Unless you and your descendants continuously stay current with changes in digital storage technology, your digital data will eventually become inaccessible.
Once upon a time, the 8" floppy disk was the commercial standard for digital storage and backup. Do you know anyone who has the equipment to read an 8" floppy disk? Or even a 5 1/4" floppy disk? Eco-friendly is fine (my recycle bin contains more than my garbage bin), but some of the family history I've collected is too valuable to entrust solely to a medium that is guaranteed to become obsolete - it's just not possible to re-interview someone who died 10 years ago. For that reason, I keep all paper originals. Every couple of years, I print appropriate multi-generation documents to have a human-readable copy of the data. (two family lines, 11 generations back in some places) John > I agree with you James. There doesn't seem any real justification for > keeping paper documents when it's not eco-friendly to use all that paper > and > most things now can be stored digitally, unless of course they're > originals > but even these can be scanned. Just in case anyone wasn't aware, as I > recall > in one of the recent webinar's it was recommended they be saved as .tif's > at > 600dpi, 100% scale to preserve the integrity of images they need to be > stored. I thought that was a really good tip. > > > On 28 May 2011 17:48, James Cook <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I've been working on this hobby seriously for about 1 1/2 years now. >> At the time, I read about organization, and most of the articles I >> found were how to keep binders. This is the computer age, and I'm a >> computer guy, so took some ideas from the binder based articles, but >> scan and organize all my stuff electronically on my computer. >> >> I find the thing I like best about it is that if somebody asks me for >> something, I can just email them the document. >> However, I user dropbox too, and as others have said, having >> everything electronically scanned in allows me to access it no matter >> where I'm at via another computer or even my phone. >> >> I do keep any paper copies I collect, and have been wondering about >> the value of adding a paper based system as well. I've not convinced >> myself there is enough value in doing that so I've not done it. >> >> >> On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 8:44 AM, William Boswell <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> > Michele: >> > >> > I understand the daunting feeling. That's why I scanned all my >> documents >> and photos years ago. I keep very few documents unless they are >> originals >> or have some historic value. All copies get scanned then tossed out. >> Even >> old negatives and photographs are scanned at the highest resolution and >> tossed. Negatives, especially color, do not hold up very long. Black >> and >> white negatives seem to last forever even ones that are about 100 years >> old. >> > >> > I still have several hundred negatives that need scanning so I know >> that >> daunting feeling because I keep putting it off. Scanning negatives is >> very >> boring and time consuming because you can't do much else while you're >> doing >> it. >> > >> > Also, if you have any old audio recordings I suggest converting all of >> them to digital. I did that for a collection of about 50 hours of audio >> interviews done back in the 1970's and noticed that the tapes were >> starting >> to degrade. They lasted nearly 30 years so I guess I can't complain. >> > >> > Bill Boswell >> > >> > -----Original Message----- >> > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] >> > Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2011 7:52 AM >> > To: [email protected] >> > Subject: [LegacyUG] Speaking of pictures >> > >> > Speaking of pictures... >> > >> > In the Marriage Record Webinar, Geoff pretty much said that he >> attaches a >> > photo (scan of a document) to every source he does. I have been >> thinking >> > about this. Right now I don't have any scans in my file and I have >> been >> > working in Legacy for 6 years (FTM before that). Since census records >> are >> > readily available, I just cite them. I do copy marriage, death, >> military, >> > land records etc. and I keep those in binders (I have a binder for >> each >> type >> > of source and then I file them alphabetically). I am trying to figure >> out >> > the wisdom of scanning everything into Legacy. I would love to hear >> your >> > opinions. I must say thinking about going back and scanning >> everything >> is >> > rather daunting. >> > >> > michele >> > >> > >> > >> > Legacy User Group guidelines: >> > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp >> > Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: >> > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> > Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: >> > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> > Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp >> > Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) >> and >> on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). >> > To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp >> > >> > >> > >> >> >> >> -- >> James Cook >> GED Utils, Ancestry Utils >> http://loosestacks.blogspot.com/ >> >> >> Legacy User Group guidelines: >> http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp >> Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp >> Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and >> on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). >> To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp >> >> >> > > > Legacy User Group guidelines: > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp > Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and > on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). > To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp > > Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). 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