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Sunday, February 14, 2016

This brings genealogists back to the back-up issue

So, now we have two major programs used by genealogists bite the dust in a relatively short time (although there have been others). The real issue here is the preservation of genealogically valuable data files. I hate to mention it, but we are still getting questions about salvaging data from Personal Ancestral File (PAF). Through a quirk of programming, this ancient database program still runs on some computers. The Mac version of PAF has long ago disappeared and even the disks of data from the old program are unreadable by any current Apple Computer. I may still be possible to resurrect the data, but highly unlikely. The PC version can actually still operate with some errors, under Windows 10. The challenge with PAF is finding a drive to read 3.5 disks. I understand the support people at the Brigham Young University Family History Library may still have the equipment to recapture data from a 3.5 floppy disk, but older versions of PAF may be unsalvageable.

That brings us to the issue of photos on Google's Picasa and data in Ancestry's Family Tree Maker. Fortunately, the photos identified in Picasa that reside on your desktop computer are not at all affected by the loss of the Picasa program. In any event, it is likely that the desktop portion of the program will continue to function for some time and although I regret the loss of this useful program, it will not affect my photo archive. Family Tree Maker is a different problem and more akin to the problem caused by the discontinuance of PAF. Family Tree Maker has been "sold" or licensed to MacKiev.com and there seems to be a good chance that the program will be updated and maintained for some time in the future. But users of the program certainly need to re-evaluate their use of that program or any other.

We are all in the same metaphorical boat here. We all rely on some disk drive or program or service to preserve our genealogical digital data and every other sort of data for that matter. The choices we make can have serious consequences as to the longevity and preservation of our data. If what you have gathered as your family history is almost exclusively copied from others, you have little to worry about. But if you have spent time doing your own research and accumulating a significant amount of data, then you have serious cause to worry about what will happen to all that data.

Even if you take the time and make the effort to "back up" your data to hard disk drives, flash drives, online back up services or all of the above, there is no guarantee that your heirs and assigns will take care to further preserve your data. The constant loss of accumulated genealogical data, whether on paper or electronically stored, is one of the great tragedies of our particular pursuit. I happen to live in an area where there are older people. I have a number of friends right now that are facing life threatening illness. Being so painfully aware of the transient nature of life on this earth gives more than adequate cause for reflection on the issue of data preservation.

My own strategy involves online storage, several high capacity hard drives and a lot of paper files. What would most likely be lost, at any one time, would be the accumulated knowledge of all that stuff in my brain (and your brain).

There are four main areas of concern:
  • Hardware obsolescence
  • Software obsolescence
  • Product abandonment
  • Old age and death
 The first two arise as a result of technological advances. The third deals with the fact that companies go out of business. The last is inevitable either way. The issue of obsolescence can be avoided by constantly upgrading your hardware and software and migrating you data to new systems. People have a tendency to view computers as a "big ticket" item that you only replace when it no longer works. To the contrary, computers are consumables, albeit expensive consumables, but if you think of them as needing constant upgrades and replacement, you will budget to replace them regularly. Software is even more of a consumable than hardware. The old adage about putting your eggs in one basket applies doubly to computer programs. Never rely on one single program to keep all your data.

You really can't do anything about product abandonment, but you can diversify and, as I just wrote, never rely on a single program to maintain your genealogical data.

The last problem is, by its nature, something we do not want to think about. But long before we become incapacitated, we should be considering where our data will go when we can no longer manage it.

I will be writing more about these subjects in the near future. Stay tuned.

8 comments:

  1. It was during a presentation you made on this subject that I decided to put my data and documents into the Family Tree at FamilySearch.org, James. If all else gets lost, most of it will be available there, for whomever wants it in the future. Of course I have the many usual backup systems in place, but they're likely to be abandoned upon my death.

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    1. Thanks for backing up your data. I agree about Family Tree.

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  2. This is exactly a problem we try to solve with www.famicity.com. By thinking about how to preserve and organize a family history. For me, the next keeper should be the whole family and not an individual. We also should involve all the family members to preserve their most important moments.

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    1. Nice to hear from you. Yes, online sharing programs like Famicity.com are a step in the right direction, but even if I have my data online, I should still be concerned about its preservation.

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  3. I believe that one of the biggest factors preventing anyone (company, organisation, etc) providing for long-term donations and preservation of their family history is that there's no practical format for it, James. Images/recordings are probably OK because they're supported by international standards. Plain text is OK, although at the loss of most structure in your data. Databases are useless -- full stop! Even if the schema is documented (which most aren't), the database engine, or the relevant version of that engine, or the application accessing it (especially if it's a proprietary database), may become defunct. Anyone who suggests dumping the data as SQL hasn't tried to port TBs of business data from one engine to another. Yes, I'm banging the same drum, but the requirement is both obvious and imperative, so why are only a handful of people interested? ... answers on a postcard, please ;-)

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    1. I haven't used a postcard for years. Do they still have them? :-) I agree that the data format and the ability to transfer data between online programs is one of the most serious problems of the day. I did a presentation on this subject at the BYU Family History Technology Workshop to the developers. Unfortunately, my presentation did not make it online.

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  4. I think one of the best ways to preserve your research for future generations is to put it all in an easy-to-read, easily accessible book, complete with family stories and pictures as well as names and dates. Unless someone in the next generation has a real interest in genealogy, your digital and paper files are going to just be overwhelming to your descendants when you pass on, and will be mostly ignored for many years, but a book that is easy to flip through and look at will be taken out from time to time and really appreciated. That being said, whatever format you preserve them in, the more organized and accessible they are, the better.

    Also, FYI, if you look on Amazon.com, you can get a 3.5 inch floppy disk drive that will plug into a USB port and work with most modern computers for just $13.99. It's the same kind of device they have at the BYU library. There may be some hope for those old PAF files yet!

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    1. Your suggestion may work for some people. A few years ago, when I was just getting started into genealogy in a serious way, I made an estimate of the number of pages it might take to print my files at that time. It was over 8000 pages. I decided my printing days were over. Thanks for the comment and yes, 3.5 disk drives are still available but you still need to be able to read the files with a program. Fortunately, PAF still works on a Windows 10 computer. But you will get file errors.

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