Audio Recordings

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

One of the roles of our calling as family history consultants is to help you and your family find pleasure in doing family history.  When you look at the whole picture (the elephant in the room) it can be so overwhelming.  As we have been breaking down a part of this elephant called Saving Memories, our prayer is that you see that it can be done in small steps and can be quite a fun adventure. 

Today we are going to take apart the task of transferring audio recordings to our Memories Tab in FamilySearch.  Much like the photos and stories we have added, audio recordings can be a wonderful addition to the pages of our family members in FamilySearch.  To hear the voice of someone who has passed to the other side of the veil is precious – their story in their words, their accent, their expressions, their feelings as they tell the story – all bring us closer to them.

We may have these recordings on one (or more) of the following formats:

1.    Recorded with our smart phone

2.    Recorded with a cassette tape recorder

3.    Recorded with a reel-to-reel-recorder

The first step in transferring these recordings to FamilySearch is to upload the recordings to the computer and put them into an audio recording file. This is easy with a smart phone.  Just plug in the USB cable to the computer and phone and save the recordings in a file you have created on the computer – much like saving photos from your phone.

However, if you have used a cassette recorder or a reel-to-reel recorder, the transfer is a bit trickier.  Brother May and I are not technologically literate and there are many in the ward who know how to do this easily.  But, we have been doing some research, and found the following websites to help.

To transfer cassette tapes to your computer:  www.reviewgeek.com/19889/how-to-digitize-your-cassette-tapes

To transfer reel-to-reel tapes to your computer:  www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-record-into-a-computer-from-a-reel-to-reel-tape-recorder

These sites have easy step-by step instructions. 

Once you have the recording on your computer, open FamilySearch and select the person you would like to add the recording to.

·         Select:  Memories

·         Upload Audio

·         Choose the file where the audio recording is stored on your computer

·         Choose the file you want to upload

·         Click on “Open” and it will upload

If you have already uploaded an audio file to another person’s page, you can use the tab “Select from Gallery” instead of Upload Audio.  Choose the file you want to add from those already in your gallery and it will upload for you.

To some of us, this may seem a bit confusing.  One of the blessings of being a part of our ward family, is that we have so much help available to us.  The youth of the ward are amazing at all of this technical stuff.  Call on them to help. Or call on Brother Cheatwood or Brother Josh Hicken. They are great resources as well. 

As we follow the counsel of our Savior to seek out our family members and preserve their memories, we will be guided and blessed.  Pray for that guidance.  Let us help you as well.  We don’t know it all and are learning just like you, but we will give it 100%. That is our promise! 

Brother and Sister May 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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