Posted on 07/20/2026 5:22:39 PM PDT by knarf
When Billy Christal gave his tribute to his friend, Robin Williams, a clip that played shortly after was of him stating that Robin had been up since 1948. I was born in 1948 . . . . February 29th in particular, and as The Dead stated . . . "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been".
My 31 year old son and I have become very close in the last couple of years and I find myself remembering little vignettes of my life I relate back to him, and he said; "Dad, you should sit down and youtube all these things"
Great idea, but I don't know how.
Howe do I start a youtube (or SOME kind of recording) that will never end and I can just click in to say (like Mary Lou Retton) ... " and another thing"
How can I start an audio/video recording that I can just keep adding in ?
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I don’t know, but the sad YouTube video at this link is Mary Lou Retton’s 2025 DUI arrest.
< https://youtu.be/KSUgprz18rA?is=65akxHRCS_EzkYxe>
Be wary of putting anything personal on YouTube or anywhere on the internet.
Start a data center.
I’ve got my grandfather’s memoirs, hand-typed, that focus on his time as a Russian POW in WW I, how he escaped and made his way back to Germany.
Frankly, audio and video are a problem. Formats change, tapes wear out, accounts get lost. If I were you, I’d think about writing them down.
You could dictate to the computer or your phone and have it transcribe as you speak. Or have it transcribe your recorded thoughts afterwards.
The iPhone has a great tool called “Voice Memos” where you can keep adding to the recording. To get your voice memo transcribed on an iPhone, open the Voice Memos app, select the recording, and tap the transcription option to view the text. This feature is available on iPhone 12 and later models running iOS 18 or newer. Very simple. I’m sure all Android phones have a similar feature.
You could go to MechanicalTurk and put a job out to bid, too. You could get editors to polish your work. People do jobs like that for not much money. There are many similar “gig” services where you can find people who like to do jobs like that.
Just my two cents… But I think the best thing you could do keep an electronic video journal.
Doesn’t have to be on the Internet
Get an iPad, sit down each day for an hour or so, turn on the camera, and record yourself and your life… tell your story.
Make sure your son knows how to access it.
I think that’s the best thing you can do without giving up any of your personal data or privacy on the Internet.
There may be better ideas out there, but that seems the most private, AND the most personal thing you can leave for your family.
For the record, it’s what I’ve been doing since my grandchildren were born a few years ago… One way or the other, they will know that pop pop loved them and was here for a while.
So you've had 19 birthdays--you're still a teenager!
It’s easy to start a Youtube channel. You can limit who can watch it.
A bit of unasked for advice: Consider making both a long and a short version - the shorter version with just the highlights.
A friend of mine recorded memories of his life. And an interesting life it was! But it went on way too long. I can’t imagine many of his descendants sitting through the whole thing.
And a pity that would be.
I might want to find out about oral histories. I do some genealogy and about 50 years ago some elderly relatives were interviewed about their parents and grandparents. They told wonderful stories about when and why they came to this country. One went back too get his girlfriend. She had married someone else so he brought his sister here and one by one brought the rest of his family here.
If there is a university near you, the history or psychology department may have graduate students who know how to do oral histories. They know the kinds of questions to ask. They will do it for college or graduate credit and may even type up the interview!! Printed paper is the best way to save it.
If you don’t have one, get a microphone, plug it into your computer and start talking, Microsoft has built-in speech-to-text capability. Other operating systems do similar. You may even be able to do it on your cellphone.
Excellent advice there, ladyjane.
The best personal histories might be the ones where the person is responding to good questions.
I have worke with video for a while.
Youtube makes it easy to create an account and upload.
Keep the videos less than 3 -5 minutes per video.
1080p format at 30 frames a second is fine for quality. The bigger the file, the harder it is to work with.
If you want to edit things Davinci resolve ,a free product , works great.
Get youself a good mike to talk into.
I’ve started a similar project for my granddaughters.
Have fun.
I thought Free Republic was supposed to do that.
Agreed on the long and short versions!
I have hundreds of letters that my dad wrote to my mom during WWII. I need to go through those - maybe do it on youtube with a summary (with some excerpts) and then the entire letter. Some of the letters are interesting, but most are boring. They are on the real thin vellum(?) paper so the writing shows through from the other side when scanning them in.
My sister has a bunch of their old home movies on film. We keep debating if we want to spend a bunch of money to transfer them over to digital. (Mom and dad are gone.)
I remember when my dad told me about him growing up during the depression.
Share all those moments that are important to you.
Your son will never forget those moments and stories.
Dad also liked playing golf with me as I was easy to beat.
These times will never come again.
I’m liking that idea..
How to store it?
What will be usable (and secure) in twenty years?
Record yourself using your I-phone. It will also do the conversion to text for you.
Just set up your phone as a video camera, and start recording yourself.
You don’t need to upload any of it. Just record it, and share your photo/video library with your son.
At some point, he can download all of them, have AI process them, and he’ll have a full transcript, photos, your voice, and so on.
Don’t overthink it. Just get your thoughts recorded.
When my grandmother turned 90, video cameras were just becoming a “thing.” My Dad set up the camera he just bought and spent hours with her, recalling our family history.
I converted the VHS tapes to digital and put them on DVDs.
I’ve never watched them.
Maybe I should take them out and see if they still play—as they would require yet another conversion to keep them from decaying.
My point is that the printed word is easier to pass on—either in paper form or on a hard drive.
One of the things I have done is copied all of my Facebook posts (I don’t post political stuff there) and my “notes” from taking care of my gaggle of elders for ten years as well as my wife’s cancer journey.
They are all on backed up drives that will go to my kids with 30 years of digitized photos.
But videos can be tedious if you are not really, really interested.
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