Hi MargyTwitt
welcome to this Apple (user-to-user) Community!
Am no expert in this area, yet your post to the coimmunity deserves some response.
Have some experience with the software to share. Replying also provides opportunity for others to reply too..
Your discussion thread replies may at least help you find a good starting point for your project.
Re: "Creating a video with photos and audio, including a page of written information
I want to create family history using photos, including in some frames recorded background and with the opportunity to insert pages of information."
Re: Best way to do this **I'm not real tech savvy.**.
Seems we can't have it both ways: " Best way to do this"
The best app to use (if you didn''t mind the learning process, or had someone to collaborate with may be Apple's free "Keynote" app. With Keynote, you can produce a "polished" presentation using a template:
Keynote User Guide for Mac - Apple Support
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**I'm not real tech savvy.**. Photos "Memories" would be simplest.
iMovie app may be quite ok, seeing you have earlier experience to draw upon.
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Re: Years ago I made iMovies for a start to this.
Bravo! iMovie is still available from Apple and is a free app:
You can click the "Table of Contents" (link at the top of page that opens from the link below) for "how to" articles
Here's the iMovie User Guide for Mac - Apple Support: to see whether it might suit.
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Re: I now see when I open up my photos , there is an option to create a memory movie.
Yes, and, to some extent you can: Personalize your memories in Photos on Mac - Apple Support
(It does "keep it simple - sort of")
Photos app: To share with others, or to do more to the project on another app:
You can: Export photos, videos, slideshows, and memories on Mac - Apple Support
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Re: I need to be able to time moving from one frame to another with timing different for each frame.
In iMovie: You generally set one overall time-duration for all the still slides / frames / photos in iMovie.
However longer times may be possible if you try copy and paste the same image in the timeline multiple times for the duration you want it visible. (Works in professional software like Premiere Pro)
I haven't tried that in Memories in Photos app, so do not know for sure how that would display.
(no "timeline" as such / would likely just repeat the slide instead of continuously displaying it?)
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Re: "Or - is there an app I should buy, or install that would be the best option - a sort of digital scrapbook movie.
I don't want to bother with fancy backgrounds or borders, etc and don't plan to do lots of editing to photos."
Apart from "Keynote" as mentioned abov:
Professional video-editing apps apps often do have much more finesse, and can be costly, and not easy to learn.
There are "open-source" free video-editing apps available, yet am not up-to-date with which one are worthwhile.
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Re: "Specifically, at this time this video will be shown on a TV screen during the open house for our 60th wedding anniversary."
Congratulations on the upcoming event! You may want it to play the content automatically to an audience, or loop it to play continuously for people who come and go, or you may want to play it manually as a presentation, controlling the timing as you go, Your preference may influence which app you will want to use.
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Re: "including a page of written information"
If you have Apple's free "Pages" app : you can use that for the written info., then export that Pages document as an image (JPEG file), (Use Fle > Export to > Images) so you use the written info. just like adding a photo to the video-project you create. Pages can provide "Landscape" (horizontal) or "Portrait" (vertical) layout.
All the best :-)
