My dad got his first 8 mm movie camera as a teenager in about 1937. He loved it and used it a lot to document his life. When he passed away in 2010, he left a large container of his movies and slides that ended up in my brother’s basement.

As a FamilySearch consultant, I have easy access to all the scanning equipment at the center. I decided that as long as I was there for my shift each week, I should scan my dad’s collection of home movies. At some point my dad had consolidated all the little reels into at least 20 large 8-inch reels of film that were no longer labeled. Each time I came to the FamilySearch center, I would grab one random reel and put it on the scanner machine. As I looked at the tiny screen on the scanner to see what was on the film, I could almost hear my dad speaking to me.  He was saying, “Today Beth Ann, we’re going to look at…….”

What a treasure it was to find the movie from Easter and Christmas 1938. I was able to see my great grandparents that I had never met, as well as see my grandparents as young parents. One day he said, “Beth Ann, today you’re going to see what it was like to be in the army at the end of WWII in France.” I saw Paris with its Eiffel Tower, young children scrounging in the garbage for food, other soldiers and the planes he helped service. My special treat was seeing a picture of his fiancé – my mother – on his cot. I was also able to experience his mission in Hawaii and see the beautiful people and places he loved.

As the oldest child, I was in all the family movies (I was the “star” in all the early ones). It was a blessing to feel the love he had for me and my other siblings as he chronicled our lives. I have memories of building an igloo with my dad when I was about 10 and I was thrilled to see it appear in our movies – and it really was a big igloo, taller than me and could hold several of us kids standing up in it. On the same reel were the memories of us connecting several of our sleds together and careening down our front hill and then down the street. What a great date with dad laughing and loving those fun memories together.

There were memories to see of the many Christmases at our grandparents with the cousins, all of us squinting because of the blinding spotlight he used when filming indoors. As well as Christmas mornings at home with my siblings rushing in to see what Santa had left for us.

Obviously, my dad was a devoted U of U fan because there was an entire reel devoted to a U of U Football game in about 1940. Pregame, game, halftime, etc., with the marching band and a live Indian Chief on a horse. That love for the U was passed down to me and our family.

One of the last dates with my dad was scanning the film of my wedding day. How wonderful to see us and our families at the Salt Lake Temple as we began our own family together. I could feel my dad’s joy and love for me on my wedding day.

What a blessing it has been for me to spend this time on dates with my dad and to experience what he filmed. It was easy to see and feel his love for me and my siblings. Now that I’ve digitalized these movies, I will be sharing them with my siblings and my children so they can have dates with dad too. Hopefully, they will learn about him, be touched by the memories he shared and feel his love for us. I hope that we can all feel a connection to our ancestors as we scan and digitalize memories to share with others.

Invest your time and connections with your family by visiting The Granite FamilySearch Center. Enhance your blessings by utilizing the center’s multitude of media equipment and services that allow for digital conversion. The center includes high speed photo scanners, flatbed scanners up to 11″ x 17″, slide scanners, and a book scanner for digitization of photographs, photo albums, documents, scrapbook pages, etc. They have VHS/8mm Video Tape converters, 8mm/Super 8 film converters, and Standard Audio Cassette converters. In addition, there are trained consultants available to assist in your learning process of digitalizing audios/film, slides, and photos.

– Beth Ann Hammer, consultant, Granite FamilySearch Center

Editor’s Note: There are quite a few FamilySearch centers that offer free digitizing services, from photos to audio cassettes to movie reels and more.