Tutorials

Family Search Video Tutorials

Tutorial: The basics of adding memories of all forms to your FamilySearch Memories Pages

What’s New at FamilySearch

Getting Started in Genealogy

Create Your Personal Family Website

Does creating your very own website sound intimidating? Actually, it has become quite easy! All it takes is a tool to help you create your webpages, and a way to put your website on the internet. There are many free and paid tools that let you create your webpages. I'll show you an easy-to-use tool here - and it's free. It's Google Sites. If you have a GMail account, you already have access to Google Sites. If not, you'll need to set up a free GMail account.

The added bonus is that Google will also publish your website on the internet so others can access it online. Just follow the instructions in the following videos. The videos' intended audiences are educators, but either one will give you all the essential steps for creating your own family website.

Tools for adding audio memories to your family website

I remember when I was a child, my dad would pull out this old reel to reel tape recorder and record us. We thought it was pretty corny at the time, but now those recordings are treasured memories of an earlier time. Wouldn't it be fun to record stories of your own lives, or those of your parents and grandparents and then share them with your children? That's what this section is all about! Let's get started! Just remember, as you save your audio for your family website, MP3 files are the most common format used on the internet!

Fortunately, technology has moved forward and made it quite easy to record and share these audio recordings. All you need is a computer, smart phone, or tablet. Here are some free audio recording tools...

For Computers: OcenAudio:

ocenaudio is a cross-platform, easy to use, fast and functional audio editor. It is the ideal software for people who need to record audio, and edit and analyze audio files without complications. ocenaudio also has powerful features that will please more advanced users. ocenaudio is available for all major operating systems: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. This means you can always rely on ocenaudio on any computer. Here is a tutorial I created about using ocenaudio.

For Android Devices: Voice Recorder:

For Android phones and tablets: Voice recorder application is totally free. It is simple and easy to use. You can reliably record your meetings, personal notes, speeches, lectures, songs. There is no time limits. This application can record most of your sound and voice. You can record a business meeting, a lecture, an interview.

For iOS Devices: Voice Memos

All iPhones come pre-loaded with Voice Memos, a voice recording app that has a nice array of features that work well for most basic users including file trimming if the video is a little too long. You can easily find this app by going to your iPhone’s “extras” icon on the home screen. Seeing as this voice recorder app is already pre-installed, it is a good place to start if you are just getting started in the voice recording world, but as you increase your skills you will more than likely want to upgrade to a better, more versatile app.

Photo Restoration Tools

Original photo in FamilySearch

After using photo restoration tools

Wouldn't it be great if we had tools that could remove spots and scratches, sharpen up blurry faces, and color old black and white photos of our family? Well, you can. I will share some of them here, using photos of my extended family I found and downloaded on FamilySearch. On YouTube, you can find tutorials on using any of the websites and applications I've listed here...

Sharpen and focus blurry faces...

CodeFormer: Robust Face Restoration and Enhancement Network is a free website that lets you upload a photo, restores faces, and then let's you download the result
MyHeritage: A commercial website that enhances photos, colorizes them, and and can even animate them. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can obtain a free login. It also syncs with FamilySearch.
Photoshop: A subscription application for Macs and PCs has a new Photo Restoration filter..

The following photos are before/after views of what these tools can do!

Original photo

After using Codeformer

Original photo

After using Photoshop

Photo Manipulation Tools to remove scratches, spots, and more...

PhotoPea Advanced Image Editor: A free website that is similar to Photoshop.
GIMP: A free, downloadable application for Macs and PCs that is similar to Photoshop.
Img2GO: Free Online Image Converter. Edit and convert image files online from your browser.
MyHeritage: A commercial website that enhances photos, colorizes them, and and can even animate them. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can obtain a free login. It also syncs with FamilySearch.
Photoshop: A subscription application for Macs and PCs has a new Photo Restoration filter, now in the Beta version, but soon to be released in the standard version of Photoshop.

The following photos are before/after views of what these tools can do!

Original Photo

After using these tools. I used Photopea on this one.

Photo Colorization Tools...

ImageColorizer
CapCut Photo Colorizer
Hotspot.ai Photo Colorizer
IMG2GO: is a free site that has a number of tools, including a colorizer.
MyHeritage: A commercial website that enhances photos, colorizes them, and and can even animate them. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can obtain a free login. It also syncs with FamilySearch.
Photoshop: A subscription application for Macs and PCs has a new Photo Restoration filter, now in the Beta version, but soon to be released in the standard version of Photoshop.

Article: "Top 15 AI Photo Colorizers"

The following photos are before/after views of what these tools can do! Sometimes the colors aren't perfect, so then I use one of the photo manipulation tools to recolor the areas that weren't just right.

Original photo

Colorized using Hotspot.ai Photo Colorizer

Photo Animation Tools...

MyHeritage: A commercial website that enhances photos, colorizes them, and and can even animate them. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can obtain a free login. It also syncs with FamilySearch.

Vaunda Hannah Hawkes.mp4

The workflow that I use for restoring photos...

Original tintype photo of Agnes Eudora Davenport, my great-great-grandaunt..

Step 1: Use tools to get rid of scratches, spots, and adjust light and dark values.

Step 2: Use tool to focus the face.

Step 3 (Optional): Use colorization tool.

Video Tutorials for restoring photos using free online tools...

How to download a photo from FamilySearch (0 min. 31 sec.)
How to open a photo in the free Photopea online photo editor (0 min. 44 sec.)
How to zoom in, zoom out, and fit to window in Photopea (0 min. 31 sec.)
How to crop an image in Photopea (0 min. 54 sec.)
How to desaturate (remove color) from a photo in Photopea (0 min. 24 sec.)
Adjusting lights, darks, and midtones in Photopea (1 min. 3 sec.)
How to remove spots and scratches in Photopea. (2 min. 31 sec.)
How to remove even worse scratches in Photopea (no audio - 6 min. 52 sec)
How to export your photo in Photopea (0 min. 58 sec.)
How to close the image after saving it in Photopea (0 min. 11 sec.)
How to sharpen faces using free, online tools in your internet browser (2 min. 42 sec.)
(Optional) How to colorize your photo using artificial intelligence tools online (9 min. 42 sec.)

This page was last updated on February 19, 2024