Video to Audio to Transcript to Translation via AI

The well-known speaker Thomas MacEntee recently gave a presentation to my local genealogy club about how to use AI. During the Q&A period, I asked him whether AI could translate and transcribe foreign language audio for free. His answer was a definite yes. So this week I began to experiment.

I have a 1998 video interview of my mother's first cousin, Viola, speaking emotionally about her experiences as a Holocaust survivor and her early years with her family. The interview was conducted in Russian in Israel through the USC Shoah Foundation. A decade ago, a friend who knows Russian kindly translated the gist of this video interview. Now I wanted to see what AI could do for me, for free, in better understanding family history comments that Viola made early in the interview. 

Process: video audio to digital audio to transcript

First, I popped the DVD into my player and as soon as the interview began, I started recording a voice memo on my iPhone. My first audio recording was 11 minutes long. This was important because Thomas said that without a paid AI account, it's better to keep projects shorter and simpler to get things done.

Next, I had to change the m4a recording to mp3 format, which I did with a free online converter (I used CloudConvert but there are other sites out there). 

I tried uploading the mp3 to ChatGPT (free version) and asked for a transcription and translation from the Russian. But the AI responded: "It looks like I can’t run Whisper (speech-to-text) directly in this environment, so I can’t transcribe the MP3 automatically here."

So I uploaded the mp3 recording in Russian to TurboScribe (one of many sites that do this) and I asked for a free transcription. I chose the best quality/accuracy and within minutes, I downloaded the written output as a pdf.

Formatted translation from the Russian

Finally, I took the pdf of the Russian transcription and uploaded it to ChaptGPT, explaining a bit about this being an interview. I asked for this transcript to be translated into English and formatted as interviewer and interviewee. 

The AI had no difficulty distinguishing between the words of the person asking the questions and the person answering. It did ask whether I wanted a summary or a complete transcription (I wanted everything). Also it asked whether I wanted some original terminology left as is, with translation in brackets (yes).

ChatGPT finished that initial translation and asked for me to upload more so it could create a single, seamless document. So I went back and recorded 6 more minutes, going through the audio to digital audio to mp3 conversion rigamarole, next getting the free transcription, and then uploading the pdf from this second segment to ChatGPT.

This time, I named Viola as the interviewee and the AI showed her name in front of all of her responses. In the blink of two eyes, the answer showed me both segments compiled into one seamless interview about Viola's mother, father, and grandparents and their life before World War II. The top of page one is shown here.

Output: Formatted to my specs

Chapt GPT preserved some of the original terminology (see image at top, look for the word for tavern) and some of the less distinct words were picked up and translated, too. 

No cut and paste for me. I just asked for a .docx Word document, which was quickly created for easy and free download. The output is in complete sentences, with proper punctuation, a smooth read. I added a note that ChatGPT had created the document and the date. Done!

Use with caution

ChatGPT warns that it can make mistakes (see image here). I also asked it to please delete the file at the end, after I had finished my download.

Given how many steps were needed to go from video interview to final document, there are multiple opportunities for mistakes/omissions/typos to creep in. Very likely there are some nuances that got lost along the way but in the end, I believe this was a successful experiment. Thank you to Thomas MacEntee for the encouragement!

In the News: Two Marriages, One Divorce

My husband's paternal grandmother, Floyda Mabel Steiner (1878-1948) was married twice, I found out early in my genealogical journey. 

First marriage

The first marriage was "in the news" in several Ohio newspapers, characterizing her first husband Frank Gottfried (1971-1961) as a popular young man. Floyda was just 20, her new hubby was 26 and a son of a successful brick manufacturer in the area when they married in 1898. Their wedding, according to the newspaper, took place at the home of Floyda's sister and brother-in-law in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. I found news reports in more than one paper and more than one newspaper database. The brother-in-law who hosted the wedding held a key job in county government, which added to the newsworthiness of Floyda's first marriage.

Second marriage

Floyda's second marriage, to Brice Larimer McClure (1878-1970) was also noted in a few Ohio newspapers and in more than one news database. Again, Floyda was married at the Upper Sandusky home of her sister and brother-in-law, a couple who would soon move to Columbus, Ohio where he served as a state accountant and auditor. That political connection alone ensured news coverage of what one report called a "quiet wedding." Floyda used her maiden name in the two-year period between the end of one marriage and the start of the second marriage.

Surprise of the season

Having called the local probate court a few years ago, I already have copies of the detailed divorce filings. Here was a 23-year-old wife charging her husband, a well-to-do farmer, with scratching her, threatening to hit her, and verbally abusing her on many occasions. The husband's lawyer asked for the case to be dismissed because "the facts stated therein are not sufficient to constitute a cause of action." Reader, the judge awarded Floyda everything she asked for!

But until now, I had seen no news coverage of Floyda's divorce proceedings. I found it by searching in Newspaper Archive, a database I added only this year. Newspaper Archive has digitized copies of the Cleveland Leader, which for a time was a dominant Cleveland newspaper. 

Searching for "Floyda Steiner," I found this brief paragraph under the heading of "State News Condensed" on April 6, 1901, page 2:

Sues for divorce. Upper Sandusky, Ohio--The surprise of the season was the filing of a divorce case Friday by Floyda M. Gottfried against her husband, Frank Gottfried, one of Wyandotte [sic] County's prominent Democrats. They were married here three years ago, and have no children. The plaintiff charges her husband with extreme cruelty, asks for alimony, and wishes to be restored to her maiden name of Floyda M. Steiner.

I can see why this was the surprise of the season. How often did young women file for divorce in 1901? Not very often...and how often do they win? Descendants can be proud of Floyda's strength and determination to find a way out of her unhappy first marriage and be ready for a new love two years later.

"In the news" is the genealogy prompt for week 37 in Amy Johnson Crow's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks series. 

Framing the Childhood Jewelry of Mom and Her Twin

This elegant shadow box, in the works for two months, features the childhood jewelry of Mom (Daisy Schwartz Burk, 1919-1981) and her twin sister (Dorothy Helen Schwartz, 1919-2001). The creative design and meticulous archival framing were done by a truly terrific custom frame store in my area. 

All the jewelry items were gently cleaned and then carefully hand-stitched to the ecru linen background in a graceful arrangement. The 1920s photo, printed by Mpix, should look great for a century or longer behind high quality museum glass. The finishing touch: name/date plaques that identify Mom and Auntie and their birth/death years.

On the back is an archival envelope for storing a few photos, letters, and other documents related to these beloved ancestors, including a page of background about the jewelry items. Sis wants to include an old note with Mom's signature, too. Great idea!

Without question, this is an expensive archival solution to keeping special heirloom items safe and accessible. But off-the-shelf shadow boxes are widely available and less expensive if you want to try creating your own display of ancestral heirlooms.

For additional ideas about documenting and preserving ancestral items and other genealogical materials, please see my book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.

Appealing the VA's Skinny Extract of Dad's Claims File

A few weeks ago, the US Department of Veterans Affairs finally responded to my request for the claim records of Harold David Burk (1909-1978), my late father.  I faxed my official request to the VA on December 11 of last year. After waiting more than eight months, all I got was this pathetically skimpy, skinny extract (above) with nothing about Dad's military service, no spouse name, not even a birth or death date, only his parents' names. Grrrr.

Following the advice of Reclaim the Records, the nonprofit that aims to make public records actually public again, I am appealing. As next of kin, I am legally entitled to Dad's file.

I have to prove that I am, indeed, Dad's child, as part of the appeals process. But my official birth certificate, shown above (with judicious redactions), has NO NAME in the given name section, just under the words "Certificate of Birth."

Why? Because my parents were completely taken by surprise when not one but two babies were born. They weren't prepared with two names and needed a few days to decide. In the hospital, I was temporarily named "Burk A" and my sister's name was "Burk B".

Our names were filed with the Department of Health a couple of weeks later, then written on the back of our original birth certificates.

I have to explain all of that background in my appeal letter to VA officials. The birth cert clearly states that 2 children were born, and I'm the first. This should help.

In all, I included 7 attachments in my pdf file, including a copy of my appeal letter, emailed to the VA Office of General Counsel.

Unfortunately, I can't imagine that the harried VA officials will take much time to read the fine print in my appeal letter and documents. 😕 But I don't give up easily!

Watch for a post months from now on the outcome of my appeal. 

Uncommon Given Names? Um, Census Says...

I tried an experiment: On Ancestry, I searched ONLY the US Federal Census Collection for some of the more uncommon given names in my husband's family tree (at least, I consider those names to be uncommon). And each time, I learned that the Census period from 1790 to 1950 enumerated a lot of people with each of those seemingly uncommon given names.

Above, a screen shot from my search for Capitola, which was the given name of my husband's 1c1r on his maternal side. Including spelling variations, there are more than 19.6 million people named Capitola covered by the US Census.*

Here are some other names I searched and how many I found enumerated in the entire span of the US Census.

D'Alva - 10.4 million

Elfie - 34 million

Elroy - 32.6 million

Elveretta - 35.7 million

Floyda - 15.5 million

Lavatia - 25 million

Leander - 25.2 million

Ulysses - 490,000 (this was a surprise, given the popularity of the other names)

Compare these statistics with one of the most common given names in hubby's family tree: Jane, which appears 91 million times in the US Census over the years!

Have you tried this with some of the seemingly uncommon given names in your tree? 

*Randy Seaver notes, in a reader comment, that I didn't specify an exact match when searching for these given names. He's absolutely correct. The numbers would be far, far lower if I searched only for "Elveretta" without any spelling variations. I included variations (like "Elvereta") for two reasons. First, enumerators didn't always spell names the way those being enumerated would spell them. Second, indexing isn't always accurate. So I cast a wide net with multiple variations, for fun.

Discovering the Short Life of Augusta Sarah Markell

Julius Markell (1882-1966) was one of four Markell brothers, in-laws to my father's Mahler family. Depending on the source, Julius was born in Russia on September 1st of 1882 or in 1883. 

First family

Julius worked as a plasterer when in his 20s, which somehow brought him to the West Coast of the United States, where he married Ella Lebowitz (1884-1965). 

Ella and Julius had a daughter together in 1908, and the family soon moved to Boston and then to Pittsburgh, where Ella filed for divorce in 1915. The legal proceedings dragged on for years. Meanwhile Julius took off to Brooklyn, New York to work in doll manufacturing. His naturalization, dated April 1920 in Brooklyn, indicated his wife Ella and daughter Ruth were living in Pittsburgh.

Second family

By 1921, Julius was apparently divorced and he had moved on to yet another occupation (theater manager) in a new location (Pittsfield, Massachusetts). On May 31, 1921, the City Clerk of Pittsfield performed the wedding ceremony for Julius and his second wife, Tillie Sacks. By 1923, the couple had moved back to Brooklyn, where Julius was again working as a plasterer.

New news: Revisiting my research last week, I did an online search for both the husband and wife's names together. The fifth result from that search was a Find a Grave memorial that was created on May 29, 2025, so only newly visible. I used the info on that memorial to search FamilySearch for the baby girl's original birth and death records, which popped up immediately.

Sad to say, I learned that little Augusta Sarah Markell was born on March 28, 1922 in Pittsfield (as shown on the birth cert at top) and died just one month and seven days later, on May 5, 1922, due to accidental burns of her toes. Heartbreaking. I can't even imagine how the parents felt.

Happily, the couple's second child, William, was born in March of 1923 in Brooklyn, NY--just about a year from the day their first child was born in Pittsfield. I don't know whether anyone ever spoke of Augusta in later years, but she is now on my family trees to be remembered for the future. 

Charles Francis Elton Wood and the Jersey Bread Company

My husband's 1c1r, Charles Francis Elton Wood (1891-1951), had a varied working career. Born in Toledo, Ohio, a son of Marion Elton Wood and Minnie Caroline Miller, Charles worked as a salesman in a local drug store before forming a partnership with another man to run a grocery store. He was in his early 20s at the time. [Thanks to the annual Toledo, Ohio city directories, plus the US Census and other sources, I found out a lot about his working life!]

After he married Lillian Mary Cragg (1892-1973) in 1916, Charles briefly worked with his father, a carpenter. Then for some unknown reason, he reported to the Toledo, Ohio draft board in 1917 that he was a farmer 26 miles away in Deerfield, Michigan. Huh? 

By 1919, Charles and Lillian had a daughter and he was employed as a salesman for the Sherlock Baking Company in Toledo. Ditto in 1920 and he was still a salesman through most of the 1920s, as the family grew to three children. Then in 1929, the city directory showed him as an agent for an unrelated company. 

From 1930 on, Charles was off to work for the Jersey Bread Company, a well-known bakery firm in the Toledo area. In 1940, the Census indicated he had been promoted to foreman, a position he retained for the rest of his career. 

Sadly, Charles died at the age of 60 in 1951. He was accidentally hit by a truck in Salt Lake City while visiting friends, and passed away after a heart attack in the hospital, survived by his wife and three daughters.

The Jersey Baking Company took steps to change with the times, offering a wider variety of breads to appeal to a broader customer base, as the ad at top shows. It plugged along until early 1974, when its factory was sold at auction and the firm ended its long and mostly successful run in the Toledo area.

"Off to work" is the week #35 challenge for 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks from Amy Johnson Crow.

Celebrating My 17th Blogiversary

On August 25, 2008, I wrote my first genealogy blog post. Seventeen years later, I've written over 1900 posts about researching family trees, preserving genealogy materials, understanding social and historical context, finding cousins and having them find me, and more.

If I had known then what I know now, I would have called this blog something like "Good, Bad, Ugly Genealogy" because my years of research have turned up such a wide range of ancestor backgrounds in my tree and my husband's tree. 

Good: loving/compassionate relatives and in-laws, indigent journey-takers who helped each other survive in a new country, civic and military leaders, hard-working entrepreneurs, ancestors who sought to give their children and grandchildren better education and more opportunity. Bad: a few bootleggers (considered "bad" at the time), a few thieves, some wild kids, some absent parents. Ugly: too many early deaths from causes now preventable, a few questionable criminal activities, family estrangements for reasons that in retrospect seem repairable, a couple of sad suicides, and more. 

With one key exception (because someone still alive might be hurt by something an ancestor did), all of what I've learned is posted on my public family trees and has been relayed to my relatives and those of my hubby. 

I don't want to hide the truth, nor do I want the truth to be lost to future generations. As family historian, I want to be told the truth and I want my relatives and future generations to trust that I will share the truth with them.

From my heart, many thanks to the dear cousins who have connected with me via my blog. It is such a joy to be in touch with the descendants of ancestors and share photos and stories.

Finally, a big tip of the hat to my wonderful readers. Please know how much I really appreciate you all! 

My genealogy research:

My maternal grandparents (both from Hungary, both died in New York City)

    Hermina "Minnie" Farkas (1886-1964) m. Theodore "Teddy" Schwartz (1887-1965)

My paternal grandparents (Mahler from Riga, Burk from Lithuania, both died in NYC)

    Henrietta "Yetta" Mahler (1881-1954) m. Isaac Burk (1881-1943)

Husband's maternal grandparents (both born and died in Ohio)

    Floyda Mabel Steiner (1878-1948) m. Brice Larimer McClure (1878-1970)

Husband's paternal grandparents (Slatter from London/England, Wood from Ohio, both died in Ohio)

    Mary Slatter (1869-1925) m. James Edgar Wood (1871-1939)

Book Review: Your Stripped Bare Guide to Citing and Using History Sources

 

The subtitle of this concise but meaty book is "The Briefcase Edition of Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace." The title is catchy and the cover is a breath of fresh air for a serious book about an important topic.

Source citations are a vital element in the Genealogical Proof Standard, and Mills lays out a careful roadmap for understanding, evaluating, and documenting the sources used in genealogy research.

Table of contents

As the table of contents shows, this handy book crams a lot into just 139 pages. 

In particular, I recommend bookmarking these seven figures that each condense a lot of wisdom into a single page:

Fig 1: Guidelines for Analyzing Evidence (on p. 18, invaluable advice)

Fig 2: Guidelines for Documentation (on p. 36)

Fig 3: Two Functions of a Source Note (p. 39)

Fig 4: Placement of Note Numbers (p. 45) 

Fig 5: Abbreviation tips (p. 55, especially handy)

Fig 6: Stylistic Tips for Source Notes (p. 56)

Fig 7: Bibliographic Notes (p. 57)

The Universal Templates chapter on p. 83 is absolutely invaluable for finding a mix-and-match example of how to cite almost any type of source. Even the glossary (pp. 107-120) is a mini-master class in genealogical sources and citation. Ever wonder what "negative findings" really are? Or the meaning of "correlation" in the genealogy proof standard? The author's excellent glossary explains it all!

Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see DNA or genetic genealogy mentioned in this book. So I recommend downloading the syllabus and watching the talk "DNA: Proof, Citation & Privacy" by Elizabeth Shown Mills on Legacy Family Tree Webinars. 

Please note: I received this book for free as a review copy but the opinions and comments here are entirely my own.

Why I Check the Webinar Syllabus First

Webinars take time to watch. Admittedly, I still haven't finished my playlists for the past two RootsTech Conferences. As a Legacy Family Tree Webinar subscriber, I have access to 2400+ talks, and have watched fewer than 100. 

But I have downloaded and examined the syllabus materials for the talks I'm most interested in, from RootsTech and from Legacy Family Tree. This is my first step, because looking at the handout helps me prioritize my viewing, and determine what I want to watch (and what I don't want to watch at all or not soon). The syllabus gives me a good idea of the speaker's main points and usually includes sources or additional reading/viewing related to the main points, if I want to follow up.

With the syllabus in hand, I can follow along as I watch and check relevant websites or sources. I also like to digitally file the handout and look at it again if I want to refresh my memory, rather than rewatching a webinar. If I choose, I can view the RootsTech talks on YouTube, where viewer comments are visible below the video.

On Legacy Family Tree Webinars, there's an option to download the syllabus and download the chat log. Sometimes the chat includes interesting comments or suggestions. The syllabus materials are always helpful and often quite detailed. And I can use the syllabus to decide where in the webinar to focus my attention if I only want to watch a segment, not the entire video.

This method might not work for you, but as a print-oriented Baby Boomer, I like to get the gist of something by checking the paperwork before investing time in viewing.

Asenath and James's Wedding Day in 1832

On August 14, 1832, Asenath Cornwell (1808-1897) married James Larimer (1806-1847) in Fairfield County, Ohio. They were my hubby's 3d great-grand aunt and uncle. Their names and marriage date were later recorded in a book that was bound and housed at the county probate court in Fairfield County. The scans are on FamilySearch. 

Asenath was born in Hallowell, Canada, daughter of a Loyalist who fled the Colonies during the American Revolution but then crossed into Ohio years after the war. James was the son of Ohio Fever pioneers who moved from Pennsylvania to the Ohio territory around the turn of the 19th century.

Very soon after their marriage, Asenath and James moved to Middlebury, Elkhart, Indiana, a newly-formed township with fertile farm land. Researching Middlebury, I found a concise history digitized and available on Family Search, with names of early settlers and more. Here's an excerpt about the period when this area was carved out of Allen County, Indiana. 

If James had not died after a fall from his horse on an icy January evening in 1847, he and Asenath and their children would have worked the farm together for many years. Instead, a few years after James's accident, Asenath made the fateful decision to leave her children in the care of kin and neighbors, and head to California Gold Rush country with her brother, hoping to improve the fortunes of both of their families. I told that story here. 

Thinking back 193 years to that day in 1832, when Janes and Asenath were married with happiness and hope in their hearts.

Great Aunt Ella and the Sweet Spot of Digitized NYC Records

My mom's favorite maternal aunt was Ella Farkas Lenney (1897-1991), whose original given name was Ilka. She and three siblings arrived at Ellis Island in November of 1901, joining their immigrant parents, who had arranged an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. 

Ella was a quick study, literally, going to school to become a teacher. A devoted professional, she worked steadily as an elementary school teacher in the Bronx, New York for her entire forty-year career. Interestingly, when Ella married Joseph Levy (1893-1945), their 1924 marriage cert (above) correctly states that the groom was a civil engineer but shows no occupation for the bride. Joe changed his name to Lenney several years later, making his wife Mrs. Lenney.

I downloaded this original marriage cert, along with other key vital records for Ella and her family, for FREE from the New York City Municipal Archives Historical Vital Records site. How lucky for me, the family historian, that so many of these maternal ancestors settled in the Big Apple.

New York City Marriages, Digitized & Downloadable

As shown directly above, the Archives site has digitized and posted downloadable marriage records for the five boroughs of New York City for the years shown in dark blue. A number of Ella's siblings and in-laws were married in the Big Apple in the years covered by the digitized/downloadable period. Free!

New York City Births, Digitized & Downloadable

Great aunt Ella and the next generation (her two children, plus multiple nieces and nephews) are also in the sweet spot of digitized NYC records for births, as shown above. I was easily able to download those birth certs, again for free.

New York City Deaths, Digitized & Downloadable

Finally, a few of Ella's extended family members are in the sweet spot of digitized NYC records for deaths, which are available for free for deaths as late as 1948. 

When I find a NYC digital record, I download it for my files AND share by uploading it to my family tree and other sites. (Ella's marriage cert is currently on Find a Grave and WikiTree, among other sites.)

Today, I'm remembering Aunt Ella with affection on the 128th anniversary of her birth on August 10, 1897.

Veterans' Files Now Delivered as Skinny Extracts

In December, 2024, Reclaim the Records launched a user-friendly, convenient website for searching the US Veterans Administration BIRLS database and requesting a veteran's file, under the Freedom of Information Act. All for free, thanks to this wonderful nonprofit group that has been fighting to make public records available to the public.

Over a four-month period, I submitted 13 requests for veterans' records and quickly received one "no info found" letter, followed by 11 "yes info found" acknowledgements. Still awaiting word on one request, neither acknowledged nor denied. No further communication from the VA. Until earlier this week.

New "skinny" extract format

Finally I received what I now know is the new, skinny file extract format that the Veterans Administration will be issuing instead of sending full pdf files of each veteran. As shown in the image at top, the extract recaps name, birth/death dates, Social Security number (which I blacked out), and the enlistment/release date of the veterans, along with which military branch. This is for an in-law in my hubby's family tree.

Another page or two included marriage date (but no spouse info), parents' names, and other so-called genealogical information. Nothing about the rank of the vet or the unit or any service details such as where stationed. A really skinny extract, to say the least, compared to what may actually be in the veteran's file. I'm not happy.

What now?

Reclaim the Records explains the background behind this unexpected and frustrating change from furnishing full pdf files to extracting selected info. Read all about it here.

Reading their advice, it seems I will have solid grounds for appealing when my father's skinny extract shows up in the future, because I am clearly next of kin (and I can prove it). I would like to see his full file, not a few measly details pulled from it.

Meanwhile, Reclaim the Records is formulating a robust response and will determine its next steps within weeks. Stay tuned!

PS: I just received two more FOIA responses...these were even more skeletal, bare bones at best. "Information is not a matter of record" is the reason stated for lack of birth certificate details, parents' names, spouse's name, etc. Not happy. 

PPS: Most recent responses have even less detail, if that's possible. Date of entry into service but no release date. Not even the branch of service. The latest response had nothing at all, no information at all--not even name of the service member. Ridiculous.

Future Family History Starts Today with LOCKSS

So many times, I've wished my ancestors took a photo at a special event or wrote the names/relationships of people on the back of photos or saved invitations to weddings or baby showers. These ancestors lived many yesterdays ago. Alas, I can't go back in time to ask questions or view special events.

As family historians, we're always looking back in time...but we also need to look ahead and be good ancestors for the sake of future family history.

Take photos, print some too

In five or ten years, will we remember the names of all those people at the special anniversary dinner? Or who attended Uncle Joe's 90th birthday party? Where the family vacationed in the summer of 2024? Which family hosted that big New Year's Eve party in 2019?

That's why I ask relatives to please pull out their phones and snap a few photos at family events, then send to me. I compile and share key photos with everyone, sometimes within hours or days of the event and sometimes later.

Every month or so, I print a couple of photos (from today and yesterday) and pop a print into the mail to a relative as a surprise. The idea is to have a tangible memory of that get-together or holiday or first day of school. In the future, these will be remembered and appreciated. They will bring back strong emotions of earlier days!

Also our family's yearly wall calendar features photos of the previous year and some older photos to memorialize those who we loved and lost. And end-of-year photo book helps to capture the high and low points of what my hubby and I did in the previous 12 months. In the photo books, I give dates and name names, though the photos are not always fully captioned with surnames.

Remember LOCKSS

Lots of copies keep stuff safe. That's how LOCKSS works. If three relatives have a photo of Uncle Joe's party, there is a better chance that at least one photo will survive till 2050 or beyond--plus, if names are written on the back, future family historians will be especially grateful. My yearly photo books will help future generations see what was going on from 2008 forward.

Future family history depends on our ability to look ahead and plan ahead!

Free Images for Bite-sized Family History Projects

Sometimes when I prepare a bite-sized family history project, I need illustrations beyond ancestor photos and documents. My goal is to catch the eye of readers and enhance the content with appropriate visuals that engage the audience. 

This year, I've been expanding a booklet I wrote about my hubby's military ancestors, and I wanted additional images to avoid page after page of solid text. (Obviously I married my husband for his interesting ancestors, including men on both sides of the US Civil War, just for starters.)

My regular go-to site for free images is Pixabay.com, where I've found dramatic photos and illustrations to add to my projects. Directly above is a free photo I downloaded from Pixabay, showing a canon and a view of Gettysburg, the famous US Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania where a distant Wood ancestor helped wounded Confederate soldiers. Pixabay features more than illustrations and photos: it also offers downloadable video clips, music, and sound effects.

Recently, I've been introduced to Pexels.com, which also provides free photos that can be downloaded. At top of the page, a colorful photo I downloaded after reviewing dozens of images from my search for "US Civil War." Pexels has video content available for download, as well.

Both Pexels and Pixabay allow (even encourage) you to go ahead and use any of the free images in any way you like. You can modify and adapt them if you choose. Attribution is not required. 

Note: Nancy Gilbride Casey likes RawPixel.com, which has color and b/w maps, illustrations, and more. I plan to explore that site in greater detail!

In fact, I've modified downloaded images by changing the colors (to brighten or soften), tilting the images (for a dynamic look), or flipping the images (to better fit into my content). 

Bite-sized family history projects are a practical way to focus on specific aspects of the family tree. I want my relatives to be intrigued enough to start reading, which is where fascinating images come in. Try Pixabay and Pexels if you need an image for your own family history project. Of course photos/images on Wikimedia Commons are free and downloadable, as well, as long as you follow the guidelines for reusing content.

For more about preserving and perpetuating family history, please see my genealogy book, Planning a Future for Your Family's Past.