Digitally Resurrecting Family Audio Memories
Since I’m a dad who likes to “play with media” and act as a family “storychaser,” we’ve recorded a LOT of audio and video over the years. I’m in the midst of a HUGE project to migrate at least 38 different websites / domains / subdomains from the web host I’ve used since 2018 (8 years ago) to a new one. My server plan on the new web host has twice as much RAM memory and will cost less than half what the old one did on a monthly basis. I documented my previous web host migration journey in my March 2018 post, “16 Years of Web Hosting Changes with WordPress and Other Web Platforms: The Lessons Continue,” and wrote a little about the new, AI-assisted methods I’m using now in my June 2026 post, “Archive WordPress with HTTrack.” I also wrote (what I expect will be) my LAST post on speedofcreativity.org last week, “23 Years, and Still Blogging,” sharing a little more about this massive website migration project that has taken multiple weeks and TONS of hours.
One of the great things in this laborious and time-consuming process has been successfully “digitally resurrecting” old media content which had gone offline and was ALMOST lost to history, and our family specifically. Last night, I finished the restoration of my SOUNDS blog, which is a website I started back in 2011 after I published my first book, “Playing with Media: Simple Ideas for Powerful Sharing.”
The first post my sounds blog is 15 years old and has an audio recording from my 2nd of 4 trips to China. It’s titled, “Shanghai Subway Walking.” The last post on the sound blog is “On Eagle’s Wings,” which is the recording of our middle child, Sarah, singing at the funeral and memorial service of my mother on February 18, 2023.
Tonight I shared links to several other audio / sound recordings of significance to our immediate family, which include:
- Let It Shine (An April 2012 recording from a musical at our Edmond church, featuring a short solo by Rachel 28 seconds in)
- Reading Narnia at Bedtime (Shelly reading “The Horse and His Boy” to Rachel in October 2011 before bed)
- Hungry Sea Lions (a recording from an exciting moment at the Oklahoma City Zoo, during a school field trip with Rachel in October 2011)
There are MANY more recordings here (like 73 in all I think) but those are some standouts tonight that have special family significance. I’ve not only moved this site to the new web host, but I’ve also converted it to “static HTML,” taking it off WordPress and therefore reducing the vulnerability of both the site and my entire web server to malicious attacks from bots and bad actors. I hope to preserve these audio recordings for posterity: Our grandkids and even their kids!
One other “digital resurrection” related to family media from this past week is the “String and Me” YouTube channel and archived WordPress website (with some archived comments as well) which I helped our son, Alex, create back in 2008, when he was 11 years old. He created his string figure YouTube video series 18 years ago, and the most popular video, “Jacobs Ladder String Figure,” now has almost 200K views. Unfortunately we never turned on ‘monetization’ for that channel!
It’s wonderful to have recordings like this of our kids’ voices when they were so young, and also as they got older and shared their musical talents with our community.
There are many more audio recordings to still work on “digitally resurrecting…” I think I have downloaded versions of all the “AudioBoo” recordings we made as a family somewhere…. and probably more. Before my original VoiceThread account went offline or the recordings were erased, I did download some of those and upload them to my primary personal YouTube channel. Some of my favorites include:
“Merry Christmas 2007 from the Fryers” (17.5 min)
“Getting a New Haircut” (2 min, from 2003)
Have you conducted oral history interviews with members of your family? If not, you should! I have resources about this on storychasers.org, on ShowWithMedia.com, and on my media literacy lessons / curriculum website. I’ve collected oral history recordings from our family on history.wesfryer.com/oral-history, and will be working on a larger family geneology project (including oral history interviews / links) in the months ahead, before our next August 2027 Fryer Family Reunion in Cody, Wyoming.
If you don’t take time NOW to record the voices of your family, who will? You can become your family’s own “digital witness!”