Every superhero has an origin story. My origin story has to do with a VHS tape and my grandmother. In my quest to encourage my grandma to leave a photo legacy, I found myself on a very long path to building a business that now helps you do the same.

Just a reminder, my friends at Beacon Bridge Wealth Partners are hosting 2 presentations of my “Save Your Photos, Leave a Legacy” on Tuesday June 23. Choose which time works best for you and join us for free.

>>>>Click here to register for our 12 noon eastern live session.

>>>>Click here to register for our 7 pm eastern live session. 

Origin Story: Leave a Photo Legacy

Back in the 1990’s I’d been living away from my midwestern family for about ten years. My Grandma D was starting to decline, and I suspected that she’d eventually be diagnosed with dementia.

Grandma’s maiden name was Studebaker. Her father and uncles had all worked in the Studebaker car factory, which was a huge economic force in the South Bend, Indiana area in the early-to-mid 1900’s. I vaguely knew that Studebaker was a car, a horse-drawn wagon before that, and a far-flung family carefully catalogued in what we always called “The Studebaker Bible.” It was actually a genealogy book published in 1976 with thousands of cousins names and info meticulously detailed, including my own name. This was way before Ancestry.com. I always felt important when I saw my name printed in this big book.

My grandmother was my special person. She made neon green pickles that I still long for, jams and sausage as gifts, and cinnamon rolls from scratch nearly every time I slept over. She had worked in factories, but in “retirement” she sewed Raggedy Anne and Andy dolls that became prized possessions for many throughout the midwest. I’m always checking dolls in the wild to see if they have a “Made with Love by Ruby DeMorrow” tag on the back. In fact, she taught me to sew and not be afraid to fail in the world of DIY. She always said, “Darla, if you can read, you can cook. And you can do anything else.” She knew how I loved to read. By my twenties, I realized that my Grandma D had been an interesting person before I ever entered the world, and I wanted to know more…before it was too late.

Planning to Capture a Photo Legacy

After grad school, I finally had more time, and I enlisted my dad’s help. We rounded up my grandmother and two great aunts I barely knew. The three of them came from a family of ten siblings. Ten! Actually, the book says of my great grandparents, “They reared 10 of their 11 children,” which is a shorthand way of saying that one of their children died, not even a footnote.

Dad borrowed a video camera, we checked Grandma D (b. 1914) out of her long-term care home, and we hustled her down to Aunt Gayle’s (b. 1906) house. Aunt Sib (b. 1908) lived nearby, so we picked her up on the way. Once we had the three old ladies installed in Aunt Gayle’s living room in recliner chairs, Dad and I hit the record button and hoped we’d get something interesting.

The Ladies and their Stories

I had come with a list of questions, things I wanted to know. My grandmother was born into a world where she didn’t have the right to vote! But the 19th amendment was ratified by the US congress on August 26, 1920. I wondered, by the time she was of legal age in 1932, did she rush to the polls, or did she have other things on her mind? I wanted to get her take on history!!

The ladies were game, and they graciously allowed us to film for two days. We got about a dozen hours of them reminiscing and cackling away. As I suspected, my Grandma was having trouble remembering current events, but she could roll back into the 1920’s like it was yesterday.

All that planning I did to come up with great questions? I needn’t have bothered. I asked a few, and the ladies were off and running. They told stories about the people they knew, which of their brothers was the most adventurous or the nicest, and what it was like living in the early 1900’s.

“We always knew when a baby was about to be born because we could hear the doctor’s horse clopping down the lane in the middle of the night.”

They talked a little about the Studebaker factory, but not much. They were merely workers in a large factory, which eventually got absorbed into another large car company, then was shuttered.

How to Turn Photos and Recordings into a Photo Legacy

We had managed to herd these hens and pull off some amateur filming. The sound quality could have been better, but we got what we got. I had written away to each of the great aunts and uncles for photos so I could include all ten of them in the project. And although I wanted to create some sort of video for the family to enjoy, I didn’t have the skills, so I needed to find help.

The internet wasn’t that great in the late 1990’s, but it still led me to Vintage Family Tree Video. The owner, Keith, came to my home, looked at all the material I had gathered, and asked about Grandma’s favorite music.

As this stranger drove off down my driveway with irreplaceable family photos, the “Studebaker Bible,” and my sizable deposit, I wondered if I’d ever see any of it again.

Now Featuring…

My heart was full when the finished VHS tape came back with a 49-minute video showing Grandma D and her sisters, as well as borrowed photos from all of their siblings. Cousins had ordered copies, and I sent one to the National Studebaker Foundation in Ohio. I wanted to contribute to the overall family legacy somehow.

At the time, Keith asked if I wanted a DVD in addition to the VHS tapes. I always regretted that I declined his offer, as I didn’t realize that the world would be on disk for the next 25 years.

My own photo organizing company transferred the VHS to MP4 not too long ago. If you are a cousin, please get in touch and I’ll share the full version with you over a private app. You can watch this family movie on your TV using just the remote you already use, which is the best way to watch. We use the Projector app for our clients’ projects, so they, too, can watch their movies together on the big screen, even across the miles. But since you probably don’t want to watch all 49 minutes of my film, I’m sharing an edit of my family photo legacy that’s a minute and a half. Click on the photo below to play video.

Origin story. I was not dreaming of a new career. I just wanted to preserve something of my grandmother before it was too late for her to tell her story. Even better, I hoped to learn more about her as a person. Below, this is my beautiful Grandma D with her brother Sam. 

How to Turn Your Stories into a Legacy

Maybe you have the same idea for your photos and important family stories. HeartWork Organizing, my company that has been operating for over 20 years, helps people and families preserve their photos and tell their stories. 

Your photo legacy can be just print photos, for sure. Even a small collection, neatly organized, can be a treasure to the next generation. Larger collections with 10,000 photos or more are a joy to see organized and accessible.

From this:

to this:

And, of course, digitized to search and share:

If you are interested in telling your story in photos or video, it’s easier than ever to capture the raw material. Like me back in the 90’s, you might not be sure about what you are going to end up with, but you can capture the photos and videos now.

Just this week I was helping my client in Australia use her tools that she already had to honor her parents at an upcoming 60th anniversary event.

7 Ways to Capture a Photo Legacy with No Experience Required

Here are 7 things you can do to leave a photo legacy, even if you don’t know exactly what you want to do: 

1. Gather your photos together in one place. Think about WHO would enjoy your photos the most and WHAT you’d like to do with your photos and videos. (Hint: digitizing is only part of the answer.)
2. Use your phone to take short videos while interviewing your parents and ask questions like: What was it like to plan your wedding?
3. Record Zoom interviews with siblings of your parents and ask them questions like: What do you think of when you think of my parents?
4. Ask your family members to tell you the story behind an important photo. Record them while they are holding that photo, telling you the story. Where was this photo taken? What was your first house like? 
5. Don’t be afraid to get silly. Ask questions like: I know you aren’t supposed to have favorites, but who was your favorite child?
6. Give your subject some space. If they don’t want to be on camera, ask if you can record just their voice while pointing your camera at the floor. You’ll still be getting a great story, and you can overlay still photos onto the narrative later.
7. JUST GATHER THE CONTENT! Figure out exactly how to create the project later. Don’t get overwhelmed. Get some help. Simple is more likely to get done than complex.

I hope my story has inspired you to do something with your family photo legacy.