How Digitizing Home Movies Helped Me Create New Family Moments From Old Memories

When I lost my mother last year, I had to go through a lot of her things. It’s a painful rite of passage, especially as an only child, to sort through all the things a parent leaves behind. Among many of his most prized possessions was a storage box filled with nearly 50 video tapes, mostly documenting my childhood and adolescence.

I have talked about my grief journey before and how I escaped nostalgia to face my lossbut now, watching these home videos is another kind of nostalgia trip. As I revisit my past, certain questions and thoughts buzz in my head (perhaps it’s the residual anxiety speaking). Instead of pushing them aside, I try to stay present and focus on what I can do now: cherish these recorded memories and preserve them for the rest of my family.

With the help of digitization services such as southern tree and ZDigital HistoriesI was able to save these memories and pass them on to my younger cousins, who now get a glimpse into a family history they may not have known about. It’s been great to text my cousin pictures of New York from our time together as kids and see her reactions in real time.

Southtree – Send Videos and Recover a Flash Drive

With southern treeI placed an online order for their 5 item bundle. Several days later, I received a box (with a prepaid return shipping label) to fill with the five analog media I wanted to digitize (four VHS-C tapes plus an 8mm reel). For my digital option, I chose the cloud (as opposed to a DVD or USB stick), which ended up being a link to a private Google Drive where I could download all my videos. Unfortunately, the 8mm spool couldn’t be used (fortunately, they offered a partial refund for the inconvenience).

See videos of My family’s vacation in Orlando. Reminds me how obsessed I was with Jurassic Park; I can be seen wearing the movie logo in almost every shot. Seeing myself meeting my paternal grandmother for the first time during a trip to Japan is even more meaningful now. and all the others holiday, birthdayand special occasion recorded on tape is a reminder of the love that surrounded me.

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Many of these videos also include clues and Easter eggs that hint at the future. Several family members can be seen smoking (indoors!), which was quite common during the 80s and 90s. If I had known what I know now, would I have changed things? Would I have told my uncle to quit cigarettes before losing him to lung cancer in 2017? Would I have spent more time with my great aunt? Would I have endured a hug longer?

Zstories Digital: faster and more agile

If you want to add a more personal touch to your experience, Zstories Digital provides helpful progress updates and fast, affordable service. Owner John Nalbantian started the business two years ago. After his mother passed away, his father approached him with a box of VHS tapes that he wanted to digitize. Using the equipment he already had in his video lab, John helped his grieving father and was soon inspired to do it professionally for other people.

As I continue to mourn my own mother, I feel the need to hold on to the memories of both my parents. So I sent ten tapes of our trip to Japan, where I met my obaachan for the first time. My goal: consolidate all the footage into edited videos that I can share on YouTube with the rest of my family, especially my cousin in Japan who is starting her own family. Once my videos were returned to me on a USB drive, I immediately dove back into the footage, which came out surprisingly clearer than when I watched it on my old VCR.

There were things I didn’t remember (like that UCLA jersey) and memories I could never forget (a lavish dinner at my great-uncle’s beautiful house in the city of Ishinomaki, which had been devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami). There were also familiar landmarks and sites, like Kyoto’s Kinkakuji, also known as the Golden Pavilion, which I eventually revisited when I returned to Japan as an adult.

“The point is to make sure we deliver quality results that are affordable,” says Nalbantian of Zstories. “The mission is to preserve those good memories because we know that each tape contains something that is sentimental to someone and that is deteriorating over time.”

AND time It’s one of the things I have now. I want to make sure I use it wisely as I move forward in my grief journey and reconnect with more loved ones. Resurrecting these memories is one of the best gifts I can give them and myself.