Walking in Their Footsteps

     I wrote the other day about my trip to Chickamauga and what I learned about what my ancestors experienced there.  I then created a video to summarize everything and, hopefully, make it entertaining.  For family: the two ancestors mentioned in the video are the paternal Great-Grandfathers of Betty Huyler Albea.

     Check out the video:

VHS Conversion Success!

     In my last post, I wrote about becoming inspired over Thanksgiving to convert our family's old VHS home movies to digital format.  I had ordered some software and was waiting for it to arrive.  Well, it did arrive and I did convert one of those VHS tapes!

     I had ordered a software and cable combo from Roxio called Easy VHS to DVD for Mac.  I'd done some research and read numerous reviews before making this purchase.  There are a number of options out there, and this is one of the best reviewed for Mac.  And as the title suggests, it was relatively easy to use.

     I installed the software in seconds, but ran into a little trouble when connecting the cables.  I plugged the cables that came with the software into the audio cables that I normally use to connect my DVD player to my TV. I then connected one end of the cables to my computer and the other end to my VHS/TV combo. Nothing happened. I then went to use my parents stand alone VHS/DVD player and plugged the audio cables into the front plugs. Nothing happened. My mom then suggested unplugging the VHS/DVD player from the TV and plugging my cables into the connections in the back. Success!

     Once the cables were hooked up correctly, I was able to see and hear the VHS tape on my laptop as it played in the VCR.  All I had to do was hit "record" in the software and "stop" when the tape was over. Easy! The software then saved a copy and sent another copy directly to iMovie.  The quality of the resulting digital copy is good, but not great. The images are sometimes jumpy during fast movement, but I'm pretty happy with the results, especially considering how easy it was to create.

     This home movie focuses on me, my sister and two cousins playing on a swing set, a sand box, with some pets and then ultimately catching lightning bugs.  There's a lot of random stuff in here and a lot of unintelligible 6 and 4 year old chatter. I decided to save an original raw copy and then created an edited version with "the good stuff." I then uploaded a medium quality copy to YouTube and will be making copies on DVD for the family.

     Here's the final video, hope you enjoy:

The Waters Family in Atlanta

     Here's the Google Earth family history tour that I created based on Lisa Louise Cooke's class at the Georgia Family History Expo. This tour talks about my Great-Great Grandparents, Leverett and Louise Waters and their lives in Atlanta in the 1920s and 1930s.

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Interviewing the Aunts, Pt 2

     A little bit ago, I talked with my aunts June and Charlotte and asked them questions about the family and their childhood. In the following video they talk about their family in Elbert County, their grandparent's home and my Aunt Charlotte recalls when the family survived a tornado.

Ree's WWII Memories Pt1 - Amanuensis Monday

This past Saturday my mom, Ruby, and her sister, June, went to visit their Aunt Ree. I had to work, but I sent along my audio recorder and some questions about World War II that I wanted to ask my Great Aunt. Here's part one of her response, first in a video and then transcribed below.

Ruby: Well, she [Valerie] was wanting me to ask you about - 'cause you has said somethin' - we had, you know, she had asked you about Daddy [Roy Albea] and not bein' able to get into the, the war. And you had said somethin' about all - all the young boys had… once - once Pearl Harbor, uh, the the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, all the boys were wantin' to go enlist. So she was just wonderin', um, what it was like when you first heard about Pearl Harbor and how you found out.

Ree: Oh well, uh, for a while the, uh, President Roosevelt, came on the radio and, and announced it.

Ruby: So you heard it when he made his announcement?

Ree: Yes. On the radio, 'cause that's all we had back then.

Ruby: Yeah.

Ree: And Daddy [Vernon Albea] didn't go in the service because he had four children. They weren't takin' the men that had, you know, that many children. Daddy's health was fine. He - he, as far as a physical, he passed the physical. But he had a different rating because he had four children.

Ruby: So did he go to volunteer or was he, like part of the ---

Ree: Everybody had to sign up.

Ruby: Everybody had to sign up?

Ree: Mmm hmm. They had to sign up and take a physical. And they had to be graded or, given uh, you know, uh…

June: Classification?

Ree: Yeah.

June: That was your Daddy?

Ree: Yeah. I think it - I think that card's in those things you had. He was healthy enough and everything, it was just the number of children he had. [Pointing to a photo] That's Linda right there. [intelligible] lets see… [looking at Vernon Albea's WWII Draft Card] Local board… I need to go get my glasses.

Ruby: So anybody - an - ev - everybody over a certain age had to al - over a certain age had to go sign up?

Ree: Yeah, they drafted… they drafted people and uh, they said when they got to be 18 they had to sign up. Daddy was already older than 18 and why… but I think everybody had to register under a certain age. And uh, this was in… He was 3AH was his classification. 3AH. And he - that, that told him that he was 3A, but he had children children or somethin'. This, this is it [indicating draft card]. If I go get some glasses I can see.

Ruby: I think that the date it was mailed out. July 8th 1943.

Ree: This is Director of Register. This might be part of that. I think this' prob'ly part part of that. Ella Mallard she was our, uh, school principle. That's uh, I think that and that's was folded over.

Ruby: The registration certificate.

Ree: Mm um. And that part of it… registration

Ruby: Yeah, he was s'posed to keep this with him at all - yeah it's his registration certificate.

Ree: This is where he registered to vote [indicating voter ID card]. That's what that is. Well, lets see. Oh, he's 40 years of age. He was registered to vote at Brandon [Mill].

Ruby: And Brandon was the name of the mill.

Ree: Yes. Brandon Mill.

Ruby: And then - and then she asked, um… She was wonderin' if you remember who you were with whenever you heard.

Ree: I was, uh, in the, uh, bedroom at home. And I don't know how many of 'em were in there with me. Uh, me… I don't know. Well, it was… during the daytime when we heard it.

June: You first heard about it on the radio?

Ree: Yeah.

June: Y'all had the radio on all - uh, a lot?

Ree: Yeah, that's all we had. You know, back then we didn't have no TV, no nothin'. We we didn't have no telephone. You know, we just lived in a little four room house with a little fireplace that you burned coal in to keep warm. And uh, it was - it was just - everything was different. This [Vernon Albea's unemployment card]- well, that when he was outta work, he applied for… for uh, you know

June: Unemployment.

Ree: Unemployment. [laughter] Don't mind me!

Ruby: He wasn't unemployed for long, 'cause he's only got one report date on here.

Ree: Yeah. That - they probably somebody gave him a job to keep him from drawin' it. [laughter]

Ruby: And then she's got um… Now, now when he, when he made that radio broadcast did he, he declare war at the same time? I know I've heard that, that broadcast so many times, but I don't remember… or did they come back later and just whatever-

Ree: I don't know, you know I was 11 years old.

Ruby: You were 11? Yeah, that's young. 

Ree: I say I was 11 then in uh, July. That happened in December. So, um… That um, the speech he made about… somethin'… infamy. That one word stuck with me and - and uh, I know that there was words before that and I couldn't used to remember but I can't remember 'em now but that word's never left me. But uh, yeah he said that, um, the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor. But I don't remember exactly what he said either, 'cause I was so young. But I remember I was in the front bedroom and the radio - it was one you set on the floor, you know, it was a cabinet radio. We just had a little radio - little speakers. But it, it all was settin' against that wall. [gesturing] well, really it would have been that wall because there was [gesturing left to right] a back bedroom, bedroom, living room and kitchen. But um, yeah, I remember it. I was there in that room when that happened.

The Census - then and now

I know most genealogists are probably looking forward to the upcoming 2010 Census - I know I am. I've never actively taken part in a census before, but I plan to this year (my dad just filled it out and sent it back without any fan-fair). And, of course, genealogists are interested in past censuses.

As a subscriber to the US National Archive's YouTube account, I saw that they had put up video from the 1940 census. It contains very cool archival footage and has that patriotic feeling from similar government productions of the same time period. Here's one of the videos:

Also on YouTube, the Census Bureau has its own channel. It looks like they want to educate folks about how the census will be taken and what the different steps there are in the process. Check out their latest of their video:

Albea Family Home Video

A recording of old silent film and of 1989 Family Reunion. I've created and posted this before, but I re-did it in a slightly different way and took out the "Unknown" folks.

more movie clips

Also from the Albea Family Reunion - 1989 video 

Home Movies

Part of the Albea Family Reunion 1989 was a recording of some old home movies from the 1950s (ish?). They feature my great-great grandmother, Nina Sprouse Albea and her daughter Martha Albea Faulkner and her husband, John Hoyt Faulkner. There's also another person in the video - maybe a grandson of Nina?

It was pretty neat to see such old home movies and to have recognized individuals in the movie. There's another set of folks in the movie that I don't recognize. They're Albea family members - the men all bear a resemblance to my granddady, who looked amazingly like his father, Charles Vernon Albea. But who they are specifically? Who knows. If you think you might recognize anyone on this family line, let me know and I can upload the other part of the home movie.

magic of video

My mom recently showed me a video the other day of the Albea Family Reunion in Greenwood, SC on 24 June 1989. Although the video was made by someone who didn't know much about filming and I don't know most of the folks in the video it's still great to have. My grandparents, Roy & Betty (huyler) Albea are in the video. It was a bit shocking to hear my grandaddy's voice - a voice I haven't heard since his death in 2005. 

One of the best parts of the video is when the 'first cousins' get together for a photo. These are the grandchildren of William and Nina (sprouse) Albea. I'm not sure who everyone is, but I can see my grandaddy and my aunts (say it the south carolina way: "aint")

Here's the photo and some of the video of the photo session: