I would certainly want to retain them in the situation you describe. Here's a thought: how about getting a (free) Gmail account and letting Google keep a copy of your entire AOL archive in the Google cloud. Although I don't use AOL it's my understanding that Gmail can collect past emails from the AOL archive. It can also make copies of any new emails that are added if the ISP supports auto-forwarding (and I don't know if AOL allows auto-forwarding). See https://support.google.com/mail/answer/164640?hl=en and http://email.about.com/od/gmailtips/qt/Import_AOL_Messages_and_Contacts_Into _Gmail.htm -----Original Message----- From: tmg-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:tmg-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Terry Phelan via Sent: Thursday, August 20, 2015 4:50 PM To: tmg@rootsweb.com Subject: [TMG] Organizing and Editing Sources. In particular,Emails. Delete or Keep? Hi all, I've decided to go through my Emails and delete as many as I could since I have over 700 now. LOL. Probably 500 are Emails from distant cousins that I wrote to when I discovered them and they responded with a plethora of info about their families. I added their info into TMG and cited the Email with date, sender and recipient info, etc. In paring down, I 've decided that I certainly do not want to print out hard copies and then delete the Emails since I do not want all that paperwork. In many cases, I don't have this info anywhere else so I have to cite a particular Email. I think I just really want to cite and delete the Email. I am single, and my nieces and nephews are not interested in genealogy nor would they ever read 500 Emails from strangers discussing family info if I kept the Emails. Is it irresponsible of me to use the source and delete it when it is the only proof of new people, their data and info about their families? If these were conversations that we had, the source would have no hard copy to back it up. Or even the source Personal Knowledge has no hard copy back up. AOL only allows me to archive these Emails in AOL mail so I can't even copy or move them to a personal file on my computer. I'm not sure if I want all this data anymore. I'm on overload with trying to be the family recorder and much of this is from very distant relatives. I already have two file cabinets at my house with birth, marriage, and death certs (paper copies) of my closer relatives. I have also scanned these and put them in my computer file. Too many papers! What are your thoughts on keeping these Emails of every person you've ever researched because it is now a source in TMG? Thanks, Terry