~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ B E P R E P A R E D F O R T H E W O R S T ___________________________________________________________ I want to bring up a subject that most people don't even think about while doing their genealogy research. Most every genealogist who reads this list has some sort of computer software to record their data. Some receive a spiffy new program and in our excitement start typing in all the information we had cluttered about on paper. Once it in there we throw the hard copies away and continue on our day-to-day entering, pruning and corrections of data. But what if one day you go to turn on the computer and nothing happens? The possibility of a hard drive crash is frightening to everyone with a computer but are you prepared? Will all the data you have typed in diligently for the past two years be lost forever? Many of us assume that people make BACKUPs of their main databases but the truth is that most people DON'T until it's too late! What I do is keep a copy of my program on a separate disk. AND backup all database changes on a floppy as I do them. Not only do I do this but also e-mail a file attachment of my updated gedcom to a friend in another state for safe keeping. Why do I send a copy to a friend out of state? Let's say I keep a copy of the files with my next door neighbor. It won't do me any good if we have a tornado rip through the neighborhood and hits both houses. Or if we have a wide spread flood. With the miles between us it will be safer than a local contact. Then consider the fact of what will happen to your work if something happens to you? Will those who are left behind know what to do with your work? Is it labeled and have you left addresses and instructions on who to contact just in case? Without a disk, will your partner know how to access the information on the computer and download it? Keep these things in mind because we as a society as a whole take too many things for granted and are never prepared! Don't let your information get lost in time... Steven Page s.page@juno.com .Don't forget to visit: http://www.freedomnet.com/~czar/surnames.htm