How to share your family history with your family.--How?

Before we get into particulars, there are some basic principles about sharing your family history with your family. Two main things you have to think about:

• Know your ancestors.
  ›Start with what you know but don’t wait until you feel like you know everything.


• Know your family members.
  ›Know their attention span.
  ›Know what interests and hobbies they have.
  ›Have a good relationship with them.

My grandfather, bless his heart, would sit the grandkids down when I was about 8 (I was the oldest grandchild) and have a "talk" with us. He did the former but he didn't do so well with the latter. I remember being really squirmy and I don't remember anything he said, except that it was important to him and I was supposed to sit still. What I would give to be able to have a talk like that with him now--but my attention span is different now.

Now, some more specific principles about how to get going:

• Start with an attention getter.
  ›If you make it boring it will be
  ›Photos, games, stories are generally good places to start.
• Don’t underestimate their abilities and interest level.
• Leave them something to figure out.
• Don’t lecture.
• Every little encounter is a little more they know about their family.
• When one comes, others will follow.

If you are excited about it, and if you have a good relationship, they will be more inclined be excited about family history too.

But the biggest rule about sharing your family history with your family is:
If you make it part of your life, and they are involved with your life, it can come naturally. It doesn't have to be an event (although it can be). Teaching your family about your family's history can be a way of life that evolves over time--something you just are because you know where you come from.

Get ready. Lots of ideas to come...

How to share your family history with your family.--Why?

I taught my lecture "How to Inspire your Family with their Family History" Sunday at the Family History Library at BYU. The students there appreciated it and got me thinking in several new directions on the topic. So, I thought I would share some of it with you here over the next couple of weeks and get your feedback as well. I'm going to file this new series under "Sharing your family history" so it will all be there to refer back to.

I start out the lecture with a discussion about why sharing your family history with your family is important. This can include your descendants--children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews; and your contemporaries--brothers and sisters, cousins; and even your ancestors--parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. Hopefully these posts will give you lots of ideas for sharing your research with all of the above.

Why would you want to share what you have found? I have talked about this before, here and here, but here are a few more ideas:

• Family History bonds families together.
  ›It will strengthen their relationship with you.
• Family History can give a sense of belonging.
  ›They will have a stronger sense of who they are, what their place is in the world.
• Family History can create a loving, safe environment.
  ›They will know that there are people who love them and worked so that they could have a nice life.
• Family History can give them something to live up to.
  ›Tell them about the good qualities in their family
• Family History can inspire a sense of gratitude.
  ›They will know how much easier life is now.
• Family History can help them with their problems.
  ›Somebody has probably been there before and survived it.
• Family History can give them a broader, more unselfish perspective.
  ›They will see the bigger picture of the span of life.
• Family History encourages good skills.
  ›Logic, detective skills, writing, communication, organization.
• Family History gives a context for other knowledge.
  ›History geography, languages, religion, culture—Margaret Mitchell, Alex Haley, inspired by their family history. I've often thought a family's history would be a wonderful context for a home-school curriculum. I wish that fit with my family's needs.
• You could use some help.
  ›They might break through your brick wall someday.
• It will be moving for you to see the span of your family reaching out/down.
  ›My perspective on my life, history, and the span of our family is amazing when I see my children involved.
• You may find someone who will carry it on.
  ›No one will care about your research work more than your own family can.

In the posts to follow, we'll talk about how, and I'll shower you with all the ideas and resources I have collected for how to make it interesting to those people who can be most affected by your family's history.

Triathalon--Did it!

This has nothing to do with genealogy or Generation Maps but I have to tell you--I finished my first triathalon today.

In case you are wondering, that is swim, bike and *then* run. (You've got to be kidding.)



For my first triathalon I didn't do so well:

• 2 straight weeks of conferences and then a vacation wreaked havoc on the end of my training schedule.
• I got engrossed in a movie last night and didn't get to bed at a decent hour.
• Accidently slept in and almost didn't make it on time.
• Didn't get in line for a while so I started almost last.
• Actually crashed the bike and have a new mid-life crisis scab on my knee again. (I was going too fast on the bike. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.)
• Broke 5 fingernails (Oh, Man--grin)
  

But:

• I finished.
• Passed a few people. Almost as many as passed me but hey I'll take what I can get.
• Didn't have to photoshop the pictures to look good. :-)
• I finished.
• Have the number 119 "body art" to wear to church tomorrow.
• Have a triathlon t-shirt that I might never take off.
• I finished.
• Started almost last but didn't finish last. Woohoo. I'm looking forward to seeing my time. I actually think I might not have done too bad for the first one.
• Had some good music going. --I think I actually enjoyed myself?
• Did I mention I finished?

Next one is October 18th. Many thanks to the incredibly supportive family and the good friends who actually waited for me to cross the finish line. Hopefully I inspired my kids. I guess it *is* a little like family history.
(If I can fit it into family history, I should be able to fit it in to about any topic of conversation don't you think? "You know, that reminds me of a triathalon I did once....")

100th post=10% off everything

I took a break for a little bit but I have a good post to come back to.

In honor of our 100th post here at thechartchick.com, we are going to offer
10% off everything at Generation Maps until September 10th. Working charts, Decorative Charts, from your data, from New FamilySearch (if you have a log in), Canvas Giclees, Blanks Charts, etc. Great if you still have a family reunion coming this summer, or to stock up on Christmas presents if you are one of those people who start early.

Just enter "blog10per" in the Promotional Code field when you check out. Or mention it in any phone calls, free consults, or e-mails.

I also hit my 100th friend on Facebook last week. There is a great genealogy community there to laugh and talk with. If you haven't signed up, you should. It is so fun to keep in touch with everyone and know what is going on. When you get there, be sure to friend me and become a fan of The Chart Chick Blog and Generation Maps Genealogy Chart Printing Service.

Smile for the Camera, Carnival of Images--The Hovorkas

My picture for the Carnival of Images is of Marie (Mary) Josephine Kostal born 16 May 1859 in Novosedly, Strakonice, Jihocesky Kraj, Czechoslovakia and her husband, Frantisek Josef Hovorka born 22 Dec 1857 in Trebesov, Rychnov, Nad Kneznov, Czechoslovakia. This is the family history picture I couldn't do without because these are the people who brought our family name to the new world. The oldest picture we have of any Hovorka. They were married on 22 Jun 1879 in Chicago, Illinois. This picture was taken for their 50th anniversary in 1929. The floral arrangement in the picture was spray painted gold and displayed in their living room after the anniversary. They lived on a farm along the Wisconsin river and after their deaths, the farmhouse had to be moved when the Castle Rock Lake Dam was built and the lake formed over their farmland. Frank was known by relatives as Gede, short for Gedecek, or grandfather.

I often look at this picture and hope that we are making them proud of what we are doing with the Hovorka name.

Mesa Video

Check out our Kim in the My Ancestors Found video. And come to the conference. We'll be printing on site.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKLWDZvVWCE

See you there.

Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age--When the Worst Happens

Well we are at another conference. And again, getting ready for the conference slowed down my blogging, but now that I'm here I can talk more. I love talking to people at the conferences we do. And I'm glad I have this extension of that.

I promised this last summary of my "Will your work survive the digital age" series. What options do you have when the worst happens and you lose your digital data? Again, this is a huge topic and even a huge industry that I'm going to try to squeeze into a blog post. Here we go.

In data recovery, the biggest point is to BE CAREFUL NOT TO WRITE OVER THE FILES. They are probably still on the memory device, you just may not be able to access them. There are programs that you can buy that will help you to recover data on your hard drive.—We have used File Scavenger (about $50) and it has worked well for us. New operating systems also sometimes have built in back up systems. Windows XP and Windows Vista have roll back capabilities if you enabled them. Or, you can also take your computer to a Data Recovery professional. These can get pretty expensive but are worth every penny when the data you need is priceless--which family history often is.

When the data is not on a hard drive but on an external device, like a CD or travel drive, recovery is sometimes easier. Again, File Scavenger can restore some external files. Snapfiles.com also has other file recovery utilities. Sometimes just trying another machine or cleaning might help. There are polishing tools that can help, or professionals may be able to remove scratches and make the tool readable. And again, Data Recovery Professionals can be lifesavers and worth every penny.

When you haven't lost the data, but just can't use it because your software won't read it anymore, you need Emulation. Emulation is re-establishing old computer programs. Many Libraries and Digital Repositories are working to save old computer systems and software so that we can revive old programs in the future. Family History Centers usually have old versions of PAF and other software, and old floppy disk drives. These serve a great purpose and can be really helpful when you need them. Hopefully they will always provide that service.

Previous posts in this series:
Will your work survive the digital age--the Digital Dark Age.
Will your work survive the digital age?
Will your work survive the digital age--Dissemination
Will your work survive the digital age--Refreshing and Backup
Will your work survive the digital age--Replication
Will your work survive the digital age--Migration
Will your work survive the digital age--Naming, Tagging, and Filing.

Hopefully giving this a little thought will be helpful:

• To avoid a Digital Dark Age in this generation, we must ensure that our digital records are accessible and useable for the future.
• The way we manage the records we create has to keep pace with digital record creation.
• You can make a difference in your family by doing your best to preserve your own documents.
• With attention and a plan, we can preserve our records and not become the Digital Dark Age generation.

Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age--Naming, Tagging, and Filing

BEING ABLE TO FIND THE FILE MAY BE AS IMPORTANT IN THE FUTURE AS MAKING SURE THE FILE SURVIVES.

As I started on this lecture, this is an idea that I found that really surprised me. It makes total sense though. I don't know how long you have had a digital camera, but if you have had one very long, you know how those picture files stack up. And then when you are looking for one, it takes a while if they are still named "img10034.jpg." So your files may all survive the next 10 years fine (if you follow the first 4 principles we have been talking about) but you may not be able to find what you need anyway.

You need to name things well and keep them organized. Name all of your files with details about the information contained inside if you can. You can organize by name or by date. Filenames such as:
— Janet Hovorka birthday 12_9_92.jpg
or 1992_12_9 Janet Hovorka birthday.jpg
I personally prefer the date first so that file explorer brings up the list chronologically. Ideally you would always go back through and name digital photo files. I personally don't do very well at that. But when I take the files off the camera I do put them in file folders that are named:
2008 Jan_Mar
2008 Apr_Jun etc.
That is a good start. But in 10 years I'm going to have too much and need to come up with another system. Just like in a good library, the more consistent you are the easier your system will work for you.

I know someone (who shall remain anonymous) who makes new file folders all the time titled “new” “to print” “latest” etc. -- titles that are temporary. You think you will go back through and change them, but most people don’t. A year later, those file folders are full of all sorts of unorganized stuff. The problem compounds over time and then you have a mess to clean up on your computer so that you can find anything.

So, computer filing systems are like any filing system—like keeping a house or office clean. Just set a scheduled time to file—every day or even quarterly.

Previous Posts in this series:
Will your work survive the digital age--the Digital Dark Age.
Will your work survive the digital age?
Will your work survive the digital age--Dissemination
Will your work survive the digital age--Refreshing and Backup
Will your work survive the digital age--Replication
Will your work survive the digital age--Migration

One more post to come: What to do when the worst happens.

Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age--Migration

An important part of keeping digital files viable is Migration. You have to keep moving the files into the newest technology including:

• New Computer Systems—Plan time to migrate all files to the next computer
• New Computer Software—Make sure all files are updated
• New File Formats—Make sure all files are migrated to the new format
• New Storage Systems—Make sure everything gets moved to the new system

MIGRATION ISSUES ARE SOLVED BY BUDGETING TIME AND MONEY.

• Continue to migrate all electronic files to the next computer and medium--Have a plan and set a time frame for migration.
• If possible, annually budget for new computer systems and software, even if the budget is small. Staying relatively current solves technology advancement problems.

Combat digital obsolescence by staying current with the technology and making sure that all files are converted to new formats.

Emulation can help when files become obsolete. Many Libraries and Digital Repositories are working to save old computer systems and software so that we can revive old programs in the future. For genealogists, Family History Centers usually have old versions of genealogy programs, and old floppy disk drives. These serve a great purpose.

Will your work survive the digital age--the Digital Dark Age.
Will your work survive the digital age?
Will your work survive the digital age--Dissemination
Will your work survive the digital age--Refreshing and Backup

Will your work survive the digital age--Replication

Lecturing

Shameless Plug--My active lectures.
Thanks for the picture Bruce

Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age--Replication

Replication is keeping your information in several different formats so that later, when you want to use it, the future technology is still able to access it.

Paper is really still best for making information last in this respect. Generally the different formats last:

• Paper, fragile but will usually last @100 years
• Microfilm @130 years
• CD @20 years depending on quality. Like I said earlier, look for Mitsui Gold or Delkin e-Film Archival Gold
• Audio Video @10-20 years
• Floppy disks @3 years

Once you have digitized, if you do decide to put it back into prints, you have to be careful. If you print with the wrong ink and paper, your new copy may go bad faster than the original. Look for Pigment ink, DuraBrite inks, Ultrachrome inks and papers, Crystal Archive paper. Again, you get what you pay for. Cheap paper is usually not archival. Look for manufacturers that match paper and ink sets. At Generation Maps we have found canvas giclees to be a good base for printing for several reasons. First of all, the texture of the canvas is good for family history photos because the slightly bumpy surface tricks the eye and mitigates any graininess in an antique photo. But also, giclees are completely archival. You can actually even run them through the washing machine. So you can put the original away and still keep the image out where you can enjoy it.

When scanning images in, stay with the most common types of files so that they will be accessible later. Tiff files are biggest and contain the most information for the highest quality.—Jpeg (Jpg) files are smaller and do well inserting into documents or sending over the web. When you save to the most common file format, you have a better chance of being able to open the file in whatever kind of program you have. Less common files such as .png, .psp, and etc. may or may not be supported by future programs. Save each edit of the picture as a new file. Keep the original scan. And, save one of each type for different uses.

So many people think they are doing a great work scanning their photos, yet you can also make mistakes in the way you keep them. Do lots of backup like we talked about earlier.

• Burn to high quality CDR or DVD-R
• Keep on back up drive
• Always keep more than one copy, more than one type of file, save at different scanning resolutions, and in different file formats.
• Share, Share, Share
• And of course keep originals

With text formats, you want it to be in a format that you are able to open later as well. .txt is a good common type of file that you can open in many different situations. But it doesn't have all the capabilities of other text programs and will strip out any special formatting or other information you have stored in the file. So be sure to save anything important in a couple of different file formats. Most text files—even from the same text program—are usually not usable more than a couple of versions back. I recently tried to help a neighbor send a file to her cousin. She hadn't updated her computer for a while, so her Word Perfect 2.0 wasn't going to jive with anything that her cousin had. Her data would have been useless if we hadn't been able to save it as a .txt file so that he could transfer it into the program he was using.

SAVING YOUR FILES IN SEVERAL FORMATS WILL HELP ENSURE THAT THERE IS A FILE THAT WILL BE USABLE IN THE FUTURE.

Previous Posts in this series:

Will your work survive the digital age--the Digital Dark Age.

Will your work survive the digital age?

Will your work survive the digital age--Dissemination

Will your work survive the digital age--Refreshing and Backup

Why I'm not getting any blogging done.

I sooooo love conferences. If you haven't been to one you need to. We love working with genealogists. They are the best people in the world. And we absolutely love the people we work with in the other genealogy companies. They are the best friends you could ever ask for.

Left to right, Kim Hovorka, Me (Generation Maps), Michael Booth, Gordon Booth, June Booth (RootsMagic), Cina Johnson, Diana Olsen(Family Insight), Leonard Plaizer (South Davis Family History Center They have a great conference, go look.), Luc Comeau (Legacy Family Tree.), Bruce Buzbee (RootsMagic). Laurie Buzbee was taking the picture. I'm glad she got a good one. I'm having trouble with my camera.

Since she is missing, here is a shot of Laurie and I. The triathalon girls.

Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age--Refreshing and Back Up

I have been working on my "Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age" lecture for the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. The second of our five digital archiving solutions is: Refreshing and Back Up.

You could say a million things about refreshing your information and making sure it is backed up. Let me just say this: Think B drives, 4 and 1/4 inch disks--really not that long ago. Though you can still find machines with them, 3 1/2 inch floppys are now obsolete. They aren't on any new computers. Just keep those in mind while you are burning CDs CD’s are inexpensive but really don't hold much by today's standards. Re-writeable CD’s (CD-RW) deteriorate faster, but are easier when you need to recover lost data. Archival CD companies say they can last up to and beyond 20 years depending on quality. You get what you pay for. We have done well with Mitsui Gold or Delkin e-Film Archival Gold, but the inexpensive CDs we bought at the after-Thanksgiving sale lasted less than a year. If you are relying heavily on CDs to back up your data, make a plan to migrate everything on to new CDs once a year. And make several copies of the same CD so that you have another chance if one goes bad.

Travel (Flash, Jump) drives that use USB ports are all the rage with genealogists. They are easy, small, and can have lots of memory. But again, you haven't archived anything. USB has been the standard for about 8 years, will eventually go the way of serial and parallel ports. Blue Tooth and Wireless stand ready to make USB ports obsolete. A couple of years ago, I lost one in two feet of snow. We found it when the snow melted a couple of days later and it still worked but you can bet I didn't rely on it for anything. And I've seen several fall apart and stop working just from constant use. They are best for transfering files and temporary storage.

A better backup option for the regular genealogist is an External Hard Drive. They can come in various sizes and have USB ports that can share among several computers. You can just plug in a backup drive as another drive, or use it with backup software that will automatically evaluate what has been changed and make copies accordingly.—If you really want to go all out, Magnetic Tape Drives are also an option. They are more expensive, usually for businesses, where they are used often and stored in several off-site locations. (Library of Alexandria Rule.)

There are also several online Back Up services that can help. Like:

• Carbonite.com is a $50 per year service (any amount of data) that will back up and encript your data so that no one else will have access to your data
• Many Photo Repositories: Smug Mug, PhotoMax, even Costco, Facebook, Blogs, Family Link, anywhere that will take your files.
• Genealogy Databases, anywhere that will accept your files and keep them in a format where you can retrieve them.

With all of these options, there is one all-encompasing rule. Akin to the Library of Alexandria Rule. DON'T RELY ON ONLY ONE BACKUP SYSTEM. Choose a couple that are easy enough to you that it will get done.

Previous Posts in this series:

Will your work survive the digital age--the Digital Dark Age.

Will your work survive the digital age?

Will your work survive the digital age--Dissemination

Genealinspired

Just call me Sheherezade. I know I'm in the middle of a series of posts about my lecture this Friday--Archiving in the Digital Age. But I have just had an idea for a new series. And I'm so excited about it, I just have to get the first post out. I promise I'll write the rest of the digital archiving posts today and get them set up to be published. It has been busy getting ready for the BYU conference this week. That slowed my blog down a bit. But now that we are at the conference, I'll find a few minutes here and there to work on those posts.

I'm going to call this new series Genealinspired. My Randy Seaveresque word's definition: 1) The act of being inspired by your family's history. 2) Applying the lessons and morals learned from your ancestors lives to your modern life. 3) Knowing you can be stronger, more courageous, or able to succeed because of an example set for you by one of your family members. I have talked about this previously here, here, here, here, and here. I have been talking about being genealinspired and didn't realize it.

My first Genealinspired story comes to us from Nicole, a good friend who shared this with me yesterday. Thanks Nicole.

Her mother-in-law was Slovakian. Because her father was an officer in the military, when Slovakia was invaded (I'm not sure if it was the Nazis or the Russians) her family had to go into hiding to avoid being arrested and killed. They fled to the forests near their home, taking with them their three young daughters, ages 5, 3 and an infant. I can't even imagine trying to hide in the forest with three small children.

Babies aren't quiet when they are wet and tired, so the invading army found them. The mother of the family implored the soldiers to kill her children first so that they wouldn't be scared when they saw their parents murdered. Her pleadings softened the hearts of the soldiers and they were spared. I just can't even imagine.

When Nicole asked her mother-in-law about how she survived being so scared for that period of her life, (she was the 5-year-old) her MIL replied that she wasn't the least bit scared. She said that her mother treated it as "high-adventure" and that she thought they were having a grand time.

A side note: I have heard similar stories about pioneer ancestors crossing the plains. I always think of that as such hard work and such a sacrifice. But, can you imagine being a teenage boy with that kind of adventure? I know once my ancestors were settled, the young men loved to be on the teamster teams that went out to meet new immigrants. No hard work there. They were going out to meet the new girls.

The point of the story is this though. Nicole has been watching the news too much. She has been extremely worried about the economy and she and her husband's jobs. Obsessively worried. She also has twin 5-year-olds. In our conversation, she expressed to me the amazement she had at her grandmother-in-law's ability to cope, and her ability to instill that joy and sense of adventure in her children. She said, "I could whine to my children--'oh, how awful that we can't have piano lessons anymore. Or, Mom may have to get a full-time job.' Oh, Please. Or I could see it as a new adventure, we'll spend our time differently." The story of her mother-in-law has inspired her to go through her current situation with a sense of a grand, exciting new experience.

Genealinspired. Do you have one?

Blog post(s) of the week

Some interesting industry analysis
http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com/2008/07/future-of-ancestrycom.html
http://www.geneamusings.com/2008/07/indexing-periodicals-manuscripts.html

A great article about involving children:
http://www.genealogyandfamilyhistory.com/?p=46
because sharing it with the next generation makes everything more meaningful.

Some great humor this week on the blogging front. Thanks for the laughs you guys.
http://www.genealogue.com/2008/07/top-ten-signs-your-ancestor-was.html

And Mark Tucker figured out Bruce Buzbee--on several levels. I'm impressed Mike. Such brilliance from a software architect. Great Job.
http://www.thinkgenealogy.com/2008/07/20/rootsmagic-4-mystery-tab-spoiler/

Photo Charts on Shades of the Departed Blog

My post on FootnoteMaven's blog has gone up. http://www.shadesofthedeparted.com/2008/07/july-25-friday-from-collectors.html

There are several links from other blogs already. This blogger community is fast.

Randy Seaver said he's geneasmacked. I'm trying not to let it go to my head :-).

It was nice to get a chance to share some of the great charts we do. Thanks for the opportunity FootnoteMaven.

Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age--Dissemination

I have been working on my "Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age" lecture for the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I think it is coming together well. I'm going share it with you in the next week's posts. The first of our five digital archiving solutions is: Dissemination.

To fully discuss Dissemination I have to teach you my Library of Alexandria Rule for Genealogists.

At the time of Cleopatra the largest library in the world was in Alexandria, Egypt. It may have had hundreds of thousands of books, scrolls, codices and so on. It was a center for learning in the ancient world; scholars came from all over to study there, and many great discoveries were made. Discoveries such as:

• Astronomy was documented enough to be able to sail by the stars
• Longitude and Latitude
• Calculating a year within 6 minutes of accuracy, establishment of a leap year.
• Calculating the circumference of the earth within 1%.
• The brain and nervous system work together
• The heart pumps blood through the body
• Archimedes screw, a handcranked device for lifting water
• Foundations of Geometry and Trigonometry, the discovery of Pi. (Yeah, I personally could have lived without this last one :-)

According to legend, Caesar and PtolemyXII were fighting, and the people of Alexandria set fire to the ships in the harbor to break the blockade. The fire swept onto land and the library was burned. In modern times, we don’t know what was in that library and have nowhere near a hundred thousand volumes from that time period. All we have are the precious things, like religious texts, of which many copies were made.

So: The Library of Alexandria Rule for Genealogists is: THE MORE COPIES THERE IS OF SOMETHING THE MORE LIKELY IT IS TO SURVIVE.

So: against all your genealogist tendencies, you need to Share, Share, Share. Even if it isn't finished. Share with relatives, share with databases, share with libraries, historical societies. Then keep files in as many places as you can. Always have electronic and print copies. Never keep anything in only one format. And keep good notes of sources you have used and what you have done. These are road signs for the next generation.

Next: Refreshing/Back Up Systems, coming shortly...

Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age?

I am surprised when we travel to some of the conferences we do that novices are often all excited about digitizing their family history: scanning in pictures, letters, documents, indexing and typing everything into their computer. As a librarian and an archivist, it makes me nervous. Heaven forbid someone would think they don't really need the originals anymore.
—
When you have digitized something, you have:

• Made it easier to share
• Made it easier to disseminate
• Made it easier to copy
• Made it easier to restore
• Made it easier to index

You have not:

• Archived it.
• Probably made it last for more than a couple of years.

Threats to digital data enclude:

• Hard to retrieve—buried with useless information
• Physical deterioration
• Lapsed, Purposely Destroyed
• Un-useable format, Digital Obsolescene

The solutions I propose in my "Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age?" Lecture are these:

• Dissemination: Store many copies in many situations and places
• Refreshing/Back Up: Make a new copy in the same format to avoid physical deterioration
• Replication: Making many copies of the material in different format
• Migration: Move to the new system, newest software, newest format
• Naming, Tagging and Filing: Use descriptive keywords and keep files organized.

We'll discuss each of these shortly. More to come...

Blog of the week

I have been asked this week to be the guest blogger for the FootnoteMaven's series "Friday from the Collectors" on the Shades of the Departed Blog. I was thrilled to be invited until I went back through the previous entries looking more closely for how such an article was to be written. Warning--these posts are much more enjoyable when the pressure isn't on to join this high-caliber club. Go read them now before she invites you ;-). She asked me to write about photo genealogy charts. I can only hope that what has become commonplace in my daily work will still be interesting to those of you who don't get to see it as often. We have seen some remarkable ideas come to life in that respect. I'm looking forward to sharing some of them.

FootnoteMaven has five regular columns in her blog: Photo of the Week, Twice Told Tuesday, Web Wandering Wednesday, Many Things Thursday, and Friday from the Collectors. Well written and well organized. Shades is particularly centered around photography and the FootnoteMaven's extensive photo collection. She is also the host of the relatively new Smile for the Camera--Carnival of Images. The next edition (4th) of Smile for the Camera is "My Favorite Photograph" the one you couldn't live without. After much consideration, I have picked out my photo for the carnival, but you will have to wait a little longer to see it.

I come away from my recent review of this blog with alot of emotion pertaining to the fleeting nature of life, how photographs capture something that is never to be repeated. This afternoon, my son asked what time he had been born and we pulled out the 1998 family scrapbook to make sure. It seems like just yesterday. I couldn't believe how young Kim and I looked, and how the children have grown up so fast. (Luckily I looked like Jabba the Hutt having just had a baby, so I'm not missing that too much :-). But I look at how quickly life goes and it makes me a little melancholy. I would love to hold those little babies again; luckily the boys aren't to adverse to a hug now. I've always felt that way about Motherhood. After re-reading Shades of the Departed, I feel incredibly emotional about all those beautiful pictures and people who are no more. Especially the antique photos she and others have collected whose identity has been lost. Thanks FootnoteMaven for reminding me how important these family history treasures are, and how I need to savor each moment today.

Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age--The Digital Dark Age

I have been working on my "Will Your Work Survive the Digital Age" lecture for the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy. I think it is coming together well. I'm going share it with you in the next week's posts. At some point I'll share with you parts of my other lectures as well.

The digital age has done many great things for genealogy. Historically, Family History has been the luxury of nobility and the very rich. Digitizing, especially the Internet has democratized genealogy, Family History is now available to all. Now everyone is important, the most humble servant, the slave, the indentured servant. But the only ancestors that can be found are those whose records have survived.

But according to the Library of Congress (Librarians would know :-) we are currently creating a digital dark age of mammoth proportions. According to http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/, the Library of Congress' digital preservation site:

• While the web began to be a major force in elections starting in 1994, starting only in 2000 and 2004 the Library of Congress captured and preserved candidate’s websites.
• Candidate websites prior to 2000 are lost to history.
• 44% of the internet sites in 1998 had disappeared one year later.
• The average life of a Web site is between 44 and 100 days
• The Library of Congress has preserved 66 terabytes of digital files selected for preservation – the text equivalent of approximately 66 million books, as of July 2007.

For someone who spends much of her life on facebook, my blog, and other people's blogs, not to mention my website and e-mail, what record is there of all of my time invested?

Then add to that the crisis that occurs when you lose data you thought you had preserved: you have a computer or backup meltdown like I did at Christmas. I thought the world had come to an end. You probably have never had that happen huh?

According to some estimates:

• 45% of people don’t back up their files
• 43% of computer users lose important information each year.
  Will you be in the 43% this year or next?

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2006-06-11-lost-data_x.htm reported that people said they had :

• Lost data due to accidental deletion, disk or system failure, viruses, fire or another disaster 69%
• Lost data two or more times in the last year 40%
• At least moderate concerns about data loss 62%

Thus: DIGITAL MATERIALS ARE MUCH MORE FRAGILE THAN PHYSICAL MATERIALS. What record are you really leaving of your life?

--more to come.