One is the Loneliest Number

 When it comes to Family Trees, Backups, DNA and Research we need to take a "more is better" approach.

Trees~
 Where do you keep your family tree? Are you an online tree, computer database or a file cabinet/binder person?
Personally, I use all 3 methods. I have my family tree on ancestry.com, findmypast.com, myheritage.com, FamilySearch.com and wikitree.com.
 My tree is also in a database on my computer. I use Legacy Family Tree to store my ancestor's information, pictures, and documents.
Each family has a file in my cabinets to store original documents and other important information.
 Binders for each surname contain copies of pertinent information and are put together so that others can pick them up and look through them to discover their family's story.
 Why not just one online tree? Having my family included in the   databases available will help me connect with more people.  Perhaps the person who has the information on my Great Great Grandmother has uploaded their tree to one and not the other.
 By not spreading my tree around, I am limiting my cousin connections.
  Why have other storage methods if I have my tree on so many places on the web?  Simply to ensure I can always access it.
 Have you ever tried to pull up one of your trees and the site is down, or your internet is having issues and isn't working?
 My Legacy program functions as my working database as I research and find evidence about my ancestors. I can write as I go in the notes section and make sure I have followed the correct steps in finding the answers to my questions before I attach someone to an online tree. It also is a backup in case my internet goes out.
Filing cabinets serve as storage for originals and information that I haven't processed yet and the binders put it all together for those who would rather have a book to flip through.

Backups~
 While my files and binders and online trees serve as a type of backup, they are not always up to date. They are not a substitute for making sure everything - pictures, documents, and data downloaded to my computer files or added to my Legacy Family Tree program- is protected from a computer crash.
 Trying to cover all my bases, I use Dropbox.com, and Backblaze.com to send all my genealogy and other data to the cloud. If I experience a crash or loss of information, it can easily be restored. When buying a new computer everything can be reinstalled while I am busy doing something else.
 An external hard drive is updated on the first of the month, Genealogy Back Up Day, and kept in a safe place. Thumb drives, while not as stable, store my important files too. I keep one on my keychain. Just in case.
These fulfill the advice of having the information in at least 3 different places to avoid data loss.

DNA~
Have you taken a DNA test? Again, this is another area where one is not the best solution to connecting with family members.
There is no way of knowing where others have tested and if the if the matches you need can be found on one particular site. Each company has a different database of testers.
 Spreading your DNA around to other places will put your information out there for a better chance of finding those matches.
Gedmatch.com is a free way to upload your raw DNA from any of the testing companies and add your results to a greater variety of people.

One can also be a lonely number when it comes to our research. Often we tend to work by ourselves and not take advantage of networking with other genealogists. From Genealogy Societies to Social Media, there are those who can help us with our brick walls, transcription of a hard to read document or use as a sounding board as we work through the research process.
 The best is having someone to share those 'happy dance' moments when we need those who understand to celebrate with us.

When it comes to protecting our information and reaching the greatest potential of connections, one is the loneliest number.
Get out there and spread it around!

Cheri

Are You Doing Thorough Back Ups of ALL of Your Work?

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So, you have a blog, you have web sites, and you back them up, right??  Well, good.

And, you have a data base for your family research, and you back it up.  And, you have your images and documents linked to your data base, you have those files backed up. Well good.

And, you have mega files and photos and scans on your hard drive waiting for work to be done, it’s heaven having all those files.  Really it is.  You have them backed up, right??  Well, good.

And, you are active in Social Media and you have backups of that as well, right??  Well, good.

And, you have some nice extensive biographies on some of your Find A Grave memorials, and you have those backed up too, right??  

NOOOOOOOO??

Yea, really, you need to back up your Find A Grave Memorials, if you care about the work you did creating those memorials.

Here is how I know.

Last month, I got caught up in a mess with Find A Grave over old memorials transferred to me by a disgruntled “graver”.  The Find A Grave staff decided to restore thousands of memorials that had been deleted by this disgruntled “graver”.    Trouble is the “graver” had transferred just a very few of their memorials to me before they deleted those other thousands and left Find A Grave.

Now, the details really just don’t matter much, but, when Find A Grave restored those thousands of memorials, they over wrote and took over the few memorials I had received.

Trouble was, I had spent several days writing long biographic stories for those memorials.

Lots of time was spent, lots of energy.  I was happy with the work.

I did NOT save copies of the work, anywhere.  I mean, WHY??  They were on Find A Grave, I had care of the memorials, and all was well with the world.

Until.

Short of it, after much angst, the memorials were returned to my care.  Short of it, the biographical stories were gone.  Find A Grave, apologized but, could not restore the biographies.

And, several days worth of work, gone, zap, poof.  Yes, days, as in 10 hour days.

Lesson: back up everything you do.  Back up your data bases, your images, your documents, your scanned photos, your stories, even the ones on Find A Grave.

Back it all up.  And, oh, ya, more than one backup.  You probably have that routine down, you have files in the “cloud” and additional backups on other media.  External hard drives are inexpensive these days and are small too.  Many of us have more than one external hard drive, and many of us store at least one of those hard drives off site. Translated that means, you have a full set of data backups stored in a safety deposit box, or one of your children stores a hard drive at their home, or maybe you take a backup drive to your place of employment.  (Oh, and make sure you update that off site hard drive at regular intervals.  Once a decade is not considered a regular interval in my book.)

I personally have 3 external hard drives, one is used for a full set of data backups made on the 1st of the month, the second is used for a full set of data backups made on the 15th.  The third hard drive is used for overwriting files on a daily basis.  If I change a file during the day, I overwrite it on that hard drive.  I take that hard drive with me everywhere.  Yes, everywhere.  It goes into a small case and into my back pack and when I leave the stick built or Tana, it goes with me.  That hard drive has been on a uncounted number of shopping trips and even a hike or two through some of our beautiful National Parks.

So, are you doing thorough back ups of your work?  Of ALL your work?

* Both photos on this post are of my every day backup hard drive.   First one is in the little travel case I found for it, actually a case for a GPS unit.  The second photo shows the hard drive, cord in the "travel" mode.

** Yours truly and hubby have been traveling steady for several weeks now.  I was woefully behind in many things genealogical, including reading this blog.  After I wrote this and posted and scheduled, I took a few minutes to read the posts from the last several weeks.  It seems that several of your contributors are thinking about similar subjects.  I just found that quite interesting, and thought I would share.

Now, carry on, and preserve your work.  Good luck.

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Preservation

Why we should all be concerned about preservation?

Yesterday (Tuesday 10th March) there was a fatal road traffic collision on the road that I use everyday to get to and from my place of work. Although, I was not an eyewitness, I saw the immediate aftermath from the other carriageway, whilst on my way to work and was shaken and saddened to think that someone was going to be hearing bad news later that day. 

Experiences such as these can bring home the uncertainties of life.

We all like to believe we will live in to old age but even the youngest of us should be aware that we only have a limited time in which to do things.

Geoff Rasmussen who hosts the Legacy Family Tree Webinars usually finishes with the saying "Life is short, do genealogy first". Would that we could all do this. 

If there is one resolution we should all have made this year it is this, I will endeavour to get my genealogy organized so that anyone can pick up where I left off.

Those who have taken up the challenge of Thomas MacEntee and embarked on the Genealogy Do Over are to be commended as are those who have not been in a position to need to take up the challenge. Many (including me) will have started with good intentions and other commitments have somehow got in the way.

Have we set ourselves unrealistic goals? Maybe

We all need to work at our own pace and the most important thing we can do is to leave something that our families will value rather than a jumbled mass of documents and unlabeled old photographs.

How do I know that what I have will be of use to others?

We have records and photographs that we have inherited (unless we are very unlucky) and those that we have found or created in our lifetime. 

We need to make it clear how these are important to our family and each of us will have our own way of doing this.

Computers and the associated technology can help us in storing and collecting our sources of information but we need to consider how easy it will be for others to access these in the future. 

So keeping up to date or finding ways to future-proof our sources is important however we store the information.

Family history programs can help us pull together the information we have found and display it in a format which shows our connections to our ancestors but they may not be supported indefinitely.

Whilst we may want to become paperless we must all consider how we back up what we have. 

Disasters can occur and we may lose what we have collected if we only have one copy or everything is in one place.

• Label things clearly
• Back things up
• Think about who will need access to your information

What legacy do you want to leave?
How are you going to pass your work on to the future generations?
Who gets your records? 

Can't I just leave my records to the relevant archive?

When Did You Last Visit an Archive ?

Much is made of the reduction of hours or closure of an archive and with a worldwide recession there has been great pressure on public services to reduce the cost of their services. On the back of this the paymasters will be looking at the footfall for these places.

National Archives will usually be safe as they have such large collections of interest to various researchers. However smaller regional or city/town repositories may not appeal to such a wide audience and the staffing costs will be an area where they will see reducing costs as a possibility.

So if you thought you could leave your work to the local archive you may have to think again.
Unless you have something unique which can stand the test of time such as a printed book you may find that much of the results of your hard work will become unusable or inaccessible.

Move with the technology and present your findings to the younger generations in your family. 
Consider how you store those unique items.
Make sure that somebody knows what you want to happen to your research.