Services

Every day you live your legacy. Most people have a list of projects they would like to create in their lifetime. Among the most talked about projects is recording stories from the past with older relatives and friends. Personal stories bring life to our history.

These stories are often of a life or from a life. They can be a memoir; tribute; a series of life stories; autobiography; biography; tribute; oral history; anniversary gifts; military history; legacy letter; ethical will; personal letters that supplement a last will and testament or financial document; intentions of charitable giving; or an archive of information. That’s where we can help.

LIFE STORY MANUSCRIPT

With a series of life story audio interviews conducted, we will transcribe to write a professionally composed manuscript, based on publishing industry standards and ready for professional printing.  Costs are estimated based on hours of recorded interviews, plus any additional research needed, to develop a manuscript.

Keep in mind: For every hour of interview we record, another 40 hours are spend writing these life stories into manuscript form.

LIFE STORY INTERVIEWS

We conduct life story audio interviews on topics that families want to record. They can easily be a fun collection of stories you’d like to preserve. On average, interview sessions are two hours in length using a customized set of questions. They can be conducted in person or online. Interviews may be transcribed to help you organize a book manuscript later, reminisce further, or storyboard multimedia projects. Costs are billed per interview session plus transcriptions

MEMOIR

After conducting several life story interviews – an average 10-12 hours of recorded time – we will organize and compose a professionally-written manuscript, based on publishing industry standards, that tells your life story in memoir form. Costs are estimated based on interview hours, research, additional interviews of other people if needed, and follow-up to create a print ready manuscript

Keep in mind: For every hour of interview we record, another 40 hours are spend writing these life stories into manuscript form.

FAMILY LOVE LETTERS

These legacy letters, also known as ethical wills, are a sentimental way to pass on your values, beliefs and life lessons. They can be used for celebrations; as a speech; to tell a short story; or to supplement your legal documents, such as a last will and testament or intent of charitable giving. Legacy letters are a great way to begin recording personal history when you’re not yet sure if you’d like to conduct life story interviews or write a memoir. Think about writing several. Legacy letter sessions can be conducted online or in person. Costs are billed per letter.

BOOK PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT

When your story has been transformed into a full manuscript, we’ll help you chose the best option to finish your project, from a quick-copy printing to full book production working with a designer and publishing company.

PHOTO ORGANIZATION & DIGITIZATION

Preserve the images of your family history before they deteriorate. Share them with others. Our mobile personal historian service will organize and digitize your photos, slides, or negatives on location at your home or office.  These projects can easily be done in concert with estate planning and consolidation. Files are scanned in jpg or tif formats and presented on either flash drives or external hard drives. Costs billed hourly with a two-hour minimum.

ARCHIVING

As each generation begins downsizing its household belongings – the sentimental fodder of a lifetime – it often becomes exhausting processing the endless stream of boxes, drawers, attics and closets. It’s easy to lose sight of the memories that matter, which are tucked into everything. These memories tell the stories of how our ancestors lived. Without organizing and documenting them, the stories could easily be lost in their retelling from one generation to the next.

We recommend you create a family archive, where the most important family history is preserved. An archiving program looks at where and how you store your family history. We focus on reorganization, rehousing into archival grade storage materials, and digitization using the 3-2-1 method. This can easily be done in phases to fit your schedule and budget. As well, when producing life story books and memoir we often delve into these files to help illustrate your story.

Utilizing our professional scanning equipment offered by Kodak, Epson, and Couragent, Documented Legacy sets up a mobile facility right at your location. We simply need a lighted place to work, and access to an electrical outlet. Photographed and digitized files are scanned in jpg, tif or pdf formats and presented on either flash drives or external hard drives. These are your heirlooms; Let’s preserve them carefully. Costs billed hourly with a two-hour minimum

Note: We advise clients to scan their images at a minimum of 600 dpi, when possible, to accommodate the high resolutions of today’s electronic screens. A second set of scans can also be done at a lower resolution for small projects and social media sharing.

WORKSHOPS

We host several workshops to help people begin writing their life’s experiences; organize their important documents and photos; create an archiving program at home or work; and manage the process of producing a published book. Together, we discuss the value of recording one’s story; how to begin the process; getting organized; pacing your memory;  collaborating with others; using life stories to support other legal documents or charitable initiatives; using photos and other documents; filling in gaps with other research; and when to share your project with others. Workshops can also be done as a charitable fundraiser.

Click here to view our upcoming workshops

GIVING BACK

Documented Legacy, LLC supports a number of charitable causes throughout  our region. If you would like to schedule a life story or legacy letter workshop as a fundraiser Documented Legacy will gladly donate proceeds to your organization with a registration minimum of six participants.  For more information contact mary@documentedlegacy.com

PRIVACY POLICY & WHY SOME PROJECTS AREN’T SHOWCASED.

At Documented Legacy protecting the privacy of our clients is our principal concern. Special attention is paid to ensure that all sensitive materials are secure and confidential. Any materials shared by a client for scanning, photographing or for research purposes are protected to the best of our ability against damage from theft, fire, loss, abuse, neglect, or destruction by other natural disasters.

Documented Legacy will not identify client work without a client’s permission. Some projects are for private production only, and a client may not want it shared in our marketing efforts. As such, Documented Legacy respects that right to privacy. We may, however, summarize a scope of work as it relates to a project type without using any identifying information that would connect it to a given person, business or organization.

Documented Legacy does not collect personal information from visitors to this website unless this information is directly provided by the visitor or through the visitor’s browser.

Any visitors or members to this website must agree to use the website for lawful purposes and are prohibited from posting on the website any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, obscene or otherwise objectionable material of any kind, including, but not limited to, any material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law.

 

DIGITAL MILLENNIUM COPYRIGHT ACT (DMCA) NOTICE

Documented Legacy LLC respects the intellectual property of others and we ask that visitors to our website do the same. Original content and stock photography posted on this website may not be used or reproduced in any manner without permission. This Website may link you to other sites on the Internet (“Linked Sites”). Please know that Documented Legacy has no responsibility over the content of other websites.