by Steve Pender

My father-in-law loved his world globe. Whenever an international news story caught his attention, he'd take the globe from its resting place, sit it in his lap and let his fingers play across the surface of the metal sphere until he found the country in which the story occurred.

He wasn't a well-traveled man and he didn't have a keen interest in geography, but he did have a natural curiosity about where other countries were located in relation to his native land, Poland, and his adopted country, the United States. Again and again his trusty globe helped him satisfy that curiosity.

Maps, whether globes like my father-in-law preferred or the folding paper kind that most of us use, help us navigate from here to there. They also serve as research tools, helping us locate specific places in our neighborhood, state, country and world. Maps can also serve as valuable visual elements in family history videos.

Many of our family stories involve migration and movement, whether from one side of the world to another or from one end of a country to the next. Quite often, the best way to visually communicate this movement in your video (especially if you're light on photos) is through maps.

For example, my paternal great-great grandparents hailed from neighboring towns in Ireland. The towns were very close to one another, but my great-great grandparents didn't meet until they'd both emigrated to the United States. Not having photos of their home villages, I employed a map of Ireland. Moving my camera slowly, I tilted up the map and halted at a point where the two town names were clearly visible. When I incorporated the shot into my video, I used a "spot shadow" effect to highlight the two names and show how close together they were. In the final video, the viewer sees the map while my grandmother's voice narrates the story of how my great-great grandparents met. We move to the names of the two towns, the camera move ends, and then the map goes dark, except for the names of my great-great grandparents' villages, which stand out in bold contrast and are easy to see.

I used another map recently to illustrate the World War II travels of one of my customers. He had spent a long time aboard ship heading to New Guinea. I found an appropriate map and used a steady and slow camera movement that gradually revealed New Guinea. In the video I turned the color map to black and white for a more vintage look. It really did the trick and gave me a much needed visual.

The video on which I'm currently working features a story involving a 1925 cross-country road trip. I'm already thinking about how to incorporate maps to help tell that tale.

Where to find the maps you need? Quite often, you can employ contemporary maps you find on the racks in your book store. You can use editing effects like colorizing the maps or turning them black and white to give them more period looks. If you need truly antique-looking maps, try consulting historical societies and libraries.

Maps can serve as valuable visual elements when telling your family story on video. Make sure to keep them in mind while charting the course of your next family history video.

Table of contents

Family Legacy Video offers a range of video production services, ranging from the Music 'n' Memories DVD™ to Budget and Deluxe Family Legacy Videos. But please don't think these are your only options. Maybe you'd like something similar to a Music 'n' Memories DVD™, but you'd like to add a brief interview or two, or some clips from your family film or video collection. Perhaps a "mini" Family Legacy Video only ten minutes long (instead of an hour) will meet your needs.

No matter what kind of family video you have in mind, feel free to contact
Family Legacy Video. We'll be happy to discuss your project and give you a quote.

Table of contents