This month is all about Genealogy Preparedness. Learn how to backup your research, archive physical files and ensure long-term preservation of your genealogy.

Ep. 76: September 2014

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This episode is sponsored by BackBlaze.

In this episode:

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News from the Blogosphere with Diane Haddad

Diane discusses four pointers to preserve your family heirlooms in a disaster.

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Top Tips: Your Genealogy Disaster Plan

Denise May Levenick’s disaster preparation and salvage tips, from the September 2014 issue of Family Tree Magazine, can be found in her article “Your Genealogy Disaster Plan.”

1: Before Disaster Strikes, Learn Your Risks

• Gather important numbers
• Practice prevention
• Prioritize keepsakes
• Digitize to safeguard
• Get an insurance checkup
• Back up computer files
• Save passwords
• Practice smart storage
• Make a genealogy grab and go list
• Create a genealogy disaster kit

2: After a Disaster

• Assess the damage
• Collect scattered items
• Contact your insurance agent
• Box on salvaging wet photos

Visit Denise’s Website: http://www.thefamilycurator.com/

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101 Best Websites: Develop Your Digital Archive

Allison Dolan, publisher of Family Tree Magazine shares some of the sites and tools from the 101 Best Websites list that factor into your genealogy “preparedness plan.”

• Flickr: Share/store digital copies of photos. You can set up an account that other members of your family can access/add to so that there are multiple copies of everyone’s favorite pictures.
• Evernote: Create and keep copies of your notes in the cloud.
• BackupMyTree: Automatically backup your genealogy software files.
• Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, TribalPages: Hosting an online tree is a way to ensure your data isn’t entirely lost in a computer failure or natural disaster.

Choose a service that allows the level of privacy you’re comfortable with.

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Family Tree University: Genealogy Estate Planning

When you pass on to the great beyond, who will inherit your hordes of hard-found genealogy research? In this segment, Online Editor Tyler Moss discusses how you can plan the prolonged preservation of your genealogy research, long after you’re gone.

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The Publisher’s Desk with Allison Dolan

Allison shares 5 things every family historian should do today:

• Backup, backup, backup!
• Give copies to someone else, somewhere else — safety through sharing.
• Purge the unimportant.
• Have an action plan.
• Be safe.

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Your Host: Lisa Louise Cooke

Listen to Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems and Genealogy: Family History Made Easy podcasts in iTunes and visit her website for great research ideas, podcast episodes and videos.

Have fun climbing your family tree!