Genealogy Chat

Susanne

You said...

"Keep thinking so much work done by people on their family trees and it would be ashame in this day and age if it gets losts or somebody down the line not interested burns it all."

I have the had same thought so I have included in my will that my sons should give to the local RO all documentation relating to my tree, by copy or original.... The RO being then free to do with it as they so fit.

That allows my sons to keep the original if they wish to go on with research but knowing at least a copy, of everything, will have made it to the local RO if they then lose interest.

Chris

InspectorGreenPen

You have just mirored what I was going to say.
I scan or download everthing. Have folders for each family on my PC - with an extra hard drive for back up. I have additional folders for ships manifests, graves and 1911 census with duplicates in.
Much easy to find docs and info - my memory is like a sieve for facts and figures.

Shows what kids pick up on the TV - Who do you think you are etc
My 6 year old grandson went to school and when talking about family told them that his nana is doing a tree and he has loads of more nana's all over the world. He saw the photos of a sailor uncle xxx(can't work out how many x away from him he is off head) from NZ and told them he has a pirate in the dead part of his family. Made them laugh. Quiet seriously he suddenly asked me last week if I will keep it all for him when he's bigger. I showed him the portable extra drive where it all is just in case!!!

Keep thinking so much work done by people on their family trees and it would be ashame in this day and age if it gets losts or somebody down the line not interested burns it all.

Susanne

As I said, been there, done that. For example, I used to print off paper copies of all census returns - I must have been mad....! All are held electronically now and I only print them off if needed for a particular purpose, eg to hand to someone.

Back up can be what you want it to be, another hard disc, a memory stick, or better still as will become the norm in the future as the price drops, an internet storage site. CD's probably not a good idea for long term storage as they can deteriorate quite rapidly.

As to whether it is legal to post copies of certificates...

Guidance - Copying of Birth, Death, Marriage and Civil Partnership Certificates

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/copying-bmd-certificates.pdf

Chris

Hmm This is becoming more interesting as i ask more questions,...but then I have always been rather nosy!! i call it being interested.

Do you think that it would be a good idea to download everything onto a disc, ore simply make sure that all evidence and people are on/in paper . is this what you mean by backup???? somehow I think maybe not.. hmm again. so perhaps i can only understand very clear instruction...and to think that until 4th Feb I was still employed in a very senior nursing role!!!! However then I had staff who would listen to what I wanted/needed and they would produce it all for me.

I await further instruction mean while I am putting all relevant Census information into the right folders so i am not being lazy!!

If you laminate, the original is ruined for ever.

I would just add, that most documents I have electronically were received that way in the first place, eg copies of census records. You have to take backups of your files too.....!

InspectorGreenPen

i promise that I would never laminate original documents, I keep them in acid free paper, which I trust will meet your standard.

Well I am now going to set up my first folder and in memory of my wonderful grandparents, I shall start with the Ford and Poole families.

I have worries about electronic forms of keeping the documents etc as the only source just in case everything disappears overnight!!

Bye for now

When I first started several years ago I started keeping paper copies of everything but soon gave up as it was too difficult to manage sensibly.

With the exception of original documents, certs etc, which are first scanned and then kept in proper archive document folders, everything else is in electronic form. Much easier to manage this way.

Whatever you do don't laminate original documents.

This is very interesting because I have decided to have a folder for each surname families. Now I have just sat at the table with some folders, acid free paper, laminator etc and am now wondering what is the most useful and efficient way to store original documents. For example i have my great Grandmothers marriage and birth information and my grandfathers original hand written world war one documents and notes.

All suggestions would be welcomed.

Mean while I shall start by putting all the down loaded information such as census records into each surnamed file.

Bridget

Could anyone tell me whether it is actually legal to put scanned images of certificates on the web?

I use Family Tree Maker to keep all my information on my PC. I have files of certificate scans, photos and census returns there too. This is my master record, GR by comparison is throw away.

Periodically I upload a gedcom file to GR with the names that I wish to make available to other researchers to search and match. This gets refreshed 1-2 times a year so there is little point in going to the trouble of uploading details of certs and other documents too as they would be lost each time I upload a new gedcom file.

Also, whilst I am willing to make the information I have amassed, and in many cases have paid good money for, available to a small circle of relatives, I would not want to make it public for all to access.

Unilke other sites, why on GR you don't see many people downloading certs on to their trees.

I started doing it because some people claim relations on their tree which are wrong. I found he best way to prove it is by making the certs public after all the people are deceased. It also make the tree more interesting.

Would be interresting to know what others think about this

Susanne