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If you were starting over again!?

Replies: 5

Re: If you were starting over again!?

Posted: 5 Apr 2015 9:38AM GMT
Classification: Query
Lessons learned:
1. Avoid using the toys offered by almost all of the family tree programs, including source templates, merging files, and location resolution. These functions almost always destroy relevant information you will eventually need to correct by hand. The toys are also incompatible with Gedcom and reduce your export ability.
2. Keep your database simple and focused on the key genealogy facts with sources for each fact. I have found this discipline forces me to question lots of trees found on ancestry.com and elsewhere. Follow fact sources past secondary electronic sources. Most electronic databases are just aggregations of other secondary sources. Follow the sources as far as possible. Often, you will find that the original source says "might be the father of", but the electronic file drops the "might be".
3. Paper is the best medium for communicating with future generations. A paper printout on acid-free paper will last 100 years, but a CDROM only 10-15 years. This affects how you choose a program since not all programs intend to print as the primary purpose. Moreover, paper is easier for most of your relatives today to use compared to web-based or other electronic trees. When you view your genealogy data as communicating with your great grandchildren, you also tend to be more judicious in accuracy.
4. Keep backups of everything and backup to multiple different formats. I backup to disk, DvD, cloud, and paper. I backup the electronic format to FTM, Gedcom, and pdf. I keep a separate disk drive to keep all intermediate backup files. This maximizes the probability that the next generations will have the information. Remember that many backup services are looking to get your monthly fee forever, so when the payment stops so does your (or your children's) access. Remember also that only 1/10 technology companies survive. PAF and TMG users were abandoned and so were FTM users pre-version 16. I still have ten-year old FTW files that contain information FTM won't correctly import.
5. Get and store documentation for THIS generation. It is easy to get carried away with former generations and forget about this generation since it is obvious not new to you. If you have four grandparents+four siblings&spouses, two parents+four siblings&spouses, three children+spouses and five grandchildren; then you have just defined a massive data collection, sourcing, and documentation project. That is your primary place in history because however much work it is now, your great-grandchildren will find it immensely harder or impossible.
6. Get and store family histories before people die. It is easy to think Grandma will live forever, but when she dies so does her store of remembrance. I read lots of genealogies, and many of them end with some form of "Uncle Joe remembers his mother speaking of his grandmother's maiden name but can't quite recall it". In my case, a great-great grandmother is only recorded in family files as "Old Grandmother Moore", with no first or maiden names as clues. Your main job as a family historian is to document information that might otherwise be lost. A secondary job is compiling the work of other genealogists into your family-specific tree.
SubjectAuthorDate Posted
65hplane 15 Aug 2014 7:53PM GMT 
SBAaaaAA 25 Aug 2014 8:54PM GMT 
65hplane 26 Aug 2014 7:55PM GMT 
kj_norway 26 Aug 2014 9:24PM GMT 
Andrew_Gabb 26 Nov 2014 2:45AM GMT 
wbalson 5 Apr 2015 3:38PM GMT 
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