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How Have You Preserved Your Data Recently?

We posted this  question to our Genealogy Tip of the Day Fans on Facebook. We'll  be posting some tips based opon the comnents received from fans. Here are the responses:



  • Frances Flick I put what I had in a notebook and donated it to the library
  • Jt Harper Created both a website and blog - the Internet is almost infinite in how long data is displayed!
    Friday at 7:44am via mobile · Like · 3
  • Teresa Ricketts I made a genealogy calender for my family for Christmas, my daughter wants it when i die, i put it out on the web, have a private webpage for my family if they still use it lol. have it on backup for my family
  • Angela Mercier Four 4" binders full of documentation, backed up to the pc and will upload to the world tree
    Friday at 7:47am via mobile · Like · 4
  • Ruth Morrissey StMarie Made a folder for each of my children and some of my cousins (those who have expressed interest) with all the info I have in it, and made them each an 'editor' on my on-line trees
  • Cathy Cadd What a great question. One I have been thinking about alot. I have tons of binders of documents, photos. Who gets those when I am gone? I am sure my kids wont want them. I have all my trees on Ancestry.com but if I am gone will those be deleted? I have in past made ged files and given to interested family members but I think they might have just been polite. Do genealogy societies want this stuff? I look forward to hearing what others are doing about this.
  • Mark Stickle I agree with Kathy: I have thought about this too, and would sure like to get a good dialogue started. If the census records and things like that are gone, they can always be reconstructed. But the stories and photos, and personal histories will be gone forever . . . (Of course, I always regret that I didn't start earlier and collect even more, but that's another story!)
  • Heather Williams Cathy they will only be gone on Ancestry.com if you delete your account. if you just stop subscribing it will still be there. i have given my daughter my log in details for Ancestry so she can add to 'our' tree, now or after i'm gone.
    Friday at 7:57am via mobile · Like · 3
  • Jane Harvey Continuing to verify supplemental patriots in my DAR membership. This will out live me and will be protected by DAR as verified ancestors.
  • Heather Williams I would love to see everyone's ideas, do any of you have links to your websites/blogs etc?
  • Ross Pierce SHARED IT !
  • Linda Towne I have a website and two of my three children are interested in family history (the third is only 6 - too young)
  • Renee McKean Donate a copy of your work to the various historical societies in locales your ancestors lived. They love stuff like that.
    Friday at 8:07am via mobile · Unlike · 7
  • Thomas Severinghaus Placed all my "tin type" photographs behind museum glass. They go back as far as photography does.
    Friday at 8:08am via mobile · Like · 4
  • Sylvia Lacy King My daughter will get all my research. Then her daughter. My cousin has also stated her research goes to my daughter.
    Friday at 8:09am via mobile · Like · 2
  • Lorraine Brelsford Downloaded free census pages into my Census File.
  • Candace Johnson Fox I have a digital copy and paper copies of everything. I will leave all of it to the child who shows the most interest in it when the time comes, whether it be one of my kids or another child in the family. My hope is someone continues and remembers me for making it available to them.
  • Kate Thayer I have it all online at Family Tree; I make sure each side to he family has a copy of my files and I am currently making Genealogy Binders for all three of my children so they will have copies of the most recent info and all the old pictures.
  • Nancy Naber Beach This is an on-going brain teaser for me...not for my family history so much, as for the area history I've indexed and cross-indexed.
  • Sue Listermann Told my kids if they threw it away..I'd come back and haunt them
    Friday at 8:27am via mobile · Like · 14
  • Mike Denis Backup, backup, backup. External drive, DVD, online...
  • Debbie Evans Sent a copy of ancestor's biography to an interested distant cousin.
  • Karen Stuart Share by email, publish online, tell anyone that will listen!
  • Erin Gergen Halls Everything here is excellent preservation advice! I would add that one of the most important things I do is talk about this research, and our ancestors, to my kids often. My kids are lucky to have known their great-grandparents well, and I knew a couple of mine, but beyond that it is easy to just lose an ancestor, whole generations of them! When I began this process my own extended family had virtually nothing for me to go on! By sharing how important it is to keep our ancestors alive through documentation, and by keeping them interested by sharing the thrill of discovery, I hope they will continue being the "keepers of records" and pass that down through our future family tree 
  • Su Lynn Hanson Besides my paper files, and ancestry files under each root family, for docs and pics etc. on pc, I have started a private group family page on FB...we have about 20....right now I am the main poster of pics and stories, family history, but some at contributing as well, and have several that have been encourages to keep going. Doing a Our Day in Family History...marriages births, deaths with a story orpic if I have it and hope there stop my grand cousins ans cousins will as well. Developing that calendar now. Also Ancestry.com, which I love. Hope they are all saving on their pc or copying...this way we can share , as every person has items the rest do not.
    Friday at 8:54am via mobile · Like · 1
  • Lorraine Brelsford I have donated files to the local Historical society.
  • Cindy B. Cady Started a family fb page and trying to recuit a current interest into our past. Also..trying to get info to the gen dept at the local library.
    Friday at 8:57am via mobile · Like · 2
  • Sharon Kelley Self published family history books. All my family bought copies. 490 pictures on about 200 pages each.
    Friday at 8:59am via mobile · Like · 6
  • Rose Rogers Deguara Give the info to family.
  • Heather Marie Dominguez I have willed it to my oldest son
  • Nancy Sullivan Wow! I need to get organized 
    Friday at 9:28am via mobile · Like · 4
  • Jane Walton Spreier i have one child. i told him to not throw away my 13 binders of info or the pricy books i have purchased.
    Friday at 9:43am via mobile · Like · 1
  • Jane Walton Spreier He may use them as a doorstop! lol
    Friday at 9:44am via mobile · Like · 1
  • Pamela Protz Whitaker Sharon, I did that also and gave as Xmas presents.
  • Susan Propst Graben Put in my will that all my genealogy stuff be given to my local genealogy society in NC.
  • Debbie Russes I want to organize everything and donate it to the SLC Genealogical Library. I've told family members that and, while I don't have a will, I will put something in writing.
  • Brownie Mackie I decided to take it all to our local genealogy dept at the Library.
  • Pam Redd Warren Check with the organization or library to which you plan to donate your records to find out what format they will accept. I don't think most libraries will accept binders or lose papers, even if they are organized.
  • Joe Garcia Good Points. I was just talking to my kids, and they dont want it. Not sure if I want to donate to internet. Leaving my wishes in a will is a great idea. Probably will donate it all to the local Genealogy Society.
  • David Clapp Scouted out secure nonprofits for donations of thoroughly annotated, indexed, and carefully preserved originals. Earlier I used my training in archives and conservation to stabilize and preserve hundreds of letters, other manuscripts, and thousands of photographs passed on by ancestors. My ultimate goal is to create an institutional grant that funds research into the families I have studied.
  • Katherine McCaffrey Got my oldest son involved and he has far surpassed me. But I know it will live on
    Friday at 12:44pm via mobile · Like · 1
  • Cherie DeMichele I put it all on a PUBLIC family tree on ancestry. I will NEVER understand the thinking of people who have their family trees made private or who don't want to share genealogical information. What's the POINT then? With that way of thinking, why be involved with genealogy at all then? I just get annoyed when I see things on ancestry.com that say Private. These people apparently don't understand what the point of genealogy IS!
  • Dixie Osborne Told my 2 sons I have put $100 bills through out my paper files ~ so at least they will go through it all one time! 
  • Donna Frederick I have it on a thumb drive, in my computer, in hard copy files and wrote a family history book and gave each of my kids and grandkids a copy. But I am still searching
  • Charlotte S. Marek I saved my research on CD's & shared with cousins & siblings. I need to scan my own birth & marriage certificates into digital form!
  • Le Slater keep a cd copy in the strong box
  • Suanne C. Pyle My mother in law left all of her research and pictures to me.
  • Sharon Kletzien Put it all in my niece's hands!! (her name is on all the boxes)
  • Hazel Gaudet Rn Join a society that stores it and sharing it with other relatives.

1 comment:

  1. I too have files and folders and photos and some of it is online but I wonder/worry what happens when I am gone??? Are they deleted??? So with that in mind I have decided(since no one in my family(living) is really interested in genealogy) to have my files donated to the local genealogy society in my hometown where I know that they will be wanted and watched over and it shall be added to my will so that my wishes are known if I haven't already sent them on before that.

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