I hope this is the right department. If not, silence will confirm it. About a year ago faced with brick walls in four families, and getting back no further than the early 1700's, I decided to give it a rest. Some three months ago after a computer crash in which I lost my entire family tree programme and all family data, not even being able to view my carefully preserved CD back ups, I was tempted to scrub the lot, but after following some threads in this group a spark of enthusiasm was raised. I bought the latest Family Tree Maker programme and was rewarded with a three month's free trial of Ancestry. If I decide to restart my searches I know that when signed on, Scotland's People will show me with over 100 credits, Everything seems to be in my favour, but where do I start? Try again in the BDM departments; engage in more battles with LDS family search, or go back to my listed genealogy sites? Or where? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Alistair

Alistair, In recent years on line data available has come on by leaps and bounds, so this is a good time to be starting again. Scotlands People store all the records you have ever viewed, in my case more than I care to tell my husband about, but if you go back and look at your viewed images you can find a lot of information. Did you make any contact with any specific people. Maybe a request giving some specific details will get you some responses, and if other listers are in a position to send you gedcom files, you might be able to build up your tree quite quickly. Ancestry now has all the UK census records, so it's well worth spending some time on, especially if you are getting it free for a while. Do bear in mind that that for the Scottish census records they don't have any images, and some of the transcriptions are not very reliable, so think creatively about how you might look for a name. Good Luck Doreen Cuthbert --- On Sun, 5/4/09, Alistair Macdonald <alistair.macdonald@btinternet.com> wrote: > From: Alistair Macdonald <alistair.macdonald@btinternet.com> > Subject: [ANGUS] Try again? > To: "Angus Roots Web" <ANGUS-L@rootsweb.com> > Date: Sunday, 5 April, 2009, 3:40 PM > I hope this is the right department. If not, silence will > confirm it. About a year ago faced with brick walls in four > families, and getting back no further than the early > 1700's, I decided to give it a rest. Some three months > ago after a computer crash in which I lost my entire family > tree programme and all family data, not even being able to > view my carefully preserved CD back ups, I was tempted to > scrub the lot, but after following some threads in this > group a spark of enthusiasm was raised. I bought the latest > Family Tree Maker programme and was rewarded with a three > month's free trial of Ancestry. If I decide to restart > my searches I know that when signed on, Scotland's > People will show me with over 100 credits, Everything seems > to be in my favour, but where do I start? Try again in the > BDM departments; engage in more battles with LDS family > search, or go back to my listed genealogy sites? Or where? > > Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > Alistair > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ANGUS-request@rootsweb.com with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and > the body of the message

Alistair Macdonald wrote: >I hope this is the right department. If not, silence will confirm it. About a year ago faced with brick walls in four families, and getting back no further than the early 1700's, I decided to give it a rest. Some three months ago after a computer crash in which I lost my entire family tree programme and all family data, not even being able to view my carefully preserved CD back ups, I was tempted to scrub the lot, but after following some threads in this group a spark of enthusiasm was raised. I bought the latest Family Tree Maker programme and was rewarded with a three month's free trial of Ancestry. If I decide to restart my searches I know that when signed on, Scotland's People will show me with over 100 credits, Everything seems to be in my favour, but where do I start? Try again in the BDM departments; engage in more battles with LDS family search, or go back to my listed genealogy sites? Or where? > >Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > (1) Invest in (a) one or more USB data pens (b) an external hard drive, and investigate some of the "on-line backup" solutions on offer. (2) Get into the habit of taking multiple backups of data on different media. If possible store these at different locations from the main computer. (3) Once the data has been discovered, make printouts of as much of it as possible on paper. Paper is an archive medium with a rather longer proven history than any digital medium. (4) Regularly review (1) to (3) in case changes in technology render any part of the equation obsolete. I first came into contact with microcomputers around 1980, and I can think of around 10 different types of physical media used for data storage , which have since then become obsolete, and are now readable (if at all) only by hardware in museums. Gavin Bell

Alastair I suggest that when you log back into Scotlands People you'll be able to print down all the previously paid for extracts again as they stay with the site under your login. Seems like a good place to start. Good luck and back up regularly onto a flash drive or something. Margaret Qld, Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alistair Macdonald" <alistair.macdonald@btinternet.com> To: "Angus Roots Web" <ANGUS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 12:40 AM Subject: [ANGUS] Try again? >I hope this is the right department. If not, silence will confirm it. About >a year ago faced with brick walls in four families, and getting back no >further than the early 1700's, I decided to give it a rest. Some three >months ago after a computer crash in which I lost my entire family tree >programme and all family data, not even being able to view my carefully >preserved CD back ups, I was tempted to scrub the lot, but after following >some threads in this group a spark of enthusiasm was raised. I bought the >latest Family Tree Maker programme and was rewarded with a three month's >free trial of Ancestry. If I decide to restart my searches I know that when >signed on, Scotland's People will show me with over 100 credits, Everything >seems to be in my favour, but where do I start? Try again in the BDM >departments; engage in more battles with LDS family search, or go back to >my listed genealogy sites? Or where? > > Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > Alistair > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > ANGUS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message