VoiceQuilt Featured on the Ancestry Blog

Voices from the Past

by Maureen Taylor

"I have some cassette tapes of my parents and their siblings and cousins born at and near the beginning of the twentieth century. I would love to be able to have them on CD to preserve them and in computer files to share with other family members via e-mail."

If you´re like this reader, you have recordings of loved ones. In some cases they were left as deliberate oral histories, but you may also have spontaneous recordings on answering machines.  From Edison´s first attempts to record voice to today´s MP3 explosion there are generations of recordings in need of being saved. The Library of Congress has an online article, Cylinder, Disc and Tape Care in a Nutshell with tips on preserving originals. But what should you do if you want to share these recordings with others? Help is out there.

Preserving Your Recordings
I recommend a firm that specializes in transferring audio. You can search the Web or look in your local phone book for companies, but make sure they deliver a product and know how to handle your original. I like to ask for customer references in advance of enlisting their services.

One such company is Photo Archival. Their prices start at $10.95 per cassette tape with editing services offered for a slight premium. They also offer a duplicate service--a "safe deposit box" for your recordings if you want to keep backup batch at a safe location.

VoiceQuilt
If you treasure a particular set of voice messages, consider VoiceQuilt. VoiceQuilt offers gifts that can be personalized with voice recordings and voicemail messages. "A VoiceQuilt looks and works like an heirloom music box," said Hope Flammer, founder of VoiceQuilt. "But instead of playing music when the lid is opened, the keepsake plays voice messages from family and friends."

The company recently introduced a VoiceMail Rescue Service. Some very happy grandparents can receive keepsakes that play touching voice messages from children and grandchildren--messages that were previously trapped in answering machines. For a twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, VoiceQuilt recently extracted the wedding vows and pastor's remarks from a cassette tape and placed them in a keepsake.

If this inspires you to create a new voice recording, VoiceQuilt´s selection of gift items makes a memorable present. Last year I had relatives call in with Valentine´s Day wishes for my parents. All they had to do was dial a toll-free number and speak. Now my Mom only has to lift the lid to hear their messages. I also have the recording as a digital file to transfer to CD or send to cousins.

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