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 From: PNUTREG@cs.com To: NYSTLAWR-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [NYSTLAWR] RE: Please Excuse if I have Not Replied or Answered Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 16:16:59 -0400 Hi If you are one of the people waiting for a reply from me please wait until we get a new home. We were around for 2 major Hurricanes and able to have a place to live (even though damaged), but lost out to Hurricane Wilma who hit us with a temedous blow of 125 winds and a much stronger back lash and tornado's. Our Luck ran out and we are now among the many homeless from this year's Hurricane's. Larry and I lost our home and personal property this time. I am drying out papers, files, books and research from my file cabinets from over the years and have salvaged some of my ancient records. As you all know much of my work was done prior to computers and therefore it has been a a blow and I am still in shock. Will try to keep in touch with a computer when able. Regards Pat R

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