It's Data Backup Day!

Today is Data Backup Day (this should be a habit for everyone to get into on the 1st of the month) and the topic is very appropriate given the status of Hurricane Gustave right now. I am keeping all those affected by the storm in my thoughts.

External Storage

I am also hoping that many of us have learned from the recent 2008 Genea-Blogger Games how important a backup program is in order to maintain good research and data health. I discovered some new options available for external storage over at one of my favorite shopping websites - Costco. And you don't need a Costco membership in order to purchase items. I just can't believe how much lower the price of storage is compared to even 6 months ago! There are some very slim, portable external drives - and one of them holds 500GB at a price of $89.99!

Are You Capturing Everything?

As a reminder, don't forget do backup the "little things" that may not seem important now but could lead to frustration later if in fact you experienced a loss of data. Such as:

- Favorites: could you imagine having to search for all these links again?

- Email: if you use Outlook for email, make sure you use the Archive feature and export all your email as a PST file for safekeeping.

- Free Apps: if you tend to download lots of free helper applications from sites like Tucows or Download.com, either backup the initial .exe install files or make a list of the applications. This way if you do have a computer wipeout, you can reinstall all those programs.

Blog Backups

In the past month, nay past few days, several bloggers have experienced either having their blogs "blocked" by Blogger or unceremoniously deleted by Blogger with no explanation. If this were to happen to you, in the words of Karl Malden in that American Express commercial, "what will you do, what will you do?"

WordPress has a neat import feature which allows you to import all your posts and comments from Blogger as well as LiveJournal and other sites. I've created a post specifically on Backing Up Your Blog over at Facebook Bootcampt for Genea-Bloggers. Check it out and please back up your blog today. Not tomorrow, not next week, but today.

Photo: The worst blue-screen-of-death ever by Eleventh Earl of Mar on Flickr. Used via Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Today Is Data Backup Day!

Backup, Backup, Backup and Test Restores: a computer server destroyed in a fire on November 27, 2005. Photograph. Digital image. In the public domain via WikiMedia Commons accessed by Thomas MacEntee on May 1, 2008.

Okay folks, this is serious stuff here. Have you ever thought of what would happen if you lost all your research data? And I don't just mean your genealogy database on your computer - what about digital files, scanned photos, etc.? For that matter, what about hard copies of files and photos? What have you done to secure these items and, more importantly when was the last time you did it?

On the Google Calendar for Genea-Bloggers as well as in the Events section of Genea-Bloggers on Facebook, I've scheduled the first day of each month as Data Backup day. So what does this mean? And how can I participate?

- if you currently have a backup plan in place, when was the last time you backed up data? If you don't have a regular schedule, why not make the first of each month a date to take 30 minutes to backup your data?

- if you don't have a backup plan in place, consider putting one together. Think of scenarios such as theft of a computer, a hard drive failure, data corruption, a fire or flood and what you need to do to ensure that you will always have that data available.

- for computer data, consider purchasing an external hard drive. The prices have come down considerably even in the past few months - shop around at Amazon or even Costco (right now Costco.com has a 500GB external drive priced at $99.00 with shipping included - and you don't have to be a Costco member to use their website!). My external hard drive is 250GB and is small enough to store in a safe or firebox and I can grab it as I run out the door during an emergency.

- also consider using a third-party data backup site but realize you will spend time uploading data which can be slow. And rememeber there are free photo hosting sites such as Picasa and Flickr to store digital copies of your scanned photos.

- think about all those hard files and photos you have in boxes. Can you store them in sealed plastic bags or tubs to protect against water? Have you scanned all your documents and photos? Look at Denise Olson's great post yesterday over at Family Matters called Scanning Nirvana - you'd me amazed at what types of scanning technologies are available today!

Resolve to do this today - don't let your data backup plan be one that is created as a reaction to a data loss disaster. Now is the time to be proactive!

Today Is Backup Day!

I've made a resolution to keep a New Year's resolution: more frequent backups of my research data to my external hard drive. As a reminder, I've added a new feature to the Genea-Blogger Calendar which you can access under Google Gadgets (see steps below).

I have designated the 1st of each month as Data Backup Day. It is so easy for many of us to say we have all the tools and procedures to backup our research (external drive, CD burner, flash drive, one-touch backup software, etc.) but it is another thing to make backups habitual.

I work in the Information Technology department for a large firm which has automated backups to tape each night. This is an integral part of what we call our Business Continuity Plan, meaning we could use the backups to not only restore data that is lost but more importantly, to quickly open a temporary work site in case of a natural disaster, a fire, etc.

In that vein, do you have a "Continuity Plan?" This applies not only to individual genealogists and family historians, but to historical and genealogy societies as well. Think about it, if you lost everything:

- how quickly could you restore your data and jump back into your research if you had to?

- would you be losing valuable data such as email lists, contacts, financial information, etc?

- if you rely upon a website or blogsite for revenues (advertisements, memberships, publications, etc.), could you ensure a steady stream of income?

I was surprised that I had not backed up any data since November 2007 and I have broken down so many brick walls in my research since then. I now realize how disappointed I'd be in myself if all that hard work just went "poof" and disappeared.

Follow these steps to access and add the Genea-Blogger Calendar and get started on your new habit today!

Accessing and Adding the Genea-Blogger Calendar

1. You will need to establish a Google account.

2. Go to Google Calendar.

3. You can create your own calendar (and keep it private or share it/make it public) if you'd like.

4. Type genea-blogger in the search field and click Search Public Calendars at the top of the screen.

5. Once the search results appear, click the heading Genea-Blogger Calendar to see the calendar. Click Add to calendar to add it to your own Google Calendar.

6. Click View your calendar to return to your Google Calendar.

Photo: Backup, Backup, Backup and Test Restores: a computer server destroyed in a fire on November 27, 2005. In the public domain via WikiMedia Commons.

Julian, Julian, Julian (Calendar), Do Ya Love Me?

Just a quick note as I've been working on some early Massachusetts Bay Colony ancestors and how easy it is to forget about the Julian vs. Gregorian Calendar. If you have any ancestors with life events within the year 1752, you may or may not already know this information.

The issue I keep running into is this: the vital records for a locality, such as Dedham, Massachusetts, list an event as "the 15th day of the 2nd month."

Example: my 9th great-grandmother Eliony Lumber was married to Edward Hawes on the 15th day of the 2nd month of 1648 in Dedham, Norfolk, Masschusetts.(1)

So that means February 15, 1648, correct? Actually the correct date is April 15, 1648.

Keep in mind that under the Julian Calendar, the first day of the new year, for church and legal purposes was March 25th, also known as Lady Day or the Feast of the Annunciation. So the 1st month would be March, and the 2nd month would be April.

In each country you should remember the cutoff dates for the switch from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar.

There are some great resources out on the Web, especially a recent post by Carolyn L. Barkley over at GenelogyandFamilyHistory.com.
Check out The Perpetual Calendar for precise dates when certain places made the switch.


Notes:

(1) Vital Records of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635 - 1845, Online Database: NewEnglandAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2007, accessed April 24, 2008 citing Vol. II, p. 126.

I've Won The Fight Against Bloat!

That's genealogy database bloat - my own personal bloat will have to wait. I am so excited over this especially since I figured out why Family Tree Maker (Version 16) was still displaying my database as being close to 280 MB since I had removed almost all the images.

As is common with several applications, if you insert an image either under the Scrapbook or under the Source areas of FTM, this takes up space, usually the number of bytes in the image file. However, if you delete that image, FTM still holds on to that amount of space.

I tried compacting the file to no avail. Finally, I had to do this:

- create a backup (if I didn't do this, I'd be "dumb as a box of hair")
- export the FTM database to GEDCOM 5.5
- close FTM
- open FTM
- under File, Open, locate the GEDCOM file. You may need to change the Files of Type drop-down box to GEDCOM, *.GED
- locate the recently exported GEDCOM
- exit FTM
- open FTM and then run Tools, Compact File

Be aware that you may lose some data in Notes fields or other fields if the data string was unusually long. That is why the backup file is important to use as a reference. But the method above removes all the "image placeholders."

For now, I will not reference any images for census records, etc. I know where they are and I have labeled them properly as well as used the new Tags function with Windows Vista. If I, or anyone who might inherit my research, wants to lookup an image for verification, it should be fairly simple.

I am a much happier man with a 8MB database. As they say, bigger is not always better.

In Need of Photo Tips - Include Images In Database?

I am in a bit of a bind and there are so many options to resolve this issue. So I thought I'd open it up as a "suggestion box" so that others can add their two cents.

My FTM (Family Tree Maker) database is over 250MB in size right now. Most of the file size comes for my adding images of sources (census pages, pension rolls, obituaries) in the Source area. It sure is convenient to be able to view the images right there in the source for the person in question.

My next step was to only include the image on the Source for the Name of the person, not for Date of Birth, etc. I figured that I could just go to the Name field to see the image.

Well now, even that is failing to reduce the file size. I'd like to have some way of "linking" to the images either to my computer or some web storage.

1. I don't know if linking to my computer is the best way. What if I have a hard drive crash (you know that I back up to my external drive once a week)? What if I rearrange directory names? This might render those links useless.

2. I am considering a link to Picasa but then I'd need to make my album public. I've recently made the committment to using more and more Google tools and applications (Calendar, Notebook, Documents, iGoogle, etc.) so it would be convenient to have the images there as well.

3. I do have a Flickr account (premium) and I like it much more than Picasa. Maybe I just haven't spent enough time with Picasa. I would do the same linking that I am considering with Picasa.

Any thoughts?

Up Early - Cleaning Up My Database

Well I've taken a break from actually expanding my family tree looking for more grandparents etc. There are times when you just need to do some housekeeping and clean up the database.

I was sitting on a bunch of images I had scanned back in April and some that I had scanned back in 1997 (yikes!). Some were of gravestones taken during a field trip with my mother back in 1999 in Fonda, NY. I have lots of interesting information about the Putmans who settled in Montgomery County after the Schenectady Massacre of 1689 - but that will have to wait for another posting.

The image above is of my 2nd Great Grandmother, Catherine O'Keefe Austin - the daughter of Catherine Sullivan O'Keefe (mentioned in yesterday's post). Catherine O'Keefe Austin was the mother of John Ralph Austin and grew up in Lowville, NY. Around 1905, the family of William Dence Austin (his wife Catherine and sons Maurice, Harry, Robert, John and William) all moved down to the Bronx. They are frequently mentioned in the Lowville Journal-Republican newspaper as making visits to their grandmother, Catherine Sullivan O'Keefe. Confused yet? Well imagine how I had to figure out that there were really two Catherine O'Keefes! So I use the maiden name in the middle when writing which makes it much easier.

The photo above was taken around 1941 and Catherine O'Keefe Austin died on November 8, 1946 at the age of 84.