So many of our Christmas Tour Family live where there have been awful fires so far this year…….. New Mexico and Colorado and now Oklahoma. My heart cries for the dear folks who have lost their homes….. lost everything.
Today I ask YOU to imagine that you live in that house on the lower right…….. or even the house in flames in the top center. Are you safe from losing everything??? Of course not your house in these awful circumstances but how about your family history??
I still chat with folks who have not even one backup to their genealogy. Not even one! And, taking it a step further, if you have backups kept right next to your computer and all your notebooks are downstairs, will you be home when disaster strikes? And even if you are home, what will you save and how will you save it??
This question begs immediate attention in my opinion. I would counsel you to stop any further researching until you have crafted a plan to save your family history……. both the data and the artifacts (like grandma’s picture)………… from disaster. There are dozens of ideas and what works for one might not work for you. But it is vital that YOU do something NOW, TODAY while disaster is not at your door.
Want to share ideas???Stories? Experiences?
Donna, aka Mother Hen, until next week.
I have scanned all our old family pictures, letters, documents, etc and taken digital photos of items that cannot be scanned such as old dishes, vases, etc, and have written short stories about each item onto a 4×6 canvas so they could be printed out photo-size. For each of the old photos, I also formatted a copy onto a 4×6 canvas and added info such as who, what, when, where, etc so future generations would know the story behind the picture. Now everyone in the family has cd’s of their family history. Also, I have put as much genealogy as possible onto my family tree at ancestry.com, along with photos and documents as another form of backup.
I have my 30 years of research and photos moved to a storage unit until our fire season is over. I am in the middle of scanning and have backed up continuously on various kinds of backups. I am now checking into the “cloud” to see what is best for me.
Phyllis: Could you please explain in more detail about “canvas, etc.” What do you mean by canvas? Thank you.
“…and have written short stories about each item onto a 4×6 canvas so they could be printed out photo-size. For each of the old photos, I also formatted a copy onto a 4×6 canvas and added info such as who, what, when, where, etc so future generations would know the story behind the picture.”