Monthly back ups ---

This is a blog about activities I perform to write Our Family History. Besides the wonderful trips and great finds. There are also very important mundane tasks that must be adhered to rather strictly. Besides organization, sourcing, another mundane task in genealogy is backing up our data. Backing up is especially important if you are using computers as one of the primary storage's of data.

This back up procedure was always performed the first day of the month.

BIG KAHUNA Thomas MacEntee

usually sends out reminders and has kind of declared the first day of the month as back-up day.

But because of the complexities that I have added to the process and the uncertainty that I could work uninterrupted on the first day of the month. I try to start a few days ahead preparing for my back up.

My back up usually starts with Ancestry. com --- I use Ancestry.com as a dumping ground. Because it is a dumping ground my ancestry HAYLEY tree is invitation only. Not because I do not want to share. I just do not want to share unverified, incorrect, bogus data.

******I have approximately 20 trees on ancestry---- several are pristine trees of limited data like the Needhams from 1640 Jamestown to 1850 Lake county Tenn. and the Moorings from 1640 Jamestown to 1850 Lake county Tenn. and the Hayleys from 1640 Jamestown to 1850 Tenn. Or clients" trees. These trees are usually not updated each month unless I have done work on them.

From ancestry. com I create a gedcom and upload my modified trees into myheritage.com --- saving a copy of my gedcom to my c: drive.

At this point I open and review all my updated trees on myheritage. I then run a problem report on myheritage. Depending on the issues found in the problem report, I will spend time reviewing and correcting the issues.

I usually have a page of siblings having the same name ---- Living Smith etc.

Myheritage then has a link to Family Tree maker for updating FTM. I run this link.

Once I am pleased with my all inclusive tree HAYLEY. I create another gedcom in myheritage saving the gedcom to my c drive with program name and date. I then upload the tree to Rootmagic. :-) Rootsmagic and all it's components is my go-to program for FUN with data.

In Rootsmagic: I run another problem report. Checking my criteria and parameters I verify myheritage and rootsmagic reports agree. If not I review the inconsistencies and make note. I print the problem reports and add all notes. This may sound Silly and unnecessary --- but I have been known to get caught up in life's drama and forget my "oh I need not note that, I surely will always remember that" Two years of unraveled data will tax your brain to remember.

OK my data has been reviewed on ancestry, myheritage, family tree builder, and rootsmagic. I do use Legacy or stand alone programs on occasion.

Next using rootsmagic I run a macro I have built to update my family groups. Now save rootsmagic and run the

rootsmagic on the go

program. A copy of each family group is then also saved to my c: drive. It was Shirley Becker that did an excellent presentation on organizing your computer files that demonstrated a very useful tool for archiving family groups. A copy of her presentation is available on the CVGS official web site.

Basically Shirley uses folders by Surnames and documents using man+woman name and dates ---
A photo of Shirley follows --- Shirley enjoying a holiday luncheon with fellow genealogist.



I save each and every family group to my c drive. (I have a macro written for this). Depending on the work accomplished that particular month, new family groups may appear. I immediately create c-drive files for these of these new family groups. Saving them under the correct Surname by husband and wife names and dates.

I usually do not update all my other reports and maps and etc at this time. My reasoning for not updating these files is because I wait until I actually want to use the data and then will update and save with current date when and if I use the file. Example Mom's sweet 16 my appear as momssweet16_22072010 and a new revision will be saved as momssweet16_01082011. previous revisions of all momssweet16s are saved. The revision control is the date.

So now I back up my data---- my pc automatically saves all files to my external hard drive. All c drive data (gedcom's, family group sheets, problem reports, pedigree charts, journals, excel resource logs, places and resource reports etc. are then updated onto three mobile flash drives. I retain the previous month's data and add the new month's files.

I send one flash drive out of state. One flash drive is added to my laptop carrying case. One flash drive is placed near my home desk pc.

This may seem complicated at first. This is a system that has been modified over the years. Maybe I will review this process in a year and see what I have modified since then.

I have a house full of prince and princess so while they sleep --- I need to back up quickly or my mind will be fried!! So until next blog-----Happy Back up day!!!