Good points. Barring fire, flood or some other catastrophe, I expect my paper records would be useable 50-100 years from now. Anything done by computer may well be obsolete in the next 5-10 years. Videotape has had a good run. I have video of my kids from twenty years ago. Time now to convert that to DVD. Russ From: "MScheffler" <mscheffl@twcny.rr.com> To: NYSTLAWR-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [NYSTLAWR] Hurrican Wilma Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 17:39:24 -0400 Russ, Pat and interested readers, I can't imagine how devastated Pat must feel to lose so much work. I finally listened to lots of warnings on various lists and last year burned family photos and my vital records along with my genealogy database gedcom and backup to DVDs and mailed it to siblings across the country. For most of us, however, we could not begin to scan everything we have. Even scanned information is not going to last for ever -- maybe not even as long as some of the paper and photos we have collected. Not all computers can read home computer created cds and dvds and they may have limited life related to manufacture and type, and the machines that can read them may not be here a few years from now. There is an interesting article on cd and dvd media in the latest issue of "Genealogical Computing" that people reading this might want to seek out. Hope I have not insulted anyone because most of you may know more about this issue than I do, but I thought it was worth reminders for those sure their cd or dvd backups make them safe. Margaret Scheffler ----- Original Message ----- From: "Russell Sprague" <russxsprague@hotmail.com> >Hi Pat - sorry to hear all that. Best of luck on putting a new place >together. I have a lot of papers myself. I should probably scan them onto >disks and then send copies to different relatives - maybe when I'm retired. > >Russ