It is extremely important to make copies of your genealogy research. No one wants to think about the possibility of having the only copy of a photograph or an official document destroyed. It is amazing how fast something like a fire can reduce years of genealogy research to ashes. Fortunately, there are many ways to protect your genealogy work.
Recently, one family in Utah had tragedy strike. Their house caught on fire, and then, after the fire was put out, the fire reignited just a few days later. Fortunately, no one was hurt in this fire. Amazingly, the one room in the house that was untouched happened to be the room where the family’s genealogy research was kept. They were able to recover all of the documents, and only some were soaked with water. These documents represented years of genealogy research work.
Not every genealogist who has the misfortune of having his or her house catch fire is going to be as lucky as this family was. This is a vivid example of why it is so important to make copies of photographs and documents, and to back up your genealogy research. Start by making a digital copy of all of the old family photographs. If your printer has the ability to work as a scanner, then you can scan each photograph right onto your computer. This will work for the official documents you have as well. If you took handwritten notes, you might want to take the time to transcribe those notes, by typing them into some kind of word processing program. This way, they will be much easier to read.
Now that you have made digital copies of everything, it’s time to think about storage. Many people will put their important documents and photographs onto an external hard drive. This way, in case of an emergency, you can quickly unhook and grab the external drive as you leave the house. Another great idea is to make use of the services of a company like Back Up My Tree. This company offers offsite digital storage. This way, if your house catches fire and burns to the ground, your genealogy research will still be safe. You should store the original copies of photos and records offsite as well, perhaps in a safe deposit box at your bank.
Image by Ben Hyrman on Flickr