Grandfather's Mystery 8mm film

 

Recently when we were cleaning up my grandfather's house when he had fallen ill and could not live on his own anymore, I came across a box of film reels at the bottom of the wardrobe. At the time I just assumed they were films his late brother, Don had made as he always seemed to be travelling overseas. I was going to leave them in the wardrobe, and move on.

While I was cleaning up, I did not hesitate in grabbing some of the slides that were around as I knew I had something that would scan them, but no idea what to do with the film. To explain the slides, they are basically film negatives before the film negatives that are commonly seen for cameras before anything digital. I will write another blog about those soon. Before heading home to Australia, I mentioned the film and speculated if they were my grandfathers. On closer look the labels mentioned locations like Portugal and a wedding with a journey from France to Iran. The wedding film I knew the story behind as there were also slides for this particular journey. I then knew for a fact they were my grandfather's films as he made a journey in 1962 from Paris to Turkey, Iran, India and onto Nepal by landrover. Not only were there slides for this, but also his travel diary from that period in time that ended in him gaining employment on a project on the Ord River in Western Australia.

The film didnt come home with me, but arrived weeks later with another family member who came over from New Zealand on holiday. I knew there were businesses that could convert the films to digital and by pure accident I ended up watching a Youtube video about a film scanner. I ordered that specific film scanner from Amazon and it actually arrived several days later.

I soon learnt that scanning the film onto a SD card was time consuming and I had to keep an eye on the process as there were breakages. The film was fragile in places and would break, but the worst was really annoying as the reel I was using was not big enough to hold full film and the first lot fell off the smaller reel. That took several hours trying to wind it back onto the big reel, so I could set the film to rewind. How I got around the breakages was to tie string to the film so it would stay together. Not what I am supposed to do, but it worked. For the length of time it took to scan the film, would give me around several minutes of film. I never edited them in any way as I was just after the pure recording. Something else I should point out is there was no sound. I did find that I had a spare large reel amongst the film, so I did not have to worry about more film falling off the smaller reel

I think I have scanned nearly all the films that I have in my possession and they were actually all of my grandfathers so I am glad that I have salvaged them from vanishing forever. Some of the films include trips between Australia and New Zealand especially during his time at North Kirra surf life saving club on the Gold Coast, His journey from New Zealand to England with stops along the way that included Singapore, Morocco, Egypt and England. This was all by ship before air travel so it is really something else. I am actually really happy to see what life was like back in the 1960s and 1970s, especially of different locations. You never know I might even find more film to record as I now have something to get it done on.

The Suitcase

 

Quite some time ago I wrote a blog about a mystery box full of family history items that I received from my grandparents. At the time I was impressed and astonished by what I had received. Along a similar topic and from the same location, I ended up with something similar to the mystery box, but just as interesting. I received a 24 kilogram suitcase full of family history records from New Zealand when mum returned from New Zealand.

 

There was quite a mix of records that was in the suitcase. If the kitchen sink could have fitted, then it might have come along too. At the time my grandfather had moved into a nursing home as he could no longer look after himself. Some of the records I had come across when we were cleaning up the house as no one knew when anyone would actually be there again. It wasn’t exactly an easy task. There were plenty of interesting records and there were many things that I never knew about as well.

 

Amongst the records I ended up with a large collection of slides that included overseas holidays and the house my grandfather built from the late 1970s and 1980s with additions over the years being included, photos, old bank passbooks that are no longer used and before decimal currency, several talking tapes that are like 8mm film, but are audio. Letters between my grandfather and his brother while he was in the USA, which would be pretty cool when I read them. An old 1945 newspaper that I have not opened up as it is fragile, a certificate from World War One about the loss of a family member on the Western Front. A certificate to say my grandfather had crossed the equator naming the vessel he was on at the time, and an old visa for Nepal that was part of an epic journey that began in France with friends.

 

Months later I am still going through the records as I have ended up digitising the 8mm film even though they are really fragile and prone to breaking. I have scanned most of the slides that include the house in various stages of being built, from when he was part of the North Kirra surf club in the early 1970s I think it was, various journeys that included to Iran, France and parts of the USA. Some of the photos I have of my grandfather, I placed into a photo album and was actually surprised I found some from his 21^st birthday. I have ended up with a little bit of a timeline. The good news about the slides are that they have dates and even marks pointing to the correct way up. Some even have where they are from, which is lucky.

 

I am taking my time organising the rest, but they will be sorted out eventually. The slides, photo negatives and 8mm film were something I thought I should focus on first. There is still something of my great grandfather’s that I still have to get developed, but unsure if it is film or photo reel from 1959. You never know what your grandparents are holding onto and could be of great personal value to yourself and others especially with the changing technology.