting. The timing and tempo of my narration were crucial to telling the story. The mood of the narration must match the mood of the story and pictures. I mounted my microphone on a tripod and read the script that was displayed on my computer screen. That allowed me to make changes on-the-fly. I don't have a printer anyway so there was no other way to do it.I felt that my monotone approach was effective, but decided to experiment with creating characters to break up the monotony. I became an actor, playing the parts of Antonin Dvorak and Hynek Dostal. I tried to disguise my voice by applying various effects in SoundEdit 16. I was largely unsuccessful although I think applying regional attributes to sound clips may be something the people on the SoundEdit 16 development team should investigate. The only clip I used from this experiment appears at the beginning of chapter 12. I play the part of Woodrow Wilson delivering a speech. Natural soundWhen doing multimedia, it is important to pay attention to both the visual and the audio portion of a scene. Natural sounds add a realistic dimension to a still photograph. They often can be more interesting than narration. The sounds of school children in chapter 6 combined with empty rooms adds an eerie dimension. Initially, I tried to gather as much natural sound as possible. The church bells heard at the beginning of chapter five are the actual bells that play at St. Wenceslaus church in Spillville, Iowa. I also wanted to record the sounds of the organ that Dvorak played. Unfortunately, it only was played on Sunday, and I was never in Spillville during Sunday mass. Eventually, I found it too cumbersome for one person to record every sound. It would be helpful to have an assistant to record sounds while the photographer shoots pictures. Otherwise, it's often easier to record the natural sounds later and add them to the finished movies.InterviewsInterviews are the most important step in the process of preserving family history. While photographs are important, they can't capture the depth of knowledge that is stored in the human memory. Stories are forever lost when people die. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct good interviews. There are a few rules to follow that help create successful interviews.The interviewer and interviewee should agree on a comfortable location that can be occupied for a few hours. The location should have good acoustics and quiet surroundings with minimal interruptions. The interviewer should do as much preliminary research as possible in order to ask intelligent questions. Open-ended questions work best. They allow people to elaborate on a story or experience. Don't rush a subject for an answer, especially elderly people. Often, they require more time to recall humorous events or occurrences. The interviewer shouldn't worry about responding to what the subject is saying. Comments and reactions can be edited out later. It's important that subjects don't feel like they are conducting a monologue. A casual conversation between interviewer and interviewee works best. It's best to let subjects know from the beginning that any embarrassing comments can be edited out. They will relax more and won't become preoccupied with verbal mistakes in the discussion. Most of the people that I interviewed were in their 70s or 80s. I filled a dozen or so ninety-minute tapes with interviews. Once again, the focus of the project was too large so there's a lot of junk on the tapes. But I was hesitant to cut people off too soon for fear they may talk about something unexpected and important. There's a lot of rambling about what life was like in Òthose days.Ó But tape is inexpensive so bring extras and don't be afraid to keep the tape rolling. The interviewer should have plenty of extra tapes on hand along with spare batteries and a backup recorder. It took me a week to do the first edit on all the tapes, but to be quite honest, they just weren't that interesting. MusicThe music has to match the severity and mood of the story and pictures. Quickly changing photographs may require fast-paced music while slow fades may call for slower music. Lighthearted subjects could be scored with upbeat music while serious subjects could be scored with more somber music. Music stores carry a wide selection of pre-recorded royalty-free music that can be used for multimedia projects.I wanted to keep this a family project as much as possible so I decided to have my dad compose and perform all the music. This was a frustrating experience for two reasons. First, he lives in Tucson, Arizona, and I live in St. Louis, Missouri. Therefore, face-to-face collaboration was non-existent. Second, he was composing without any first-hand knowledge of the pictures or story. When I visited over the Christmas holidays, I attempted to explain the story to him, but I wasn't even sure of the final product. We spent about an hour cutting some tracks with his Yamaha keyboard. Unfortunately, technical problems kept us from going directly into the Marantz so we drooped a microphone from the ceiling. I told him that I wanted simple instruments such as a guitar, violin or piano. The type of instruments that would be played on Iowa farms at the turn of the century. In addition, I gave him a few general categories such as Blues and Ragtime. He recorded more music after I left and sent me another tape. I edited some of his music because most of it was about a minute and a half, and I only needed 20 seconds. Often, I would keep the beginning and just cut and paste the end. SoundEdit 16 is a very powerful sound editing program that includes many effects filters. Special effectsSpecial effects are helpful in producing a feel for a scene. I consider the special effects in my project to be different than natural sounds because they were borrowed from a special effects CD-ROM or created by myself. I checked out a few special-effects CD-ROMs at the local library in University City. Special effects can be used very effectively to create an illusion of motion. For example, Ken Burns uses the sounds of canons, rifles and battle cries while showing battle scenes in "The Civil War." I found special effects to be helpful in recreating the World War I assassination, the World War II battle scenes, the car driving sequence, the train sequence, etc. I also created a few special effects of my own. During the opening scene, a projector noise can be heard. It's actually just one click with a pocket recorder that I repeated dozens of times. It's imperative that the special effects sounds match what's on the screen, otherwise the viewer becomes lost. I tried adding a few effects that matched the dialog as opposed to the pictures, and it failed miserably.World Wide WebThe above paragraphs have outlined the process of storing family history on a CD-ROM, but many people are choosing a different method of preserving and sharing family history. One of the first decisions that must be made concerns a project's storage medium. World Wide Web pages and CD-ROMs each have advantages and disadvantages although these are in a constant state of flux. CD-ROMs can store 650 Mb of data and are accessible at any time. Web pages appeal to a wider audience. The use of the internet is growing daily. The internet was used extensively during the course of my project. Obviously, I sent many emails to Columbia. But more importantly, I used the internet to conduct research and post genealogical inquiries. I located a particularly good URL for Czech and Moravian genealogy (www.iarelative.com/czech).With the potential of reaching millions of people, genealogical sites on the World Wide Web are flourishing. My recent survey suggests that individuals are achieving mixed results. Three questions were posed to five individuals who are administering web sites that promote Czech genealogy. Joe Hartzel runs the Illinois Czech and Slovak American Genealogy Page (http://members.aol.com/jzel/jzel.htm). Jennifer Tharp is a student at the University of Missouri-Rolla who administers a searchable Czech surname index (http://www.umr.edu/~jatharp/). Paul Dierks has a web site that focuses on the Chicago area, home to many Czechs (http://www.dot-net.net/prdierks/vrany.html). Ellen Land-Weber administers a holocaust survivors page that includes Czech rescuers (http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~rescuers/book/Chlup/c.contents.html). And finally, Dave Fashenpour maintains his Czech ancestry web site from his home in Friendswood, Texas (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/davefash/homepage.htm). Each of the interviewees gave different answers to the questions, but all agreed on the value of the web Question 1: How has the World Wide Web helped you in your search for information on your family history?Joe: A little bit. I found a 4th cousin on one of the newsgroups, which was nice. But, right now the web has been more useful with the culture and history of my ethnic group. Genealogy records right now are in short supply, but I believe that more will be available soon.Jennifer: I have been researching my family history since January 1996. I used the WWW for quite a bit of it. Actually, I am 100% Czech. It has been very difficult to find things on the Czechs on the Web. I am a 2nd, 3rd or 4th generation Czech in this country depending on which line of mine you look at. I would have to say that for my side, the web was useful very little, but did provide me with several places to write in Illinois and Chicago which is where my family and I lived. Research was easier because they all were from one place when they got here. My husband's lines are very exciting. His family has been here since the 1600's on almost every line I have traced. I have received lots of information on the web on his side. Have accomplished a lot in a very short time. Paul: Three ways: I have found additional information searching the Web via a variety of search engines; I have utilized surname mailing lists to interact with people searching for the same surnames; I have had people (possible cousins and others with information) contact me because of my web pages. Ellen: I didn't use the web for research, only for dissemination of my project. I did most of the research quite a few years ago, before the web was available. Dave: It has given me great understanding about my family heritage. I have spoken to the head of the Czech Library who told me where Czech names came from and how they contain meaning to different trades and events. I have spoken with a college student in Slovenia that has a brother named Matej, the same first name of my grandfather who immigrated to America. This student helped me to pronounce it in English and told me about the origins and cultural heritage of that name in the Slavic world. I have seen a posting of names that are similar, and I have made casual contacts, finding out a wealth of information. I have even met Dave Fashimpaur, a distant relative of mine who continuously communicates via E-Mail on the status of his search. All this over the net. Question 2: What kind of responses have you had about your web site?Joe: The response to the Czech & Slovak American Genealogy Society page has been real positive. We have reached many members that do not live in the Chicago area.Jennifer: People like my web site. They think the Czech part is very helpful. I will have to develop that more this year. I get around 500-700 hits a month. I anticipate the site becoming better after this summer when I take a few short courses at UMSL. Paul: Responses have picked up since most search engines now recognize my sites and others have linked my sites to theirs. In the past month, I have had a fourth cousin of mine and a fifth cousin of my wife contact me. Each had information I did not. Also, I have had queries from possible cousins but haven't made a solid connection yet. Also, have had contact with people that have queried me, and have gained information after searching my pages. The most popular page is http://www.dot-net.net/prdierks/vrany.html. I get alot of comments about it, both from people searching surnames or people searching Chicago. Ellen: I have had wonderful responses from all over the globe, all very positive, some extremely moving. Dave: Almost none. In fact, sometimes I wonder if my E-Mail tag is actually working. My theories are that the people who should see it, don't know about it, and those that do visit the site are too busy in today's hectic world to expend an effort (no matter how small) to make contact. That is why I am so pleased to hear from you -- an actual person -- and from near home at that!! We could have run an ad in the Houston Paper instead of a monthly compuserve bill... Question 3: How do you think new technologies affect the preservation of family history? Czech culture?Joe: Right now very little, but in the near future with digitizing documents and pictures, it will become very important.Jennifer: I think your CD-ROM will last for years and years. Its a great way to save the family history. I think preservation of photos, records, etc. is beginning to really be examined. I have seen some questions about it on the newsgroups and have recently learned about it in Rolla. FYI in case you don't already know this... (some background and explanation)... I attended a Creative Memories party a few weeks ago. This is a safe way to store photographs. You do not use a photo album like you buy at Wal-Mart or K-Mart. It's an acid-free, lignin free paper. Lignin is a natural substance found in all trees and paper unless chemically removed. The acid and lignin over time slowly decompose the paper and your photos in a regular photo album. The National Archives uses this special paper. There also are special acid free pens (PIGMA Pens) that you can use to write on your photos and this paper. There also is a special acid free pencil that you can use to write on the photos and if you write on the photo side, it will wipe off. One woman wrote out her entire genealogy in one of these albums. You use special tape to put your photos in the book. I would hate for all my research to be destroyed in 100 years. These albums keep your information and photos safe for over 500 years. Paul: There is no doubt that preserving family history is very convenient with current technologies. I can't imagine trying to keep track of my 2000+ name database without Family Tree Maker. Also, image preservation is very nice. No need to worry about old pictures being destroyed. And of course, new technologies make sharing much easier as well. As far as culture, I don't know. Certainly access to information that was more difficult to obtain in the past is easier now. But whether that access to information means the culture will be preserved better now than in the past, I'm not sure. Ellen: I have no idea about this. Technologies for preserving history are always changing--evolving and improving. The web is simply one more way of archiving and accessing information, and a pretty good one. Dave: The 'www.iarelative.com/search' web site has done more that anything I have EVER seen to trade information and to locate family and geographic ties among a group of people that are truly interested in their common background. Sites like this are in the preservation business of Czech culture everyday. It can be seen by the volume of data and number of visitors. The World Wide Web's increased communication capabilities have facilitated greater knowledge of distant relatives and Czech culture. The exposure of any particular page will vary. The number of hits that a page receives appears to be tied to the ability of a search engine to discover the page and its appeal to the general public. Functional web pages such as those that provide search capability or those that perform translation functions appear popular. Searchable databases, which allow more research to be done from home, are becoming common on the web. Some libraries and historical societies also have searchable archives. Unfortunately, digital archives containing photographs and documents are limited. This should be a rapid growth area in the future. While working on my CD-ROM, I received several photographs from an individual in California. He simply attached the scanned photographs to an email and sent them to me. I downloaded them directly to my desktop. Hopefully, the states' archives can develop a similar system. In addition, the internet "culture" of free and open speech encourages trading of information including research tips and techniques in preserving photographs. However, some archives are making decisions on privacy issues that may impact access to certain documents. Cyril M. KlimeshI met Cyril Klimesh on the internet after he responded to my posting on a genealogical page. Klimesh is the author of the book "They Came to This Place," which chronicles the settling of the small town of Spillville, Iowa. It is the same town where my ancestors settled. He currently has a web page that he uses to search for information about his grandfather, Charles Andera. Mr. Andera was the manufacturer of the iron cross grave markers located in the Spillville cemetery. I asked Mr. Klimesh to compare his experience of researching and writing his book to that of his online search on the web. The following paragraphs are excerpts from his response.I've been on the Web only about a year and can't really make a comparison since other than my cross page, I have not used it for family research. On my Klimesh and Andera surnames, I'm back to the 1600s which is as far as the records go, and that data I had before getting on the net. But, the web has helped me save many trips to the library. Initially, I was getting about 10 hits a day on the crosses site, but after the first month, it tapered down by about half the number.Thus for Cyril Klimesh and many amateur genealogists, the World Wide Web is an evolving search tool. Its ability to disseminate information is unprecedented. But, issues concerning access, availability and privacy must still be resolved. Also, the storage space that the average person receives on a server is usually small compared with the 650 Mb that is available on a CD-ROM. New technologies such as virtual reality and video playback don't work well on the web. But as technology moves forward and data line speeds increase, the ability to transfer information and knowledge will increase as well.
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Family history is a perishable commodity that needs to be preserved.
Recent technological advancements have facilitated new methods of
preserving this important information. A single CD-ROM can now store
a significant amount of photographs, sound and video. But the process
of documenting family history can be cumbersome, expensive and
frustrating. In this paper, I will document the various methods that
I used to preserve my family history on the CD-ROM titled "DOSTAL: The
First Generation of a Czech Family in America." The paper is intended
as a blueprint for future genealogists who might attempt similar
multimedia projects.