How to Get It All Down on Videotape

Genealogists, better known for an interest in the past, increasingly use today’s technology in their hobby.

They were among the first to see the value of personal computers, portable photocopiers and cameras with a macro lens. Now they have discovered camcorders, one the hottest electronic items on the market, which enable you to film and record your family history.

While it is not necessary to have a degree in television production to produce your own video family stories, there is some expert advice available that will help you to get the most out of a camcorder. “Video Family Portraits” by Rob Huberman, a former cable TV cameraman, and Laura Janis, is a new book that shows you how to do it without getting bogged down in technical terms.

“Video Family Portraits” will guide you in:

--Basic technical information you need to use the various types of equipment now available along with VHS, Beta and 8mm jargon.

--Camera techniques, including basic camera settings, movements, camera shots and good picture composition.

--Advanced video techniques explain how to improve sound, add TV lights, advice about editing tapes, audio dub, making copies and how to transfer old home movies to video.

A chapter on “Family History Question Guide” serves as an adaptable script for your production. Some are basic questions genealogists ask relatives all the time, but having them in front of you as you interview family members is important.

Additionally, there are thought-provoking questions to enhance your family’s story:

“What do you remember about World War II or the first time you flew in an airplane? Where and when did you (or your spouse) propose?”

“Video Family Portraits” is a user-friendly guide to videotaping your family history, stories and memories and will enable the genealogist to become a top-notch movie director and producer. It is available in softback from Heritage Books, 1540 E. Pointer Ridge Place, Bowie, Md. 20715 ($11.95 postpaid).

“Genealogical Abstracts from 18th-Century Virginia Newspapers,” compiled by Robert K. Headley Jr., is available from Genealogical Publishing Co., 1001 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, Md. 21202 ($30.50 postpaid).

If you’ve hit a dead-end in your Virginia research, this book may help. It contains abstracts of approximately 10,000 items of a genealogical nature found in these old newspapers. They are from marriage notices, death notices, estate sales and settlements and advertisements for runaways--usually servants, apprentices, slaves or deserters--and court cases.

It is arranged alphabetically by surnames with an index to an additional 10,000 persons mentioned in the notices.

If your roots go back to Pennsylvania and you’ve lost some ancestors in Lancaster County, read “Runaways, Rascals and Rogues,” edited by Gary T. Hawbaker.

This is the first in a series of volumes on missing persons as advertised in Lancaster County, Pa., newspapers. This fascinating volume covers the years 1794 to 1810. It includes names of more than 1,200 husbands, wives, children, servants, slaves, prisoners, deserters and horse thieves who may belong in your family tree.

It’s available from Hawbaker, Box 207, Hershey, Pa. 17033 ($11.50 postpaid).