A friend of mine, actually an uncle of my grandsons, has
recently been the recipient of his aunt’s voluminous family history files and
is now going through the process of organizing and storing them. His Aunt Marion
worked for decades assembling information about their family, storing most of
it on paper, though. She was never really efficient or familiar with computers
and genealogy programs. So Sandy’s task of preserving the data is immense.
He has asked how I keep my files and what programs I use as
he is aware of the years I have put into finding family information. He does
access my family data on our personal website which uses The Next Generation software – which
I do heartily recommend for people who want to put their material online and
accessible to other family members.
Sandy is like many people, using laptops as a primary method
of working. I still have a desktop that is in use all day, every day, with two
large monitors so that I can open several files and websites at the same time.
I also like the ideas of being able to see more of the files I am working at
and using a separate keyboard. It’s just the way I work.
Sandy has asked my advice about family history software and
computer equipment on a few occasions. I don’t usually write here about how to
organize data, as there are so many others who offer such great advice. But I
thought I would answer his questions as part of a blog post and share some of
my thoughts on organization and preservation of data with other readers. So
here are some of Sandy’s questions and comments over the past several weeks along
with my replies to him:
Wayne: I was informed
that you have now taken charge of all Marion’s boxes of family files. Over the
years she gave me lists and summaries of family information but not copies of
actual BMD or other documents. Through my own subscriptions I have downloaded a
few documents, mostly censuses. But I have not spent a lot of time with the
families.
Sandy: I have huge numbers of BMDs and many other
original documents and letters. Many
early photos as well. This family treasure is open to you of course. I will
need to email you quite extensively in a few months from now on the best
equipment to buy and how best to arrange this material. I figure it will take
me several years to input everything, but that is what i am going to do. I look
forward to doing the work and am now taking a first look at everything. I have
already started to add much data to MyHeritage
set up. You have access to this I believe. God knows I have grabbed hundreds of
pieces of data from your info online!
Wayne: I am happy to help with any organization suggestions.
I was glad to hear that Marion’s vast treasure trove of data was not trashed
and that someone like you with an interest in family history took it all over. Yes
I do have access to your family tree on MyHeritage but have to confess I have
spent practically no time looking at it. Just did so and discovered so many
photos of your ancestors as a start. Wonderful! It does look like you have
a great beginning with your family tree on MyHeritage.
In terms of sharing
documents and files, we might set up a Dropbox
where each of us can put copies and take copies. I have done away with a lot of
paper files now, except for the originals that have come down through family
members. They are, in my mind, the same as antiques and physical memorabilia and need to be kept.
Any documents I have found online are stored digitally now, in specific family
files, on my computer – and backed up
offsite in the cloud, of course (never forget to do that).
I only have my entire
tree on our Shepheard family site – although it needs a bit of updating. I did
end up with a copy on MyHeritage years ago because I had stored it with a
predecessor company that was taken over by MyHeritage. It is woefully
out-of-date but I still get notices of matches regularly through my
subscription. Unfortunately many of those matches are wrong or I never hear
from other tree-owners when I ask questions or confirm matches.
I do regularly visit Ancestry and have found several relatives
on some trees there. I have made a few contacts there with who I have shared
information. I also have had (related) people contact me through my blog posts
look me up, as well as through the websites I maintain for my Online Parish Clerk volunteer
position.
Anyway I am looking
forward to learning more about my grandsons’ family through you.
Sandy: I have purchased a MacBook Air. It is quite
small, but I do my work on a small table in my bedroom or on my lap in the
living room on my Lazyboy. I also have
an apple iPad and will probably buy an iPhone as well. Apple does not seem to
like sharing with android, so, I will go all Mac.
Wayne: Good luck with your organization of all the
new data. There are some genealogical programs suitable for Mac users of course
if you want to keep your data on your own machine where, incidentally and most
importantly, it can be backed up to one of the cloud servers. If you are not
already connected to something like Carbonite or one of the others then I very
strongly recommend it. I have had a computer crash before and lost hundreds of
files and emails I had saved, including my latest family history summary. I do
not want to go through that again, especially with all the data and photos I
have stored digitally. My daughter has us set up on Carbonite which automatically scans our
computers and updates regularly. I am copying this email to her in case you
want to consult with her about the technology.
I do recommend that
you scan all documents and photos and keep them on your own computer or other
device and so they can be backed up. The originals should be placed in archival
binders, file folders or boxes to preserve them. All my family photos are now
in binders for safekeeping and future access. You may have read my blog post on
Digitizing
Memories a few months ago. All of our immediate family albums have been
scanned and I am in the process of uploading them to Google Photos so that our kids and
grandkids can see them. I will do the same with the six leather-bound albums of
historical photos one of these days. The individual photos in those, though,
have been scanned and are on my computer. That is one of the very important
things to do with such material so that if anything happens to the paper
records (floods, fire, vandalism, etc.) you will still have the memories saved.
Sandy: I have been learning about memory sticks
and how to use them.
Wayne: Memory sticks are fine for transferring
data from one place or person to another. As with other forms of copying and
storage – floppy disks, VHR tapes, CDs, DVDs, etc. – very little is known about
how long they will last. I think the common perception is that they won’t last
forever and that eventually they will all fail, be replaced or the information
on them will become degraded. The safest place I have found to preserve
information is on one of the subscriber sites where storage of data is
maintained in the cloud but still accessible anytime, anywhere and by anyone you
choose.
By the way, whatever
method you choose to organize and store information, be sure there is someone
who will be able to inherit it or take over management of it when you are gone.
Otherwise the information could be lost forever.
Sandy: I think that I will continue with MyHeritage
and my experiment with one of the others. I haven’t seriously got a plan yet. I
am still reading through the documents which will take the next six months or
so.
Wayne: Once your history data is entered into
whatever program you use you can throw away the scraps of paper. Again, I keep
my families all in separate folders, in an overall Genealogy folder, on my hard
drive, so they are easy to find, review and update. As you go back in time the
numbers of families increases exponentially, so you need to keep separate files
in order to be able to recall and work on the data. I find it easier to do on
the computer while I know others still have file cabinets full of paper.
MyHeritage is fine for
organizing data (and finding cousins) but it is not a place where everyone can
access it if you want to share with family members. Nor are any of the other
similar online sites. Copying information, especially photos, is challenging on
MyHeritage as one cannot get a very good quality reproduction. Again it is
important that you have someone who can take over the site when you are gone.
Not all websites or services have a way to assign a beneficiary but most do
allow a second contact person or co-manager. A serious problem can occur when a
subscriber dies and no one takes over or renews the subscription. In those
cases, all data may be deleted.
A separate family
history website serves the purpose of sharing data as does a Dropbox folder.
The latter is also a good way to store information.
Sandy: Do you secretly desire to write a dialogue
or a book on your family? I have no illusions about my talent as a writer, even
if I did study literature and history in college. But I see such a cavalcade of
historic flow here that it makes me what to organize everything together
verbally.
Wayne: I have written a book on my Shepheard
ancestors in Devon. It was printed with a soft cover and distributed to those
family members who were willing to pay for the cost of printing. It had
histories of each generation back to my 8th great-grandparents and contained
copies of all BMD, census and other records. I wanted to be able to share what
I had learned with the family. I just finished a shorter version for Linda’s
paternal ancestors. We have not got beyond her 2nd great-grandparents yet but
at least it’s a start. My brother-in-law has done a DNA test, so we hope we can
find ancestors further back through other cousins who may have also tested.
As for writing
ability, I always tell people anyone can set down their thoughts. If they need
help they can always find others to edit or proofread. I wrote about this in
another blog post last year, Helpful
Hints to Writing Anything.
Readers of this post may have many comments on technology,
equipment or methodology. Feel free to share your thoughts.
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