Preserve and Re-Live Your Family’s Memories

Thank you to Legacybox for sponsoring this post. The first 25 people to use the code FOOD at checkout will receive 40% off their Legacybox!

If your family is like mine, you probably have a ton of memories, from VHS tapes to old film, that you’d love to relive but don’t have the proper equipment to watch. Enter: Legacybox, a company that will digitize your outdated home videos/films and photos so you can relive them again and again.

For years, I’ve been hearing about how our family has a bunch of really old films recorded by my grandfather, so when Legacybox reached out to me about doing a review of their service my whole family was pumped to give it a shot. We couldn’t wait to see what the heck was on all those old films!

Matt and I had dinner at my aunt and uncle’s house to retrieve some of the films, which were gathering dust in their basement. We were all shocked to find that the very first of the films was actually from the 1920’s and 1930’s – wow!!

We found about 40 old family films spanning from the 1920’s until the 1990’s, so we figured this blog review was the perfect test run to digitize a sampling of them, seeing how the quality was and if it was worth paying to get the rest of them converted. Clearly I had to throw this one into the mix right away! ;)

Legacybox set me up with their “Family” kit for this review, which includes digitization of up to 10 tapes or films or 10 sets of 25 photos. You can also mix and match and do a variety of the options!

The Legacybox kit was really user friendly and included a detailed guide, a return label for round-trip shipping, a crush proof box, and a personal concierge so you can talk to an expert any time with questions.

All you do is fill the box with your tapes, films, and pictures, and then send it back in the same box it arrived in using the pre-paid label.

Barcoding with online order tracking ensures your memories stay safe throughout the whole process, and you simply place a label on each of your items going in the box. (There is also an option to add additional items at a discounted price – just put labels on them and include them in the box!)

In addition to the family films, I also threw a few of my old VHS tapes in the mix, including one of my tandem skydive from 2001. ;) I was so excited to watch that again! (The skydive peeps spelled my name wrong on the label, but I’ll forgive them.)

All packed up and ready to go!

A few weeks later our originals arrived back, along with our digitized content in two formats: individual DVDs and a thumb drive with everything on it (loved this – easy to share!). Everything was nicely labeled for us too!

I was so excited to watch everything. The skydiving video was so fun to relive – I uploaded it to YouTube so you guys can watch it too if you like. :) It features an 18 year old Anne who has not yet discovered the fact that layers make her hair look way better and less puffy. ;) Enjoy!

Link to video: https://youtu.be/Z7jGLEW3gAw

As for the family videos, I was really curious to see how the quality would be given that some were filmed nearly 100 years (!!) ago. We organized a family viewing party this past weekend as part of my uncle’s birthday festivities to see how they came out, and you guys – this was SO cool. The quality was amazing, especially considering how old the films were, and it was so fun to get a glimpse into the past like this. My grandfather (who passed away in 2008) recorded all the films, and they feature him as a little kid with his parents in wonderful flapper-esque outfits, him with my grandmother (who was there with us on Saturday watching the films) when they were in their 20s as newlyweds living in Europe, all the way through my mom and her brothers’ childhood. Here are some still shots from the films (I just took photos of the TV while we were watching) featuring my grandparents – and even my great grandfather in the bottom right photo – he’s the one on the left playing guitar!

As I mentioned earlier, we also had one of the films from the 1980’s converted featuring yours truly as a baby. ;) Hello, world!

I can’t say enough good things about our experience with Legacybox. My family has already decided we’re going to convert the remaining 40+ films on our own dime through them and can’t wait to watch the rest of the movies! I highly recommend checking out this service – they did a great job and I think the price is very reasonable for what you get and compared to similar companies, too.

Happy memory-ing, and don’t forget that the first 25 people to use the code FOOD at checkout will receive 40% off their Legacybox!