The end is near. This is the last week of Cycle 2 of the Genealogy Do-Over.
Topics:
1) Securing research data
2) Reviewing the journey
1) Security Research Data
Preservation
Thomas MacEntee asks participants the question: What have you done to preserve and "future proof" all your hard work? He continues on to pose the scenerio that if you were to loose all of your data, would you be able to recreate it - if you even knew where to begin. He also asked if people were aware of what his/her family would do with the research and have plans been made to preserve the research for future generations.
I have always been interested in family history and when I started to get serious with my research, I have never given much thought to what happens to my research once I am dead and gone. In the same manner of my crafts and associated supplies, I view my genealogy research as a hobby. I love the thrill of discovering new information of someone related to me and wouldn't want to deprive others of that thrill. Yes, I have appreciated discovering trees that others have worked on, but I have always viewed them only as clues to do my own verifications.
In the case of my family, no one really shows any interest in it. Having no biological children, I don't have any direct descendants and neither to either of my brothers.
When my in-laws died suddenly (result of an automobile accident), I willing took on the role of curator for their genealogy research. No one, including my husband, really showed any interest in any of the information, barring the narrative report compiled and printed at the time of my brother-in-law's wedding in 1994. If I hadn't taken the boxes of photo albums, etc they would have been left in the house to be disposed of with the rest of the estate - most of which likely ended up in a dumpster.
When I need a break from my research on my own family, I have dabbled with my husband's. My intent is that I will provide my step-children with the research and leave it up to them to do with as they wish. At this point in time, neither of them have partners or off-spring, so it remains to be seen if there will be future generations from them.
Would a local genealogical society be interested in the research on either my family or my husband's? I doubt it. Both of us are from working class families. If there is anyone notable in our trees, it is distant and a collateral branch, not direct, and more than likely already sufficient covered by research done by others.
Having worked for several decades in a library, I am fully aware of an institution having to deal with being viewed as a "dumping ground" for people thinking they are generously donating a gold mine to the library. They are unaware that the library may already have multiple copies of that book, as well as several new editions. If I haven't bothered submitting a pedigree chart to a relevant genealogical society during my lifetime, what right do I have of "dumping" all of my research on them to deal with after my death?
Most of my information has been obtained from internet searches and shouldn't be difficult for someone to re-create. As I've been participating in the Genealogy Do-Over, I have been re-doing my research and discovering more information on individuals than I had found when I had worked on that individual at some point in the past. I would expect someone in the future would have similar results.
Backing up Your Genealogy Data
The adage in the computer world is that it is not a matter of if, but when, a hard drive will fail. And the mantra of "back up, back up, back up." I have to confess that I continue to play dangerous and do not religiously back up my data. When I was working I did have somewhat of a backup plan of my Rootsmagic database by using a thumbdrive and Rootsmagic To Go for use at work during lunch and breaks. I did loose a thumbdrive once and have yet to miss whatever data was on the thumbdrive. At the time, I was fairly confident that anything on the drive was a backup, working copy, of what was on my laptop. Using a new thumbdrive, I recreated whatever I believed to have been on the lost drive.
In the past, I have tried to set up an automatic back-up schedule on the home computer network, but never got things to work properly. I have done so manually, but as mentioned earlier, have not done it religiously. Besides the cost, I'm leery of subscribing to an online service as they seem to come and go and have heard stories of people needing to access their backup to discover that the data they thought was being backed up had not been done.
MacEntee recommends creating a backup plan by identifying what data needs to be backed up and to identify a method that will work on an ongoing basis. He also advises to test the backup to ensure that it will work properly come the time you would need it. MacEntee also warns people to future-proof one's technology and to not rely on outdated technology of CDs and DVDs as their coating is known to degrade after several years.
MacEntee informed participants that he is comfortable with his 3-2-1 backup plan: 3 copies of data, 2 different backup media and 1 offsite copy (cloud).
Earlier in the Do-Over process, I once again tried to set up an
automatic backup of my laptop, but still encountered problems as it
requires an external source to be attached to the laptop. The external
harddrive, set up to an older laptop, won't allow other backup via the
home network. As I continue to get the home office setup, I will try
to set up another external harddrive to my current laptop and hopefully,
will be able to get automatic backups working successfully. And I need to get back into the routine of synching my Rootsmagic databases with at least one thumbdrive, if not multiple drives.
I do have a cloud backup as I save Rootsmagic databases to Dropbox so that I can view my trees on my iPad with the RM app. I just need to get into the habit of doing this on a regular basis.
Reviewing the Journey
The 13 weeks of the Cycle 2 of the Genealogy Do-Over has passed quickly.
Am I in a better place with my research? Probably. I may not have really changed my habits, but it made me more aware of what research skills I have that are second nature to me. As I've commented in earlier posts, the years spent working in academic libraries have served me well for doing my genealogy research. But I attribute my awareness of evaluating sources and those sources goes back to my high school history classes. Because these practices have been so ingrained in me for decades, comments people have posted on the FaceBook groups concerning their past practices has been an eye-opener to me.
My original purpose of participating in the Do-Over was the desire to start fresh with a new database. When I had switched from FamilyTreeMaker to RootsMagic, I had imported as much data as I could from a corrupted FTM database. Thinking that the size of the database contributed to the problem, I created separate trees in RM for various branches. Over time, I found that I was having to do a lot of cross referencing. I was hesitant to merge the trees together as it would require alot of maintenance in merging or deleting duplicate records.
Another reason for my reluctance in merging the existing files into one is that the same source was not necessarily cited identical in each tree. So I would also have to spend time merging and tweaking sources in the new database. I also had concerns about sources that had orginally been created in FTM before software provided templates compliant with Elizabeth Shown Mills' Evidence Explained, the "holy bible" of citations. Back in the day, FTM sources were done free form style and I was unsure how to cite internet sources as my essay writing experiences predated the internet.
I also found that, although I may have originally recorded where I found information, I didn't always record exactly what information had been found in that source. Over the years, I may have obtain 10 different sources for the birthdate of an individual. But I know that not all of the 10 sources provided all of the information. Some may have only given the date and no location, some may have been given year and location; or in the case of census, an approximate year calculated from the age recorded on the census. In acknowledging the poorly written citations, I knew I needed to revisit the sources. Better to start fresh than revise.
Have I taken the time to reorganize my data? No. At the same time of participating in the Do-Over, I have finally been able to start setting up my home office. Papers that have been boxes for the past several years (due to 2 moves within 2 years) and pending setup of the office, are finally been unboxed. Packers hired by the moving companies didn't care about the papers when the emptied the filing cabinet and shelves in the original office space. As a result, financial papers are mixed in with genealogy material. However, binders are now organzied and properly displayed on shelving.
I am trying to refrain from paper and try to leave as much electronic as possible. I know when I start organizing the backlog of paper, much of it will be tossed as it will be WorldConnect trees printed to use for searching in other locations and to input into my database. As computers were updated with bigger monitors and faster connections, I trained myself to use split screens so that I could have the internet record on the screen at the same as my database. This practice has also enabled me to better record exactly what information the source provides as I can cut/paste from one screen to another rather than transcribing.
I feel that my electronic filing method already in place before the Do-Over is acceptable as it works for me. Again, my past work experience instilled in me to file things in a certain manner. My computer experience dates back to DOS and file names were limited to 8 characters. It became routine to me to use subfolders to create file hierarchy. I do the same with email. I can't help but cringe whenever I hear people speak of having everything in one folder. I would rather click through multiple levels of files than scroll through multiple screens looking for a certain file.
I admit that I did not spend a lot of time on each week's assignments. I would review and evaluated what Thomas MacEntee was asking/suggesting participants do and I would revise it to my needs or wants. With doing a blog update each week, I reflected on why I did or didn't do what was being suggested. Many weeks, I found I was patting myself on the back as what was being suggested was soemthing I was already doing in some manner. In some cases, if I wasn't already doing the assigned task (ie organizing files), I was aware that it needs to be done, but on my schedule. And when I do get around to sorting through the three boxes of papers still to be done, I will be re-evaluating the material as I enter the data into my database.
Will I participate in Cycle 3? Not likely. However, I have not requested to be removed from the mailing list, or Facebook group, so I will likely lurke as I did for most of Cycle 1 when I had first joined the Facebook group. By lurking, it will provide me with reminders of what to do and I will evaluate what I'm currently doing to ensure that I stay on the straight and narrow of my research.
Summary
I am glad that I signed up to be a participant of the Genealogy Do-Over. As I have mentioned numerous times, I had been debating starting over with my research rather than trying to revise and edit my existing records. I was relieved, and have to admit excited, that I was not alone in the realization that it can be a good thing to set existing things aside and start fresh. It was also good to be aware that well known people in the genealogy world are able to admit that they were not perfect from the get-go and their level of expertise in genealogy research was achieved over the years but still subject for re-evaluation and revision.
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