Episode 23 - Home Movie Hunt and Brick Walls

Genealogy Gems Podcast
Episode 23 with Lisa Louise Cooke

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Published August 19, 2007

Episode 23 SHOW NOTES

The Mailbox:

According to alert listener Richard Yehle, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests can receive acknowledgement letters from the US Dept. of Homeland Security / US Citizen and Immigration Services in just two weeks. Richard's requests were placed on a speedier "simple track." This means that response time has been drastically cut from the six months it took me to receive answers about 5 years ago. This is good news for genealogists! Better yet, you now have the option of requesting a CD with pdf file, instead of paper files, if the number of pages is over 15. We"re all waiting with bated breath to hear back from Richard when he receives the final results from his request for his great grandfather's records.

GEM: Follow up Using Your Video iPod As A Genealogy Tool

Proactive listener Donna wrote this week to ask what the best format and resolution was for saving pictures to be viewed on the Video iPod.

For photos to be viewed on a television screen, save them as JPEG files at 300 dpi resolution.

For photos strictly viewed on your iPod, resize them to reduce their ipod storage requirements. Here's how:

To Reduce Image Size:

Copy and paste the photos into your IPOD IMAGES folder (see Episode 22 re: folder)
In Windows XP, click MY COMPUTER icon on your desktop
Go to your IPOD IMAGES FOLDER
Click a photo that you want to downsize so that it's highlighted. (To highlight all the images click on the first image, hold down the SHIFT key and then click the last image in the folder.)
Look to the blue side bar on the left under FILE AND FOLDER TASKS and click on EMAIL THIS FILE which will open up a little window called SEND PICTURES VIA E-MAIL
Make sure the MAKE ALL MY PICTURES SMALLER button is selected
Click OK
An email message will open with all the photos you selected attached, but at reduced sizes.
Double Click on the first image to open & view it in the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
At the bottom of the window click the COPY TO icon.
Keep the original file name and click SAVE
It will ask you if you want to replace the original. Click OK
Follow that procedure with each photo.

I was able to reduce my original 1.24 MB photo to just 141 KB. This saves LOTS of room on your iPod!

Supply Checklist

Video iPod
MicroMemo Digital Recorder for Video iPod
A/V Cable for viewing iPod through your TV

Photo Slideshow Troubleshooting Checklist

When plugging A/V cable the into your TV make sure each jack is firmly plugged in.
To begin slideshow, be sure to press the center iPod ENTER button TWICE when selecting the first image.
Make sure the TV Out feature under Photo Slideshow settings is set to ON.
Make sure your digital TV tuner is set to the appropriate input for the signal coming from the jacks that your iPod is plugged into.

GEM: Home Movie Hint

Please permit me to share a suggestion you may find useful... I recently took a number of old movie reels (from the 1940s) out to be transferred to DVD, as I'd long intended to do.As much fun and as enlightening as these reels were to watch, I realized an unexpected bonus: the scenes in these reels helped me identify my great grandmother and her sister in a photo I had sitting by. Of course, I recognized my great grandmother and I suspected the other was her sister but these movies put that photograph in a context that allowed me to make that identification. The clothing was the same and the background matched so I was able to put names and approximate dates on these pictures! The fuller context of the movie allowed me to identify the names, place and time for the photograph.I hurried down to the store with the rest of the movie reels. I will remember that often photos are taken at the same events as movies were taken and that a single picture is merely a moment in time but movies can provide larger context.Thank you for your podcast and sharing your ideas. I look forward to them." Pat Dalpiaz

Regarding Brick Walls:

If you're ready to give up you're probably closer than you think. Or as they said in Galaxy Quest: "Never Give Up, Never Surrender!"