I agree with the need to preserve your genealogy research in a form that will continue to be "readable" for the forseeable future. CD, DVD, and portable magnetic storage are all good state of the art techniques, but we also need to address the format those records are saved in. Current genealogy programs are capable of generating a report that contains all the info in the database you are working with, including notes, sources, photos, current addresses, etc. Many of the programs are capable of saving those reports in PDF or RTF format. Either would be a good format to save your data in. The PDF reader, while evolving steadily, is freely available to all, and works very well. The RTF format can be opened by many word processors, especially the major ones, and is easy to work with. Gedcom files should also be used, for entering or re-entering data into a genealogy program. Like most formats, Gedcom is evolving, so data should be reformatted to the latest version at least every two or three years. Someone might have a legacy edition of a genealogy program that will load and read old data, but is is better to update it whenever you update your software. JPG and TIF are two good formats for saving images, as they are standards that most photo programs can handle. While working on "The History of Lawrence County, Vol. 2", our publisher asked that all stories be saved and submitted in the RTF format, and the photos in TIF. Everything was sent to the publisher on CD's Donald R. Clark Corresponding Secretary and Newsletter Editor Lawrence County Genealogical Society, OGS PO Box 1035 Proctorville, OH 45669-1035 Ph: 740-886-7230 Email: Lawcoloreman@aol.com